6학년 과학 프로젝트(6th Grade Science Fair Project)

6학년 학생이라면 학기가 시작, 적응했나 싶은 마음이 들자마자 학교의 과학선생님으로부터 받는 두툼한 패킷이 있다. 6학년이면 모두 필수로 해야하는 학교 프로젝트라고 하니 하는 것이 마땅하나 패킷을 열어보자마자 머리가 아파오기 일쑤다. 영어만 알면 되는 것이 아니라 과학적 사고를 같이 해야하니 말이다. 그러니 과학에 아주 뛰어난 소질을 가지고 있는 아이가 아닌 다음에야 엄마 아빠 형아 누나 모두 동원해야 거의 3달이 걸리는 이 부담스러운 숙제가 끝이 난다. 일단 한국에서 '과학 프로젝트' 라는 숙제를 받아 해본적이 없는 학생이나 학부모라면 시작부터 어떻게 도와주어야 하는지 감을 잡기가 힘들것이다. 물론 과학선생님이 보내준 패킷에 친절하게 가이드가 되어있어 학생이 혼자 읽기만 해도 스스로 해내는 이들도 있으나, 절대적으로 도움이 필요한 이들을 위해  쥔장은 미국학교 좀 생활해 본 입장에서 어떻게 하면 체계적으로 이 프로젝트를 잘 감당해나갈 수 있을지 정리해보았다.

가족이 도와줄 수 있다는 것은 좋은 일이지만 절대 명심할 점은 이것이 6학년 아이의 숙제라는 것이다. 필요한 도움을 주되 오버하지 말자.

Step-by-step Guideline

계획세우기(Planning) - 실험하기 (Experimenting) - 발표하기 (Presenting) 

1. 자녀가 처음 과학프로젝트를 한다면 학교에서 과학선생님이 주최하는 부모를 위한 Conference 에 참여하길 권한다. 과학선생님께 진행에 관한 설명을 듣고 전시된 과거의 6학년들의 활동과 작품들도 훑어보면 어느정도 가이드라인이 잡히며 궁금한 점도 직접 과학 선생님께 물어보면 된다.

2. 일단 주제를 정하는 것이 급선무이다. 과학 실험이란 것이 한없이 창의적이거나 황당할 정도의 많은 준비를 요구하는 것이 될 수도 있기 때문에 아이가 즐기며 긴 시간 포기하지 않고 책임감있게 실험할 수 있는 '아이'의 눈높이에 맞는 주제이어야 한다.

3. 주제를 정했다면 실험에 관한 계획을 짜야한다. 패킷에 명시된 각 부분의 제출 날짜가 있으므로 실점이 없이 진행하려면 미리 구체적으로 '언제부터 언제까지 무엇을 한다' 라는 Science Fair Project 스케줄 표를 만들자.

4. 주제를 정했다고 실험도구나 재료를 바로 사는 것이 아니다. 주제를 가지고 과학적인 조사를 할 수 있는 질문을 만든다. - Investigative Question

5. 조사할 질문을 만들었다면 그 질문에 대한 도움이 될 만한 자료의 리서치를 시작한다. 패킷에는 대개 3개 이상 각각의 다른 소스라고 명시되어있다. 신문이나 잡지기사, 인터넷사이트, 그리고 책 등이 일반적이다. 이런 글 만 되는 것이 아니라 혹시 주변에 직접 만나 인터뷰를 할 수 있는 과학자나 전문가가 있다면 더욱 효과적이다. 조사할 질문에 대한 해답을 뒷받침할 만한 전문가들의 견해나 과학적인 증거들에 대해 읽고 리포트를 쓴다. 주의해야 할 점은 읽은 내용에 대해 본인의 글로 써야하고 인용해서 써야 할 경우 따옴표 " " 를 넣어야 한다. 표절이 엄중죄인 요즘 세상에 이보다 훨씬 많은 양의 작문을 해야하는 우리 자녀들이 어려서부터 반드시 지켜나가야 할 원칙이다. -Background Research

6. 또한 리서치가 끝난 후엔 저자나 출판사, 웹사이트 등의 출처에 대해 지면으로 밝혀야 한다. 이것은 내가 지어낸 이야기가 아니라 ○○ 에 의해 △△에서 증명된 과학적인 근거가 있는 자료라는 것이다. 특정한 순서로 출처를 써내려가야 하므로 방법을 반드시 참조해야한다. 또한 잊지말아야 할 점은 이 출처들을 반드시 알파벳 순서로 각각 나열할 것! 그렇지 않을 경우 감점임.- Bibliography 

7. Background Research 를 통해 본인이 생각해낸 하나의 질문에 얼마나 많은 실질적인 과학적 근거가 있는지 알아냈다면 이제는 나름대로 가설을 세울 수 있다. - Hypothesis

8. 가설을 세운대로 본인의 조사할 질문이 맞는지 실험에 들어간다. 실험이 과학적이 되려면 최소 5회는 해야하므로 필요한 재료와 도구를 넉넉히 준비한다. 또한 각 1회분에 사용한 재료의 양을 모두 정확히 측정 기록하고 사진을 찍어 보관한다. - Materials 

9. 실험과정과 방법 및 순서에 대해 자세히 기록해둔다. - Procedures

10. 실험을 진행하고 반복하면서 수치나 결과를 모두 종이에 기록한다. 이 부분은 나중에 Notebook 제출시 표와 그래프 등 워드 문서로 만들어야하나 손으로 기록한 기록지도 같이 제출해야하므로 깨끗하게 정리한다. - Data

참고 사이트

www.sciencebuddies.org

www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects.html

www.science-fair-guide.com/6th_Grade_Science_Fair_Projects.asp

www.all-science-fair-projects.com

scifair.org

예) 수정이의 과학 프로젝트:  '클래식 음악이 식물의 성장에 미치는 영향'

Investigative Question

Does classical music affect the growth of plants?

Classical music is the manipulative variable and growth of plants is the responding variable.

Background Research

          Dorothy Retallack had an experiment on the effects of different types of music on various plants at Colorado Woman's College in Denver and wrote a book, The Sound of Music and Plants in 1973. Her data stated that plants in the chamber with classical music grew the best while the plants in the chamber with rock music grew gangly and the plants in the chamber with no music did not respond much.

            Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird also demonstrated that plants were influenced by sound in both positive and negative ways in the book, The Secret Life of Plants in 1973. The book gave us an idea how plants might be sentient.

            Don Robertson, an American songwriter, studied Retallack’s data and has spoken to her. He himself played his own music to his own plants and also did the experiment. For one month, he played three-hours-a-day of music from Arnold Schönberg’s negative opera Moses and Aaron, and for another month he played three-hours-a-day of the positive music of Palestrina. He had a clear result. The plants subjected to Schönberg died. The plants that listened to Palestrina flourished.

            Joel Sternheimer, a French physicist and musician, discovered the mechanism for how plants respond to the stimulation of sound waves which is electromagnetic energy. He indicated to New Scientist that playing the right notes could stimulate the plant and increase growth.

A botanist, Ross Koning stated that plants cannot respond to music because they cannot hear. However, he suggested that they might detect the vibrations made by the music in his article, "Science Projects on Music and Sound".

According to my research, it is still controversial because no one actually have proved that plants have ears or feelings. If what Retallack found out was true, our life would be much more beneficial by being able to grow crops and plants faster and healthier using music. Whatever the cause is, the effect is what we are looking for.

Hypothesis

            I believe that the plants with the classical music will grow faster than the plants with no music. It is because according to my research, the electromagnetic waves from the classical music produce more protein and affect the growth of plants and made them grow faster and healthier than the plants with no music. 

Materials

Item	Amount	Unit
Hidatsa Shield Bean Seeds	10	Each
Music on iPod Touch	3	Hours per day
Boxes	2	Each
Water	100	Milliliters per day
Paper Cups	10	Each
Potting Soil	200	Milliliters per cup
Measuring Cup	1	Each
Inch ruler	1	Each

 

Procedures

1. Prepare all the materials needed for the experiment.

2. Prepare 10 paper cups and 2 kg of potting soil with 10 seeds.

3. Put 200 g of potting soil in each paper cup, bury one seed in it and pour 100 ml of water.

4. Put five cups of bean plants in a cardboard box with classical music on and label it as Classical Music. Put the other five cups of bean plants in a box and label it as No Music.

5. Make sure to place the No Music box in the backyard while you place the Classical Music box in the front yard. The distance between both boxes is approximately 22 yards.

6.  Turn on classical music using iPod Touch only for the plants inside the Classical Music box for three hours a day for thirty days.

7. Water each plant 100 ml every day.

8. Measure the growth of each plant using an inch ruler and take photographs.

9. Record the height of the plants every day.

			Data Table                The Growth of Bean Plants
										(inches)
Day	Classical Music					No Music
	M1	M2(x)	M3	M4	M5	N1(x)	N2	N3	N4(x)	N5
1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
6	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
7	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
8	0.8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
9	1.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
10	1.5	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0
11	2	0	1.7	0	1	0	0	2	0	0
12	3	0	2.6	0.5	3	0	0	3	0	0
13	3	0	2.7	1	4	0	0	3.5	0	0
14	4	0	3	1.7	4.1	0	0.4	3.5	0	0
15	4	0	3.5	2	4.5	0	0.8	3.6	0	1
16	4	0	3.7	2.5	4.7	0	1.1	3.7	0	2.3
17	4.2	0	3.7	2.7	4.7	0	1.5	3.7	0	2.5
18	4.6	0	3.9	3.1	4.8	0	2	3.8	0	2.5
19	5	0	4	3.1	6	0	2.3	4	0	4
20	5.2	0	4.5	3.3	6.2	0	2.5	4.2	0	4.3
21	5.3	0	4.7	3.5	6.5	0	2.7	4.4	0	4.3
22	5.8	0	5.3	4	6.7	0	2.7	4.7	0	4.4
23	5.9	0	5.5	4.2	6.8	0	2.9	5	0	4.5
24	6	0	6	4.4	7	0	3	5.1	0	4.7
25	6.3	0	6.2	4.5	7.3	0	3.5	5.3	0	5
26	6.5	0	6.5	4.6	7.5	0	4	6	0	5.7
27	6.7	0	7	4.9	8.2	0	5.2	6.7	0	6.6
28	7	0	7.6	5	9	0	6.6	7.5	0	7.2
29	7	0	8	6	10	0	7	8	0	8
30	7	0	8	6.2	10.2	0	7.2	8.5	0	8.2

Data Graphs

Bar Graph

Line Graph

Photos

Observations

          During the experiment, I discovered a few things. While I watched the plants grow next to their music, I realized that they did not grow at all for the first week, but then they started growing fast once they began to sprout even though they all sprouted at different time. It was interesting to see how some of the plants that had been exposed to classical music grew a little earlier and taller compared to the plants that had not been exposed to music in the beginning. They then grew at a similar speed and height toward the end of the experiment. As you can see from the photos, on the last day the plants with classical music were taller and had more leaves and vines than the plants without music. Although my hypothesis was correct, one out of the five plants that had been listening to music and two out of the five plants that had not been exposed to music did not ever sprout. I was wondering if it was the music or if the seeds were dead in the first place.

Conclusion

            My hypothesis, which stated that the plants that listened to classical music would grow taller, faster, and healthier than the plants without music, was partially supported by my data.

             I found out that the plants that listened to classical music sprouted earlier, grew faster compared to the plants without music more likely in the beginning which means sprouting and early growing stage. Because four out of the five plants sprouted first while only one of the five plants with no music did. I think that happened because classical music has a lot of vibration and back-and-forth movement which makes the plants livelier. However, the result also shows that both of the plants with or without music grew almost at the similar speed and height toward the end of the experiment. However, one out of the five plants that I played classical music to and two out of the five plants that were not exposed to music did not even sprout. I wonder if those plants did not respond because of the music or other variables such as the original condition of the seeds and soil or different angles of sunlight. All in all, music affected the plant growth in the beginning stage the most.

      

 If I were to conduct this experiment again, first of all, I would increase the amount of plants to obtain more accurate results. Next, I would test the seeds to see if they are all fresh to do an experiment. Finally, I would like to place each of the plant groups in an independent room to decrease the possibility of other variables such as background noise, room temperature, and the certain amount of sunlight. In this way, my experiment could be more scientific and successful.

 

Future Research

            In the future, I would like to do my experiment in a quieter place where there would be no background noise. I would also like to turn on the music for 24 hours every day for the plants with music to get clearer results. According to my experiment, classical music did affect the growth of Hidatsa Shield Bean plants. Therefore, I was wondering if music affects the growth of other types of plants such as fruits and crops as well and also if it would bring different results when I use different types of music such as rock, pop, jazz, country and etc.

Applications

          My experiment and data could help people who grow plants or crops and want them to grow healthier and faster like farmers, gardeners, or even people just like me who want to grow flowers or vegetables without using fertilizers or pesticides.

Acknowledgements

          I would like to thank my science teacher, Mr. Nelson, my dad, mom and brother, Ryan.  Mr. Nelson answered my questions, gave me advice, and made science fun for me. My family helped me throughout the project and bought all the materials I needed for me. They also helped me cut things out, glue things on, and cooperated with me and worked as a team. Thank you Mr. Nelson, dad, mom, and Ryan!

Bibliography

 

Koning, R. (1994) “Science Projects on Music and Sound”, Plant Physiology Information, 30 Sep. 2012, < http://plantphys.info/music.shtml>

Retallack, D. (1973) The Sound of Music and Plants, Santa Monica, CA, DeVorss Co.

Robertson, D. (2010) “The Plant Experiments”, The DoveSong Foundation, 1 Oct. 2012, < http://www.dovesong.com/positive_music/plant_experiments.asp>

Sternheimer, J. (1 Septermber, 2005) “French Physicist Creates New Melodies- Plant Songs”, Rex Research, 1 Oct. 2012, < http://www.rexresearch.com/agro/1strnhm.htm>

Tompkins, P. & Bird, C. (1989) The Secret Life of Plants, New York, N.Y., Harper & Row,           Publishers, Inc. 

2013년 1월 23일 University Park Elementary School의 Science Fair 시상식

6학년 전원 참가한 Science Fair Project가 학교 강당에 전시되어있다.

수정이의 Display Board 와 Notebook 

과학선생님 Mr. Nelson 이 학교 대표로 시 대회에 나갈 Finalist를 발표하며 메달을 수여하고 있다. 그 중 가운데 수정~

수상여부를 떠나서~

6학년이 되어서야 처음 경험해본 과학 장기 프로젝트 과제... 주제 구상부터 Notebook 제출까지는 약 3개월이라는 긴 시간이 걸린다. 부모로서 아이가 계획하고 계획을 수행하는 과정을 보며 포기하지 않도록 지속적으로 관심을 보여주며 격려한다면 숙제를 한다는 것 이상으로 이런 과학활동이 유익한 경험이 되지 않을까 싶다. 

@라이프롱 잉글리쉬