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.
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Commercial Real Estate Marketing
Commercial real estate marketing is the most important thing that you can do if you own commercial real estate. Things you need to do to market your property for lease are as follows:Marketing MaterialsPut together a professional flyer outlining the spaces for lease. A good flyer will have pictures of the shopping center or office building and the space, information on the space such as its size and dimensions as well as location in the property, a site plan of the property, demographic information about the market area, traffic counts of the adjoining streets, an aerial depicting the area and showing other traffic generators, and your contact information.Leasing SignageYou should have a sign at the main entryways and corners of the property as well as a sign in each vacancy in the property which has your contact information. Always have these signs done professionally.Vacancy PreparationShowing the space in a positive light is tantamount when marketing it. Have the space thoroughly cleaned with old or stained carpeting removed if it doesn’t show well, the walls repaired and painted, and ceiling tiles and light fixtures repaired and cleaned. You can stage the unit to help in leasing it. If it is unlikely that the next tenant can utilize the improvements in the space, remove them and place the space in a “vanilla shell” condition. Remember to also make sure that the outside of the space looks clean and fresh.Internet MarketingA good commercial real estate marketing program advertises the available unit on the web by putting it in LoopNet, CoStar, Catalyst, eProperty, Craigslist or any of the other many internet sites including their own. Also, sending out email blasts to the brokerage community and to potential tenants is a must to get the vacancy known.AdvertisingOther forms of advertising would include distributing the flyer to potential tenants, placing fliers in a folder by the front door of the available unit, and placing an ad in a trade publication or the local and regional newspapers.Trade ShowsAlways attend the regional and national trade shows for the industry where there are always potential tenants to talk with.Qualify ProspectsWhen you are talking on the phone to prospects always ask them qualifying questions prior to setting an appointment with them. Qualifying questions would include getting information about their experience, the type of business they want to open, how they are going to finance the business and when they want to open the business. Always put together a financial form and credit check form that a prospective client can fill out as a part of their qualifying to lease the space.Treat Potential Tenants with RespectAlways return their phone calls as soon as possible. Be on time for appointments and ask qualifying questions as you tour the space pointing out the benefits of the space and discussing the market area and the buildings. Put a lock box on the space for ease of showings and convenience.Lease AgreementMake sure that you have a lease agreement that is acceptable in the community and for the type of property you lease. Also, know how to negotiate the various points in the lease or hire a professional to handle the matter for you.Another key to commercial real estate marketing is saying the right things and following up with prospects to answer any of their questions.If you feel that you cannot do the above, a local commercial real estate broker can provide you with these services.
How Does the New Study “Your Genes Help You Choose Your Friends,” Help You Market More Effectively?
There is a research study published by the National Academy of Sciences (January 18, 20110), that says that it is your genes (DNA) that help you choose your friends. In effect, your genes seem to want you to befriend people who are similar to yourself.Does this sound like a startling revelation to you? It shouldn’t. But I find it fascinating that the media is making such a big deal out of this, like it was shocking news. Basically, I see it as a scientific stamp-of-approval on what we’ve all know for so long: “we like people that are like us.”Here is how this relates to marketing and sales. In reporting on this new study, US News and World Report journalist, Maureen Salamon writes:”Mapping specific genetic markers within each individual’s social network, the researchers learned that individuals tend to forge friendships with those who share two of six tested markers.For example, those who carried the so-called DRD2 marker, which is associated with alcoholism, were apt to befriend other DRD2-positive friends, while those without the gene formed alliances with other DRD2-negative peers.[Lead researcher in the study, James Fowler, professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California, San Diego,] said this situation exemplifies homophily, a sociological term that means ‘love of like’ and illustrates the adage ‘birds of a feather flock together.’”In simple terms, what this means to marketing is this: find out the personality traits of your BEST customers. Once you know those traits, you can seek out other people who have similar traits. Those are the people you should market to, because they will find your products and services more appealing than people with opposite personality traits.That may not seem so profound, but when you think about creating a marketing strategy, it gives you a really good starting point. You aim at your best customers, and then their friends. From there, you expand the relationship circle and market to the friends of the friends.This is Social MarketingWhen you think about it, this really defines what social networking is all about. You build a large pool of prospects by working outward from your best customers. In social media marketing, you build outward to the friends of your friends. Why? Because your current customer has friends with similar likes and dislikes.But there are quite a few flaws to the traditional social, or “tribal marketing” strategy. For starters, it is a slow and laborious process. You hope your marketing message goes viral, but most often, it does not. It starts slow, and can take a long time to build to sufficient volume because you build relationships one at a time.Another flaw is that once the message passes from one person to another, the message can get distorted. It is like playing that childhood game: chinese telephone. The person at the end of the line got a different message than how it started out as.Finally, this type of marketing strategy doesn’t work on all people – quite a few people aren’t hooked into the whole Facebook “thing,” and nor do they really want to be.But there is a way to make this type of marketing, and many other type of marketing more effective.The Underlying Flaw of Social MarketingThe underlying flaw the needs to be fixed is that you tend to focus strictly on “relationships.” Although that is a good thing, you may not ever get a clear picture of what are the similarities between the people, so you can build up a profile of your ideal customer and what makes them like each other.Let me give you an example. I come from a big family, so my “friends list” on Facebook is pretty extensive. Just from blood-related people alone, I could easily have over 100 people in my friends list. Add the typical high-school and college friends, and that number really swells into several hundred.However, I know that most of those people would not be customers for my products. They have very different interests than I do, mostly because they have a different personality than I do.Buried in this latest scientific study is documentation of the actual genes that make up a person’s personality. For example, people with the gene known as CYP2A6 have, as one article about the gene study states, an “open personality.” This is another way of saying they are “extroverted.”The “extrovert” is one of the eight different personality traits a person might be inclined to have. Those eight different traits, can be arranged to give 16 different combinations. If you’re aware of the well-known “Myers-Briggs Type Indicator,” which is often used by guidance-councilors to help people pick a career path, this will sound very familiar.I do not have the extrovert gene turned on in my body. However, many of my family members do (as does about 75% of the world’s population).One of the downsides to not having the extrovert gene is that I don’t find social media marketing all that appealing. To introverts, the concept of exposing every thought that goes through your mind on your Facebook wall is very foreign. I find comfort in solitude, where I can process my own thoughts and feelings. It is hard for my brain to do that and to also process the thoughts and feelings of hundreds of other people at the same time.But the extrovert can accept this consciousness-flow from others. As an introvert, I don’t know what they do with it all, but they are comfortable having it flowing in to their personal space. In fact, they feel lonely when they don’t have it.Social marketing works great for a lot of businesses; because it is built on a common personality trait that 75% of the world shares in common: being an extrovert. That is the reason why all the marketing guru’s say you MUST do social marketing. It works for them, because they are also extroverts.But it doesn’t work for “everyone.” Social marketing is very difficult for the 25% of the population that are the introverts.Key Point: Marketing To Personality Traits Makes Marketing More EffectiveAs with knowing the differences between the personality traits of extrovert and introvert, the other six traits also play a huge role in a person’s behavior. Particularly, the role of how they react to your marketing message and whether or not it will trigger them to buy your product.We’ve briefly covered two of the more visible personality traits here in this article. And we’ve shown with the scientific study, that the traits are written into your genes. The next thing you should do is look deeper into a your top customer’s personality traits and find out what makes him tick. From this, you can make your marketing more effective because you’ll be pushing all the right buttons in your prospects – the ones they want you to push. The result is that you’ll make a big jump outward in whatever marketing medium you choose.It all comes down to this: Social media marketing (and any other type of marketing), can be made more effective by engaging the personality traits of your prospects. Match up the right traits, and you greatly increase the chances of them hearing and responding to your marketing message.References:”Your Genes Help You Choose Your Friends, Study Says” by Maureen Salamon. Us News And World Report – HealthDay News. January 17, 2011.