So my 5th grade daughter is supposed to be doing a science fair project. She was supposed to turn in her plan for her project today (Friday) to get it approved. I encouraged her to think of at least 2 totally different ideas so that we can discuss them with her teacher (Mrs. A) to make sure she selects a project that is well suited to the school's requirements. She has her ideas before she goes to bed Tuesday, and I send in a note Wednesday morning to Mrs. A requesting a time we could discuss it.

I don't hear from Mrs. A all day, so I ask my daughter if Mrs. A had said anything to her. No, it turns out Mrs. A was out Wednesday, and will be out Thursday also, so suddenly there is no chance to talk to Mrs. A before the plan for the project is due. (And I thought I was doing good having my daughter have 2 different ideas already fully thought out 3 days before it was due) I ask the school if we could possibly speak with one of the other 5th grade teachers, since they all do the same science fair (in fact the whole county does). No, but Mrs. A is usually good about checking her email from home, so I should try that.

Fine. We go home, write up an email, and get a reply just before bedtime that night. One of my daughter's ideas, the one she is more interested in, is about teaching rats to run through a maze. Mrs. A says she advises (actually she said advice, but I won't even go down the path about teachers that don't know proper grammar!) against the rat maze "because you have to fill out an extra form to use animals." Totally ignores my question about which one is better suited to the requirements of the assignment. I don't know about you, but I don't want to teach my daughter to choose based on which one is the least work! I want her to do the project that interests her, as long as it is appropriate. So I send an email back to Mrs. A saying so, but also repeating that we wanted to know whether either of the ideas my daughter had come up with were or were not suited to the requirements of the assignment. This is still Wednesday night.

I don't get a reply until late Thursday. It basically says she is passing my question off to the head of the science department. So my daughter is supposed to turn in a plan for her project Friday morning, and we still don't have an answer. I make a copy of the form and tell my daughter to fill out one for each of her 2 ideas, not knowing what else to do.

I don't hear anything all day Friday, but when I see my daughter after school, she tells me she has a form to fill out for the rat maze project. But her father is there to pick her up for the weekend, and he is always in a rush (don't get me started on that either), so I won't be able to see it until I pick her up at his house at the end of the weekend. She probably won't look at it either because she never does anything school related at his house (or that).

Part of what really frustrates me about this is that both my daughter and I read through about 30 pages of rules and other information, and no where in there did it say anything about not using animals, or needing an extra form or special permission to do so. It did say that no vertebrates may be displayed, along with quite a long list of other things (chemicals, microbial cultures, etc.) that can't be displayed, and it said that photographs are suitable representations of things that can't be displayed. One of the possible categories is "animal sciences", so it is not like the fact that a kid might think of a project involving animals should have been a surprise to them!

The only good news is that the school does require them to get an early start on this assignment. The completed project is not due until March. So being slowed down a couple of days due to this confusion shouldn't have a negative effect on my daughter's project. It just would be nice if they were better prepared to handle this sort of situation. And, I've still not received any sort of response what so ever to my original question, of which one of my daughter's 2 ideas (or both, or neither) is suited to the assignment.

Thanks for letting me rant...