In preparation for the Science Fair.

We have been working hard on our first science fair exhibit for over a week already. We can almost see the finishing line, since the fair is this coming Saturday, but still need to do a couple of final touches.
The girls decided to use our summer bugs collection and turn it into an educational experience for others at the fair. I was brainstorming ideas of how to display the bugs in a nice, inexpensive way. Ideally, I wanted to find some kind of wooden or cardboard boxes with a glass top, so that we wouldn't have to put a "do not touch, please" kind of sign. I even wanted to try to locate Perri dishes, but we went the recycling route, of course.

The girls helped me to make to boxes out of the sturdy cereal packaging. Then we painted the inside of the display boxes light green, and the outside, for a nice contrast, darker blue-green color. We glued the insect in the middle of the box and topped it off with the clear plastic from the eggs packaging. Looks almost like glass and we don't need to worry for having the bugs crumble under the unsuspecting touching learners at the science fair! The insects were a challenge to pick up from our temporary storage already, and we have lost a few limbs here and there... The delicate wings of the ladybug were gone, and we really wanted them to show, since the information note that Ivana had written was describing them.
Today we were doing mostly coloring and slowly putting the exhibit together.
Leona helped me to spell the fancy word "Entomology" to use for the display, and then we were playing the game trying to remember the names of all the insects we'd colored, cut and glued for the poster.
During that precious hour when Milana was napping we were able to work on the floor. We didn't manage to finish, she was up, and it was time for us to move up to the table again.
Tomorrow we'll think about the presentation part and hopefully, if we still have energy, do a mini addition to the main poster. The ambition is to demonstrate the life cycle of the dobsonfly.