making predictions - lessons from science fair projects

My second grader decided that he wants to do a project for the Science/Math Fair at school. My experience with science experiments is limited to the following:

• looking at kids' experiments at previous science fairs;
• getting help for my other son when he did a math project in third grade;
• reading a book about how to design a science project (similar information is found on this website).

The hardest things to me about projects are 1) making predictions and 2) coming to conclusions.

I have been trying to tell my second grader, who has decided to conduct a drink survey, that he must first make a prediction about the results. I have told him about making a prediction not because I have known for a long time that that's a part of a science or math project but because I read it in our book. His project, a simple survey, would probably be meaningless without a prediction. So what if people like milk or iced tea; but if they like milk or iced tea better than all the heavily advertised drinks that he predicted they would, doesn't that tell us something?

So now that I am doing my research, I realize that I too must make predictions. I guess I have felt that making predictions will somehow influence my research and slant the results. But the results won't have much meaning unless I do make predictions.

So here goes...

I predict that when communication technologies are available to children and youth in under-served communities AND programs are designed to meet local needs, the following will happen:

• programs will attract and retain participants at a higher level than non-ICT programs;
• participants will develop a greater sense of cultural awareness;
• participants will become more involved in the local community;
• academic performance and behavior among participants will improve.

I will conduct my research by identifying innovative programs in under-served communities, reviewing their websites, finding third-party articles relating to their success or lack thereof (if possible), and survey program directors.

Here are the questions that I will ask the directors:

• What programs, if any, were being offered to your targeted groups prior to ICT?
• Has participation and retention increased following the use of ICT?
• Have participants become more interested in their culture?
• Have participants increased their involvement in the community?
• Have participants shown improvement in academics and/or behavior?
• How have you measured program results?

I may paraphrase and customize the questions.

Next, I will make conclusions. One of my older son's teachers helped him with a math project a couple of years ago. He had all of this great data about grocery shopping habits but nothing much to do with it; his teacher helped him (and me by the way) see what it meant. I can see deviations from the norm but I don't seem to be able to see patterns or make conclusions the way other people can. I think that I may out-think things and wonder if there are just too many unknown factors to make a solid conclusion.

Still, I liked the teacher's approach. Make a conclusion, defend your conclusion.

By the way, people tend to shop at grocery stores that are closest to them and not necessarily the ones that offer the lowest prices.