How to Make a Science Project for a 5th Grader
A fifth-grade science project will be one of the first chances a child has to demonstrate his knowledge of science. As a parent or mentor, you can be a huge help if you encourage him to use his own ideas, but help him to come to his own conclusions by asking questions that will lead him to the answer for himself. Resist the urge to do the project for your student. After all, it is the student's project and he will learn much more if he does the work himself. One area in which a fifth-grader will need help is in organizing his thoughts into one project. Adults can help fifth-graders with placing information on a project display board, but it should ultimately be the student who does the work.
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Things You'll Need
- Library access
- Computer with Internet access
- Science materials for your experiment
- Cardboard project display board
Instructions
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Figure out what interests you. Have you ever wondered how something works or which foods are the best to fight colds? You can turn any scientific question into a science project. Narrow the project to focus on something specific.
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Ask a question. Science projects answer a question (hypothesis) about a topic, perform research and experiment to answer the question.
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Research your topic. Science projects are excellent ways to expose fifth-graders to the fundamentals of research. Trips to the library will help launch a student's thinking; he'll learn how to use the library as an added bonus. This is also a great opportunity to teach responsible web-browsing and referencing guidelines.
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Show the steps in your process. If your project demonstrates how static electricity works, for example, the student should demonstrate and explain each step in the process of static electricity.
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Organize your project display board in a creative way that shows the steps of the project. This should include purpose, hypothesis, materials, procedure, conclusion and questions. Although flashy projects look nice, the most important part is your ability to ask a question, experiment, get results and form conclusions and questions based on those results.
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Cite all sources with a properly formatted bibliography. Ask your teacher whether MLA or APA format is preferred. Fifth grade is the perfect time for students to learn about intellectual property and their responsibility as students to give credit to their resources.
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Tips & Warnings
Team with a partner if your district allows partner projects. Two heads can be better than one and you might make a great friend in the process.
