Science Fair

[Colin Matheson]

The science fair is one of the best teaching strategies I have encountered after almost 20 years of schooling and 7 years of teaching.

• It teachers the scientific method and project management
• It allows student choice and parent involvement
• Student work is seen by people other than the teacher

However, I have found that many science teachers do not require science fair; it is too much work, parents do the project, the kids procrastinate, the students produce bad work, etc. So teachers offer it as extra credit which means that the two ends of the bell curve participate (top achievers who do anything, and bottom achievers who think it will be easier than doing regular work).

The strategy that has worked for me is to assign science fair in  September and require students to turn in pieces at a time. See the example timeline attached. I also talk about it in class and get the kids to think about what makes a good project. I have found that if you can get students to do science fair 2-3 years in a row, they finally get the scientific method and how to write a lab report. It also can create a school culture around science fair. Science fair awards are great publicity and serve as another data point besides standardized testing to prove your program is effective. I have attached a zip file with lots of word documents and a few powerpoints. The timeline and guidelines are attached separately as well. Do you require science fair? Did you require science fair? Check out the materials and let me know what you think.

[Gwen Noda]

Thanks for posting! I'll check them out...

One thing I am trying to start this year is bringing high school students to the UCLA undergraduate science poster day where hundreds of students have their posters on display in every science and engineering topic you can think of... this should help the high school students understand what the "next level" is for science/research projects - maybe give them a higher bar to aim for. I hope. :)
Anyone know where I can get a few hundred dollars for a bus?? :)

[Jen]

Target has grants for field trips :) Jennifer

[Stacy Baker]

Thanks for all these great resources! I think if I had been told before school started that my 9th grade students had to participate in a science fair I would be happier about it. But, I was just told now in late January and the fair is in April. I'm pretty miserable. I already have committed to so many other things.

So thank you SO much for sharing these resources! I'll let you know how it all turns out...

[Colin Matheson]

Good luck with science fair! My advice is to just compress the schedule. Every week a new piece is due. I let them pick any topic (even non bio), but if you make them choose a bio topic then you might be able to take some class time for background research and still get your standards covered. Also if you can, tell them the science fair is one week before it actually is ;-) Then they will have the urgency to get it done (and they won't know that they are finishing early). Also that means kids that are always 2 days late will have a project done for the fair.

Finally you can try posting (on wall, on blog, on wiki) a table of who has done what.
Topic Background Hypothesis
Kid 1 X X
Kid 2 X

Then you can give prizes for the first class to reach a milestone. The public record helps get the class involved. Keep us posted.

[Jen]

Colin -
Thanks for the wiki/blog idea - I LIKE THIS!!! The kids will also like being able to update their ideas and milestones and post their successes - BRILLANT!!!!
Jen

[Jen]

We don't require science fair, but there are other things that the kids want to shoot for that science fair helps with - and I had 3 projects (4 girls) this year - as my first time as a mentor/coach - holy cow! Talk about trial by fire! BUT it's paying off - all of them are headed to state :)
What was disappointing to me is the regional fair. NOT the level of projects, but the LACK of teachers in attendance - I was the only one. Keep in mind that our middle school teachers all REQUIRE science fair to be done, and there were a NUMBER of projects from our county's middle schools and one from another high school. When I went to the county fair and was talking with some parents, they point blank told me that the only help their students received was a packet from the teacher and a mandate to "do the project" with NO HELP from the teacher whatsoever. In my mind, if it's going to be required, then teachers must be supportative. Yes, it took me some time to work with the girls (and I realize I only have 3 projects) but if you do not want to invest the time to help kids, then don't require it. It really was disappointing. I know I won't be able to attend everyday at the state fair - but I will try to go for the public viewing and definitely during the awards to be supportive of my girls - and no matter what they have done something that our school has never done!
The good news (and Colin - THANK YOU for the resources as I am still such a newbie at this!) is I've had a number of students approach me with an interest in it for next year. We are working on trying to schedule a week in the summer where students can come in and do some basic science lab skills (indoors and out) and design their project and get started. The ONLY complaint I've heard from students this year is that they simply did not have the time to work on a project during the school year. I'm hoping this week in the summer helps :)
Just an aside - has anyone else seen this type of thing at the middle school level? Any ideas on how to change this? Suggestions??? I'm open to anything as I feel it's really turning kids (especially the high achievers - which are usually the classes required to do science fair) off to science :(
Jen

[Virginia]

I have been involved in science fairs for years.  I had detailed time line for students and yet many students apparently did their work pretty much the night before the project was due. After about 10 years I figured out a way to have students ask their own questions and answer them.  My projects improved, especially for students whose parents had no idea about how to approach a project I posted this at http://wetheteachers.com/plan.php?id=37 it is free. They send no spam.  

This lesson has to be repeated with different topics before students "get it." It requires materials you have at hand.