science fair-"Hey! It's Lunch Time!"

The fourth graders at our school are required to participate in a science fair.  It's very teacher-directed.  There is a list of experiements to pick from, a schedule of due dates and a rubric for grading.  Marcus picked an experiment to see what kind of insulator kept a soda coolest the longest.  He was the only 4th grader that picked this experiment.
First, he put together a typical sack lunch.

And, then packed it in the bag.  This let Marcus see how much room he had to work with.

Time to insulate some sodas.  The drinks had been in the fridge before taking them out to wrap them.

 

Marcus used foil, newspaper and bubble wrap.  He also had an unwrapped group.

 

His teacher really liked his report.  Then, Marcus got to make the poster display.  Andy helped, but for the most part, we really tried to let Marcus guide this activity.  We got to go to the school and see all the displays.  It was cool to see the different takes on the same experiment.  Each of the students got interviewed by a "judge" as part of the experience.  The students' answered were included in the grading rubric.  Marcus did great, scoring all 4's out of 5's.  He got a blue ribbon for his efforts!  He was pretty proud of his experiment.