UMA Science Fair

or this could also be title..."The Day I Push My Sanity to the Limit" or something similar.

UMA is one of the state universities. Every year during school break in February they put on a science fair for kids. I've never gone but I've talked to many who have. There are a number of different activities set up in different classrooms. They are all hands-on so the kids can go through & participate in them. Learning all sorts of neat stuff along the way.

Sounds great right?

Did you catch the part about "school vacation" up there? That's public school. This is not a homeschooling only event. This has a lot of kids there. So guess what I did? I brought more - five more in fact. Not only did I bring my three boys but I also brought my nephew (age 6 - almost 7) & Miss L who is not quite two. I brought a stroller for her. Not a good idea. It was hard getting her through & in to rooms. Next time (if there is one) I'll use a backpack or a leash or something different.

But the kids had a great time. This is the only photo I got of B. He's using some tuning forks. He went off with a friend that we met up with. He got to do all kinds of stuff I didn't let the younger crowd do. This did mean I was hauling only four kids through instead of five. Like it mattered. LOL


The first room I finally convinced N & B to go in to (B is my nephew not my son from here on out) was the "bones" room. I thought it was very cool. They - not so much. There were 20 different bones laid out on the tables. They ranged from skulls of various animals (including a real human skull) to a whale's vertebrae. Here they are checking out the snake skeleton. They were each numbered & there was a sheet of paper for the kids to go through & figure out what each one was. We did about four before the boys had had enough.

Next we did a weighing, measuring, math experiment. They were figuring out how much sugar (in tablespoons & grams) were in different drinks. I missed taking photos of B doing this but here is N filling in his sheet.

There was a small touch tank in one of the rooms as well. It was maybe 2x2 and had a lot of kids around here. B was the only one of the kids with me who wanted to stick his hand in & touch anything. There were sea stars and small crabs (which is what made my boys not want to stick their hands in) & other small marine life to touch.

In one of the last rooms we went too the older boys were making wind turbines out of straws, fishing line, colored duct tape and construction paper. J found this block of wood, nails, and a hammer. It kept him busy long enough for me to hep N & B with their wind turbine construction.

While I don't think they got the actual concept very well, they still had a great time.

At this point in the day they had a "shark presentation." It was an hour long & talked about the various species of sharks found right off the coast of Maine including the great white! I thought it was interesting but my kids had had it at this point. I foolishly made them all stay through the end because they were drawing names for some small prizes. They picked about two dozen kids names out of a bucket (we had put them in at the start of the day). The only one who won something was my nephew which meant my two little ones were in tears. ::sigh:: Live & learn. Afternoon events aren't always the best time for little ones to be out & about.

However, I do believe they all learned something over the course of the day & had fun. Another memory made.