[.ca] Janice VanCleave's Guide to the Best Science Fair Projects (ISBN 0471148024)

Terrible, These are NOT the "Best" Science Fair Projects!:
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.

Over Rated, Needs More Information:
I felt that the author did not give enough information. This is not something a student can do. Our son who excels in math and science had much difficulty with the projects we attempted. I feel it would have been helpful to have a contact person for some help. The only positive thing I can say is that there were some cute ideas, but very limited. I feel this book is over rated.

Nowhere NEAR what I expected!!!!!:
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!

Needs to be thought out better:
This is one of the worst science books I have ever seen. There are better ways to approach experiments than what is listed in Janice Vancleave's Book. I wonder how many times these experiments were tested. This book is not intended for children.

Good Guideline's and Sparks the Imagination:
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!