So, Derek and Amelia worked very diligently on her science project. They both did an amazing job, and I must say that I was proud of myself for stepping back (almost) the whole time. Derek helped Amelia look at ideas for projects on the Internet, and they decided to build a hovercraft. Yep, a hovercraft. At least it didn't set the yard on fire (do some of 
you remember that story?).Derek did the safety things, like using the hot glue gun. If you can't tell from the picture, he attached the pull-top from a syrup bottle to the center of an extra CD.
Then, they blew up a balloon and attached it to the pull top while it was closed. They measured the size of the
balloon's circumference (the independent variable), and then pulled the top open. The force of the air lifted the CD off of the table, and then they recorded the distance it traveled (the dependent variable).I'm honestly not sure who had more fun during the experimenting part, although Amelia said that her least favorite part was the measuring. What I was impressed
with, was that Amelia wrote every word on her display board, other than the titles (which were the only things I was allowed to do). She talked with Derek about what to write, and he helped her spell everything correctly.When her project was on display at the fair, we
realized that although she was one of three children in her class to participate, only five kindergartners entered the fair. All five received second-place ribbons (apparently, there were no first place ribbons awarded to kinder). I think that Derek was more frustrated than Amelia was about the competition aspect. When he asked her what she got when she went up on stage, she held up the ribbon and exclaimed, "A bookmark!"
