The kids' school has an optional Science Fair Expo for kids in 1st, 2nd or 3rd grade.  It becomes mandatory at 4th grade.  That's pretty cool considering I didn't do science fair projects until I was in 7th grade.

For 2005, Jarod decided to test paper airplane designs.  He wanted to know which design was the best for long flight.  He was really into paper airplanes at the time, so it made sense.  He got some books that described various designs and launched them repeatedly (by hand and with an apparatus) to see which one consistently flew furthest.

Patrick decided to use a toy he had in his experiment.  This racecar's gimmick was that it required you to fill a small "nitrous" bottle with a liquid in order for the car to run.  The car's battery circuit passed through this liquid via some metal nodes.  Obviously, the liquid had to be an electrolyte.  The toy manufacturer provided a liquid, a powder and a tablet to add to water to place in the bottle.  They were likely all salt related.  We also tried juice, plain water and various other liquids.

	Here they are with their finished presentation boards.  The gymnasium was jam packed with these things.
	A few people (teachers?) were walking around asking the kids to present their experiments and they left notes behind on what went well and what to improve.