Comments on: On Science Fairs

By: rick

rick — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 20:34:19 +0000

Having just witnessed the Science Fairs at two of the local schools (Sakai Middle and Wilkes Elementary) I can say that yes they do make a big point about doing it, and about using it as a learning platform. I was impressed with the caliber of many of the exhibits.

Sakai also allocates class-time for the work - as a way of ensuring that the students are doing the work not the parents.
(At the elementary school level there’s obviously more parental involement, to varying degrees. In our household though, with a former science teacher in the family, you can be sure that the kids do the work and understand the concepts!)

Note that they also offer options for different students, including exhibits that are more expository than experimental.
This allows more students to participate in a meaningful way.

But only at the middle school level are they introducing any competitive aspect, and then it was just a minor prize based upon the number of visitors you had to your exhibit - the students had to verbally explain it to all such visitors. The students are graded on their ability to form a hypothesis, test it, and draw conclusions from it, or on the quality/accuracy of their exposition.

In our case, we knew about the state-wide science fair, but did not feel the need to introduce our kids to the competition.
Ours learned from their own experiments and conclusions, and that was really the whole point.

I do have mixed feelings about the WASL series (or perhaps more plainly the emphasis placed upon it by the school districts), but I am skeptical that it can be blamed for any decline in science fair participation. i don’t know the facts at the high school level, which is where science fair perhaps does become more competitive.

I think the “sports” emphasis comes from the parents, not the schools, but the schools are filling the role as they can. Many parents believe that such activities keep the kids “out of trouble”, as well as provide a social framework and the kind of teamwork education that they’ll need in the future.

By: Ted Leung

Ted Leung — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:40:33 +0000

Ed,
Yes, of course home schooled (and some alternative schooled) children can work on their project during “school time”. This is offset by the fact that kids in a public school have easier access to a larger variety of resources and experience - like working with local university faculty or local research labs. Generally speaking, the effect of the No Child Left Behind legislation has been to reduce the amount of time for any “non-core” stuff - art, music, etc. So it’s not only science fairs that are affected. Plus there is the incredible emphasis on sports…

Adriano,
Schools from all over the state were represented at the fair. I’m not trying to argue that the homeschooled kids were superior to the regular schooled kids. The winners at the senior level were not homeschooled kids - that’s just a fact. I had no idea how homeschooled kids would fare at all, or whether they would participate in any sizable number, which was why I noted the statistics. More troubling to me is the fact that the top ranked districts don’t see these fairs as a worthwhile activity.

By: Adriano Varoli Piazza

Adriano Varoli Piazza — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 19:05:48 +0000

If the top ranked academic districts were barely represented, if at all, who were homeschooled kids competing against? Doesn’t this somehow make it obvious that homeschooled kids will be obtain better classifications, since they have less -and arguably lesss qualified- opposition?

By: Ed

Ed — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:06:43 +0000

Don’t you have to be fair and acknowledge that a home schooled child can work on his or her science fair project during school work hours, as part of their science work? Public schools don’t generally allocate any part of the school day for science fair projects.

Also, future lawyers, CEOs and trustifarians don’t see a purpose in the science fair (a reference to your Bainbridge and Mercer island comment).