It would seem I've just been volunteered to help my neighbor's 6th grade
son with a science fair project. I don't yet know much about the project,
but from what I can gather, it has to do laminating a sheet of kevlar onto
plywood and throwing bricks at it. Presumably the idea is to see how much
protection the kevlar provides.
Personally, when I was in the 6th grade, the only thing I wanted to throw
bricks at was my older sister, and kevlar hadn't been invented yet, but I
digress :-)
I've got a degree in engineering and some practical experience with
epoxy/composite construction, so I can certainly invent all sorts of
wonderful fun experiments involving throwing things at kevlar. The idea,
however, is that it's supposed to be his project, not mine.
The big question here is just what is reasonable for a 6th grade science
project? How much should I expect a 6th grader to know, or to be able to
learn about this stuff? Is a 6th grader too young to understand the idea
of a controlled experiment?
Is it enough to toss bricks at stuff and see what happens, or should we be
working out ways to ensure all the bricks get thrown with the same force?
Is it enough to do one piece of plain plywood and one with kevlar on top,
or should be we doing a whole series of different weight kevlar fabrics?
Again, the question here is not, "What's a good experiment?", but "What's
a
reasonable experiment for a 6th grade science fair?"
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