Upon getting information about an upcoming school science fair and the need to consider a topic of interest, many students will typically have no idea where to get started. While the science fair is typically a common occurrence in any school at any grade level, there are different types of topics that should be taken a look at depending on the age of the student. After first taking a look at the many different categories of science projects, you will be able to locate a suitable choice of topic to take to the next level.There is a wide variety of categories that fall under the types of science projects that can be chosen for a school science fair. These include biology, chemistry, physics, microbiology, biochemistry, medicine, environmental, mathematics, engineering, and earth science. While you may not have yet learned very much in any of these categories, don’t be afraid to see what each one entails. Taking a good look at your interests will allow you to focus on the right direction to take.Many resources are also available for those who are unsure as to the topic they are wanting to use to create their science projects. If you take a look at the topics that fall under the biology category, you will likely notice that there are topics that deal with plants, animals, and humans. For those who are in 2nd grade or 3rd grade, an interesting topic may be to determine if ants are picky over what type of food they eat. While this topic might not be of interest to an 8th grader, it is certainly something in the biology category that an elementary school student would enjoy.Along with the biology category, a high school student may want to take a look at diffusion and osmosis in animal cells as this would be a more appropriate topic for the grade level. A student in 6th grade would be more advanced than an elementary school student, but not as advanced as a high school student. At this middle school grade level, a topic of how pH levels effect the lifespan of a tadpole may be of interest.Whichever resource is used to locate a topic for science projects, it is always a good idea to consider the grade level of the student prior to making a selection. It is always assumed to be best to have a project at an appropriate level in order to keep the attention of the student and provide a fun and enjoyable learning experience.
The Need for Cyber Law Research in Education
Cyber law in education is an issue that is ripe for scholarly research and analysis. The importance of this topic is growing exponentially with the meteoric rise in social networking and other online forums which are becoming a primary source of interaction among school aged students. One result of these “virtual” relationships is a blurring of the lines of jurisdiction for disciplinary responsibility. At what point do a student’s actions fall outside of the authority of his or her school? When the student uses school equipment on school grounds the analysis is very clear, but case law has created a continuum that defies any objective definition of where that jurisdiction ends. Similarly, at what point does a teacher or administrator’s actions leave the authority of their employer and become protected by their right to privacy? The question of jurisdiction must be addressed before meaningful processes can be implemented to counteract the damage that online actions can have on the school system.The harms that are caused at the hands of students through cyber actions include marring the reputation of teachers and administrators, harassing other students and threatening the security of testing and other educational information. Similarly, educators often cause harm through their own cyber actions by using online forums in an inappropriate manner to the detriment of their school or district. These actions may compromise the safety and morals of their students and affect the integrity of the educational system itself. Yet any restriction on these actions runs the risk of violating constitutional rights of free speech and privacy. Needless to say, there is a careful and ever-evolving balancing process that needs to be maintained in this area of law. And the decisions of our courts and enactments of our legislatures must be monitored and influenced by educators and education law experts.The bullying laws that are springing up in local legislatures provide an excellent example of the issues at stake in this field. There is an important responsibility for governments to protect children from this new form of harassment. At the same time, however, in addition to the inevitable first amendment challenges, educators need to have a voice as to the practical limits on building level school personnel in implementing these new laws. These issues present a fascinating intersection of legal issues that will only become more relevant and topical in the decades to come. Research and analysis will be important in normalizing policy in the field. Ultimately statutory enactments and case decisions will provide the law on these subjects. However, these statutes and decisions are by no means immutable. Like any other area of law, they evolve and change over time. And these shifting principles are all the more prevalent in a field of law that is in its infancy such as this one. There are no long-standing seminal court decisions on the topic, nor is there any conventional wisdom with respect to a proper statutory framework. Therefore, in this field more than any other that I can think of within education law, there is a need for scholarly research and publication to help organize and shape the developing legal trends.
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Don’t Break the Bank – Cheap Ways to Finance Home Solar Energy
Most people would love to install solar panels on their home and truly “go green”, but they stop short because of money. Many people think the only option to pay for solar power is to put cold-hard cash on the table at the time of installation. While this may be the “best” option in terms of overall cost (by the way… so is paying cash for a home, but most people didn’t do this!), most of us don’t have the extra $20k to $60k sitting around burning a hole in our pocket. For the lucky few who can afford this, great! However, for the rest of us normal folks, we would still like to go green and have some other options. Well, there is good news. There are some creative ways of financing your desire to go green.Let’s first talk about the traditional ways of financing solar and then we can get to the new and upcoming ways that are starting to come about with the recent increase in interest in alternative energies. Let’s make this quick and simple.1) Pay cash – This is great for saving money in the long run but is limited to the more affluent.2) Home Equity Loan – Also a good option, but limited to those that have a good amount of equity in their home. Be careful because if the loan kicks you over 80 or 90% Loan-To-Value, you may be paying a more interest than necessary.3) Refinancing – There are several options as far as wrapping the cost of your solar installation into the mortgage of the home. This is perhaps the cheapest on a monthly basis because you can amortize the loan over 15 or 30 years and thereby drop the monthly payments. In doing it this way, you should have a net savings over your old mortgage plus your old utility bill. Freddie Mac has programs that will finance up to 10% above your base loan as long as the total loan is below $240k (for a free guide to financing solar energy systems see below).4) Build your own solar panels – Okay, perhaps this isn’t a method of financing, but ultimately it could enable the more tech savvy to be able to afford solar energy for their home. Heck, you can save 50 to 75% off the cost of going solar by doing it yourself. Besides, there are many great Ebooks out there that make building homemade solar panels easy even for a novice with video tutorials in addition to detailed plans and equipment/supplier lists. If you have every thought about what it would take to make your own solar panels and save a lot of money, I invite you to read my review article “Save Thousands by Building Your Own Solar Panels – A Review”.5) Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) – If you can give up the attachment to owning your own solar panels there is a way to help the financial burden of installing solar power in your home. PPA’s are a hot topic right now so keep an eye on this. A PPA is a financing tool that allows a independent company to install solar panels on your house and then sell you back the electricity it generates. They own the panels and the electricity they generate, but you get the benefit of going green and most likely a little drop in utility costs since they amortize this long term. They typically request that you kick in about 33% (on average) of the cost of installation, but they take this into account when setting the fixed rate they charge you for electricity. The more money you kick in, the cheaper the fixed rate. The great thing is that your rate for your solar generated electricity is fixed over the agreement period, so as public utility costs go up you can sit back with a big grin on your face. For a listing of companies that are active in the PPA market, visit PPA Companies6) Lease – Another great candidate for creative financing is leasing your panels from an outside company. There are companies that will take care of everything as far as costs and installation and you simply lease the panels from them by paying a monthly lease payment that is equivalent to paying your utility bill, but cheaper. There are a couple of really nice features with this option: there is less money required down than the PPA option (typically 0 to 2% of installed cost), system maintenance is handled by the leasing company, and the homeowner gets 100% of excess production.To summarize, the financial market is starting to view solar energy as a good investment and therefore many new programs are being developed to help the homeowner convert to green energy. Solar companies are also figuring out ways to alleviate the costs to the homeowner by PPA’s and lease agreements. In addition, more traditional sources of financing like banks are starting to figure out that financing solar can be a lucrative endeavor. Couple all of this with government incentives and the push towards a “green energy economy” and you have yourself a great opportunity to finally fulfill on your dream of going solar.Visit Solar Energy Systems for more information. You’ll also find the following helpful references on our website:- Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy (DSIRE)
- Free Borrower’s Guide to Financing Solar Energy Systems
- Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) Companies
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