Have science fair projects grown out of control?
[YES]
Initially, science fair projects were community proclamations of students‟ hard work in using
the scientific method to investigate an idea.
Now, they are mostly cooperative ventures in which mentored students focus on small, in-
depth projects, that most individuals cannot fully comprehend, sometimes in the hope of
securing scholarship money.
Whatever happened to the broad picture of science as a way to ponder, to discover, and to
investigate a
problem?
Perhaps we need two separate fairs—mentored and nonmentored.
Science fair projects need to turn all students on to science, not turn most students off.
Ed Rohde
High School Science Chair, Ellicott City, Maryland
The other day, I was in a large crafts store in my neighborhood, well-stocked with all kinds of
things to help one be creative.
I noticed two whole display boards labeled “Science Projects,” containing many items that
one would need to complete a project.
To me, this seems to take all the fun out of it. Sort of like downloading a paper from the
Internet.
Barbara Joan Grubman
Retired Speech Specialist, Los Angeles, California
Science fair projects seem to be mostly competition among parents, not students. Most
projects are done at home where they cannot be monitored.
Science teachers should decide on a reasonable amount of time it should take to do the
project and then coordinate with the students‟ other teachers to allow students to do them in
class.
For example, research and writing can be done in library and English classes.
Also, the projects should have something to do with the curriculum.
Projects shouldn‟t be graded on the basis of which one looks best, but rather on how much
thought was put into it, how much research, and what the student did to complete the project.
Karen Brower
Special Education Teacher, Brick, New Jersey
Have science fair projects grown out of control?
[NO]
Days before I began teaching high school science in 1963, a local businessman asked when
I would have my first science fair. He represented a group that had money for materials and
prizes. “How does „never‟ sound? was my reply.
Since then, I have often participated, as a physics teacher and developer of science
educational products, in judging local educational fairs and the state science fair. My initial
hostility sprang from my gut feeling that these fairs were a competition among science
teachers and not students. I wanted to develop novel ways for science students (and their
teachers) to collaborate. But I have found that, for some students, this is as close as they will
get to standing and defending an idea.
Tom Ford
High school physics teacher, Waldoboro, Maine
We have a science fair at the elementary school where I teach. I think it‟s important because
there is such an emphasis on language arts that science often gets left out.
We call them family projects because students often need and get help from an adult.
We also sometimes get volunteers from the local college or other community resources to do
projects with children at school.
Lori Thomas
Third-grade teacher, Sacramento, California
It depends: Should parents take kids to get construction paper and the pipe cleaners? Yes.
Should parents choose the topic, make the display, and then have the child put his or her
name on it? No.
Learn together, explore together, then let the child express the topic in his or her best way.
While the science fair at my daughter‟s school is voluntary, interest increases as students talk
about their work. After the fair, my daughter was chatting with her grandfather and they came
up with an idea for next year‟s fair. An added benefit: The project can be intergenerational.
Hope Blecher-Sass
English as a second language teacher, Edison, New Jersey