Science Fair

It's that time of year again for science projects. This year Brian picked out Which Type of Cheese grows Mold the fastest?
We went out and bought Kraft Colby, Kraft mild Cheddar, Kraft Mozzarella, and Kraft Swiss Cheese. We cut out small piece of each and set them on a plate in the kitchen on top of the fridge so it would be room temperature, but not in a place where it would be disturbed. Start date was January 25, end date today. So basically 49 days.
In this amount of time we watched the cheese sit in its own oil, the worst of that was the cheddar cheese. The mozzarella cheese hardened first, and ultimately ended up so dry it is kinda cracked. They all started to stink around week 5. Since it was on top of the fridge it wasn't too noticeable. ha!
So, bottom line on his science board we had to put under conclusion, no mold after 49 days. Brian is going to keep the cheese on top of the fridge until we finally get mold. I think it will get dusty first! I will try to remember to update this blog on how long it takes our cheeses to mold. We are kicking around for his 5th grade science project to talk about the preservatives in our foods using this experiment. Hmm... lots of planning here. We will do comparisons and record our data. Should be interesting.
So, today after school I had to deliver the science tri-fold board to the school gym. There are lots of boards already there, as I sign his in, I take a moment to look around. Now I didn't have a ton of time as I had less than 5 minutes before the closed the gym up until tomorrow morning. But what I did have a chance to see were some precious scratchings obviously written by hand of a fourth grader, and some that made me glad I am not a judge.
I'm glad I'm not a judge because a couple that I saw were obviously out of a fourth graders league. I'm talking major parent involvement. I could not give a child a top award knowing it is not that childs work! When a science fair entry is using big words like dynamics and velocity you know a parent typed it out. One was talking about the velocity of a golf ball depending on one's stance and abilities. Hmmm. It had a graph that was awesome and it had calculated down to the fraction of a centimenter where the ball would land. hmmph!
My favorite ones are the ones written in crayon and they have colored in graphs. So real!
All I had to do for Brian was go pick up the before and after photos he took with my camera from Walgreens. He wrote down his data in a notebook and he checked the status each day. He then transferred it onto the board. OH, one more thing I did. I had to deliver it to the school as they couldn't take them on the buses.
Sigh!
Other than this mild irritation this St. Patricks day was a good one! I started the day taking a green cake with napkins, drinks and cups and forks to Brian's class so they could have a yummy holiday. Then off to go help Teri paint some bookshelves she is putting in her office. I have some touch ups to finish tomorrow on two of them, then I have to take the third bookshelf out to primer it and then let that dry and get that one painted! Good creative juices flowing here! While waiting for the layer of paint to dry, we got to eat a sandwich at Strattons and drink a chocolate malt! We fit in some errands, one of which is Targets new design line! When in the store look up for the butterflies, this will lead you to some new patterns that are super fun! And they are in and on everything from clothing to dishes to towels to shoes.
Then home real fast so I could help Brian with homework and get Cory from Remix then back home and here I am... whew!
Good night all!