My first science fair project - an interview with a third grader
Did you ever wonder how an eight year old feels about his first science fair project? We interviewed Stevie Melchior, a third grader in the public school system in Brooklyn, New York.
Interviewer - Good morning Steve, would you like to talk about the science fair project that you just finished?
Steve - Good morning, I sure would, it was a lot of fun.
Interviewer - What was the subject of your project?
Steve - Do men or women drivers behave better at stop signs?
Interviewer - How did you go about setting up your project?
Steve - Well, my mother and I drove around my neighborhood a little, looking for a busy intersection with a stop sign. We finally found one on 18th Avenue. It had a good place to stand and see what was going on, and I was able to getting a pretty good look at the drivers to see whether they were men or women.
Interviewer - What happened then?
Steve - This was the first time that I ever did anything like this. I had to observe what I saw, mostly I was interested in whether the cars came to a full stop or just slowed down, and whether the driver was a man or a woman. I had a pad and a few ball point pens and I wrote everything down.
Interviewer - Did you do anything else?
Steve - I took my digital camera and took lots of photos; they sure dressed up my display with all those good pictures. I recorded everything that the drivers did. First I made my hypothesis that women would be more likely to observe the traffic laws and come to a full stop better than the me. My research proved that my hypothesis was right!
Interviewer - How did you feel about the whole project?
Steve - It was a lot of fun and I think I would like to be some kind of scientist and do a lot more work like this.
Interviewer - Science fair projects and ideas and experiments are really great for giving young students a chance to do something that they have never done before. You can tell your friends to go to www.terimore.com to see over 400 really interesting projects for all grade levels and on all subjects.
