Science at Home!

 I’m betting you are already doing science around your house.  My suggestion is to formally document the science, as part of a digital portfolio.  For example, do you have chickens?  Many of the local home-school families do here!  Do you keep records of their egg output?  What about various pest control techniques, such as diatomaceous earth?  Do natural cleaners work on chicken coops?  What about your 4-H or County Fair projects?

Gardens are another excellent source of science projects.  My Uncle Ken, is a retired farmer.  He loves to experiment with different containers: EarthBox planters, Grow Bags, or ordinary planters.  Uncle Ken has strong opinions on different soil mixes, fertilizers, calcium supplements, and watering schedules.  Let your kids experiment.  Which planter produces the most tomatoes?  What controls are necessary to make a fair comparison? (Consider the amount of water, soil type, position on the deck or porch, type of plant, etc.). 

 Are your kids obsessed with Social Media Challenges?  Why not try Steve Spangler’s Science Challenges?  (He has videos on YouTube and TikTok, too.). How many of these challenges can your kids duplicate successfully?

So, how do you add these types of science experiments to a digital portfolio? The key is documentation.  Create slideshows and add loads of photos and short video clips.  Work as a family to annotate the pix and clips.  Ideally, create and post spreadsheets with data: egg production, total number of tomatoes, etc.  4-H has great guides to help organize your projects: 4-H Rabbit Project, 4-H Poultry Project, 4-H Gardening, even 4-H Stem Challenge.  I like to start with a guide.  It’s likely that I’ll have my own ideas to expand or enhance the project; guides are a great way to launch a project.  Take a look at this sample Poultry Record Book.  Your kids could create a document or spreadsheet with similar data to include in a spreadsheet.

I’ve worked with many families who home-school.  Too often they overlook family projects loaded with science potential.  Even simple projects, such as monitoring  the pH and chlorine content in an above ground pool has science implications.  Go for it!