I think it's an excellent idea. It sounds like a student only project and not a competition.
My suggestion is to keep this non-competitive.
We annually run an Invention Contest and clearly, the parents are the ones doing the majority of the work on the Invention with the winning student(s) getting the Credit.
We're doing a Junior Engineers day at our school in Jan. It's through Utah State Univ. The students (K-5) will rotate classrooms about every 45 min. and do experiments. The teachers conduct the experiments from lesson plans provided by USU. Here's the link if you're interested www.engineering.usu.edu/jrestate/brochure/brochure.php
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There are many elem. schools in our area that have conducted this program for a few years and rave about it.
Our PTO is hosting a Science Fun Day for our 5th graders (approximatly 300 students). The day will consist of parent volunteers running numerous science experiment booths. Students will rotate around. The volunteers will come the evening before to be trained on how to conduct the science experiments. The PTO will provide a light dinner, light breakfast and lunch for the volunteers.
Has anyone out there hosted such an event? We want this day to be a huge success, fun for the students, run smoothly for the staff and volunteers. Any suggestions would be appreciated.