If things are working the way they should, a 6th grader will hardly see the difference in their science fair project compared to what they did in elementary school. In the normal scheme of things, each year a little more is required, and the standards are raised, so that a sixth grader for the most part will slide into these experiments for middle school with few problems.

One good thing is that most science fairs are in the second semester, some even as late as May, so the initial adjustment to the work load that 6th graders go through has already happened. If they had to do a project in the fall, then it would add to the stress many kids feel in those first months of middle school. This is particularly true with science as middle school science becomes one of the major subjects with regular homework. By the time science fair rolls around they will understand the process the science teacher uses with experiments, and probably have done some simple science experiments for students to work on at home. Read the rest of this entry »