Working on something for my 6th graders and perhaps, artists

I have been working with them on scientific method. They need to demonstrate an experiment and do a write-up using scientific method for every science chapter. I want them to get used to using scientific method since they will be using it a lot in jr. high, high school, and maybe in college. I want them to think beyond what is there. In general, their documentation is pretty poor and don't really get the collecting data part. So, I spent part of my time at the waterpark hotel thinking of something for them to do. I have decided that I want them to be investigators of their world. I will have them create their own scientific journals. Sometimes, they will use scientific method and sometimes, they will just document. I will give them a prompt for homework and they will record it in their investigation journal. At the same time, I did the same thing for artists. I was thinking about setting up a separate blog, supplying the prompts, and artists could post what they did + share. Artists could pick which one they wanted to do and post when they felt like it. I was also thinking of doing a weekly prompt. It would make for some great art journaling. I'm not sure though. What do you think?

For example, for my kids, they would go home and find out how many different kinds of liquids are in their house. I would make sure I would tell them not to open any of them up. They just needed to name them. It would be a great categorizing exercise and there could be some graphing involved. Artists could do the same thing but put a sample of it in their journal. Food items would be drawn or listed to avoid bugs liking the journal. Another example would be the kids picking up different leaves or rocks on the way home.

My kids live on actual city block unlike me, I live in a subdivision. This would make a good scientific write-up. Purpose would be to see if there were the same number of houses, cars, etc.. on both sides of the street. They would write their hypothesis at school. They would count the number of whatever on each side of the block. They would make conclusions as to why it was the same number or not. Maybe, they could come up with some investigation ideas of their own. I can hope!