Jack's Science Fair Project

These Alligators Really Grow!

Hi, I'm Jack Spangler and I'm a kindergartner in Mrs. Riscoe's class at Wilder Elementary. My teacher invited us to all do a project in the school science fair. Mrs. Riscoe said that the first thing we had to do is to think of an idea. I asked my Mom and Dad for help and they helped me come up with a list of things that might be fun to do. I have a toy called a growing alligator. The instructions tell you to put it in water and it will grow, but the instructions never tell you how big it gets. The instructions also do not tell you how big the container of water should be or what kind of water makes the alligator grow the biggest. So, for my science project I am going to conduct three experiments to find out how to make a growing alligator toy grow the best.

Okay, let's be honest. I'm only 6 years old and I can't really type this much stuff into our computer. My Dad asks me questions and then he types my answers into the computer. Today, we made a video of the first part of my project so you can see what I'm doing. Every day I will come back and tell you what I discovered... so keep reading... and keep watching. By the way, my Dad is trying to teach teachers about the idea of blogging. You can see our interview on 9NEWS KUSA-TV from February 14, 2005.

Keep reading to see my video.

Experiment #1: Day 1

I have 3 plastic tubs (a small, medium and large size) and 3 growing alligator toys. I will measure how well each alligator grows for 5 days.

CLICK ON READ MORE...

Posted at 09:49 AM Read More

Mon - February 14, 2005

Experiment #1: Day 2

My prediction was that the alligator in the big tub of water would grow bigger than the alligator in the small tub.

Keep reading to see my video.

Posted at 09:59 AM Read More

Tue - February 15, 2005

Experiment #1: Day 3

The alligators are growing, but they seem to be catching up with each other.

Posted at 09:22 AM Read More

Experiment #2: Distilled or Tap Water

For my second test, I want to know if there is any difference between growing the alligator toy in regular tap water or distilled water from the store. I will measure how well each alligator grows for 5 days in the same size plastic tub.

Keep reading to see my video.

Posted at 09:34 AM Read More

My Alligator Was on TV!

My Dad invited me to go with him to his job at KUSA-TV 9NEWS in Denver and show everyone what I was doing with my science project. While I'm trying to get this dumb alligator to grow as big as I can, my Dad is trying to teach teachers how to use a blog to make science fairs more fun for the teachers, parents and the kids. Click on Growing Alligators on TV to see what I did on television yesterday. Look at this...

Posted at 10:09 AM Read More

Experiment #3: Does the Alligator Grow Better in Salt Water?

I want to know if the growing alligator toy grows best in salt water or plain tap water. I will measure how well each alligator grows for 5 days in the same size plastic tub.

Posted at 06:29 PM Read More

Wed - February 16, 2005

Day 4 and My Alligators Keep Growing

Remember that my first experiment (#1) is with the 3 tubs of water - small, medium and large. The alligator in the large tube keeps getting bigger...

Posted at 05:26 PM Read More

Experiment #2: Day 4

The tap water alligator caught up with the one in the distilled water. They're both the same size - 27 squares each.

Posted at 07:24 PM Read More

Thu - February 17, 2005

Experiment #3: Gators Don't Like Salt

The alligator in the salt water has only grown 1 square and the plain water alligator grew 8 squares.

Posted at 09:39 PM Read More

Fri - February 18, 2005

Experiment #1: Here's What I Learned

My guess at the beginning was right. The alligator in the biggest tub grew bigger than the alligator in the smaller tub. But I thought that it would get a whole lot bigger. I even measured the alligators one more day and the one in the large tub even got bigger.

So, my prediction was correct. If you want to grow the biggest toy alligator, use a big tub of water.

Keep reading to see my video.

Posted at 05:45 PM Read More

Sat - February 19, 2005

Experiment #2: The Results on Day 5

At the beginning I guessed that the one in the distilled water would get bigger than the one in the tap water. You can see that my prediction was correct. But I thought that the alligator in the distilled water would get a lot bigger than the plain water alligator.

Posted at 09:07 PM Read More

Mon - February 21, 2005

Experiment #3: Don't Use Salt!

My guess at the beginning was that the alligator in the salt water would grow bigger. By doing this experiment I made a discovery. I discovered that these toy alligators do not grow in the salt water! The salt water alligator stayed small and the plain water alligator grew big.

Posted at 05:05 PM Read More

Wed - February 23, 2005

The Night Before

Tomorrow night is the big night when everyone brings their science fair projects to school. My Mom and Aunt Lisa are helping me put together my poster.

Posted at 07:12 PM Read More

Thu - February 24, 2005

Science Fair is Finally Here!

Tonight is the night that everyone shares their science project at school. Mrs. Herman set up a lot of tables for all of the kids who are in the science fair. Most of the kids who did science projects are in 4th and 5th grade, but there were still 8 kids from kindergarten who did projects. Lots of parents and grandparents showed up tonight and everyone received a medal for doing a good job. I had to stand at my table and explain my project over and over and over to anyone who was interested. And if they were really interested, I gave them an alligator to try at home. Here's what I told them, "If you want the alligator to grow really big, get a big tub of water, use distilled water (although it really doesn't matter that much)... and don't put any salt in the water! That's the secret of the growing alligator."

Keep reading to see my final video...

Posted at 10:43 PM Read More

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