Customer Reviews

Janice VanCleave's Guide to the Best Science Fair Projects (Science Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is REALLY good. Though it doesn't list but 50 ideas, it's great for information on the science fair project "process". Her book is divided into two parts. Part I is the process on how to organize and present your project. How to research for it, how to set up your display, where to categorize your project and so forth. Part II has project ideas with details on how to do it. She basically says to choose a topic, ask yourself "I wonder...". Her 50 "I wonder" ideas are in Part II.

While her ideas are good, I would've liked to have seen more variety, or a good list of "I wonder..." questions without all the details. Just to jump start more ideas. Like a list of 100 questions to ask yourself or something similar. The 50 ideas are great, but it needs more. A good list of questions would've made this book a 5 star.

If you're looking for a guide on how to DO a project, this book is for you.

This book is fun and educational if you are interested in performing a DEMONSTRATION regarding a scientific concept. The examples have nothing to do with conducting an EXPERIMENT that one would present at a Science Fair. The "problems" listed for each example can be answered by opening an encyclopia. Generally a problem/question that begins with the word, "how" can be answered in such a way. The purpose of a science fair is to conduct ORIGINAL experiments involving an experimental group and a control group. There are other guide books on the market that take a more scientific approach and steer the student in the right direction.

I first saw this book in the library and decided I needed a copy of my own. I like it. I have two children in the age range targeted by this book - aged 12 and 10 - and a younger one I will use it with in the future.

We are using it in our classic-education style homeschool, and I find it a good tool for helping my children learn how to think, research their topic and write it all down. The book does not lay out every step of preparation for the projects, as previous reviewers may have expected, rather it gives a good basic and practical overview of the scientific method, and fifty topic ideas to spark the imagination of the child. It is not geared to the highschooler - VanCleave has other books that are for that purpose. The child still has to do the work themselves in putting the project together, and to my mind that is a large part of the value of the book. My children learn far more from their own research and experimentation than they do from following steps and copying the research of others. There were ideas in this book that I would like to try!

I bought this book in hopes of finding a good science fair project that could "bring home the gold." But all that I found was a kids science book that showed you what happened to fruit-flies in the light and other stupid stuff like that. It was nowhere near what I expected in such a highly reffered book. If you are looking for a good science project for someone above the age of 10 I would not recomend this book!

~SammieG~ -shibby!

I picked up this book for my son in 6th grade after reading so many glorifying reviews about Van Cleave's books and the fact that she has so many books out there. Boy were we ever disappointed! These are not "science fair projects" that a student can use for doing a science fair project in grades 5 and up, rather, they are trite projects for little grade school children or kindergarteners. How can a project that asks the question "what are the parts of a fingernail" and for materials required lists only a magnifying glass for the so-called experiment which is consists of a student holding the magnifying glass over his/her fingernail to observe, how can this possibly be a "best" science fair project? How can this be any science fair project at all? Where is the hypothesis, what is the real experiment, how could a student enter this in a science fair? Don't waste your time with this one, I returned it for a refund.

Is a good book if you"re looking for ideas for your science fair. The book give you a complete guide step by step and a lot of project's ideas you can choose from.

When I read this book, it was very useful to me because I was doing a Science Fair Project and this helped a lot. I have also read lots of other Janice Vancleave books. they were just as fantastic as this one. I think lots of you people would read more Janice Vancleave books if they read one before. This book will really help you at a Science fair.