Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Science Fairs - do you hate them or you love them?

It is Science Fair season full swing.
Wanted to know your opinions about the subject.
Is it a BEAST in your house, or a FAIRY?
What problems did your kids tackle this year?
Do you see advantages in it?

I LOVE the experiment part of it but HATE the work that goes into display. My kids are naturally good presenters, and they both really, really like doing that!
Last night we all went to bed well after midnight, trying to finish up the last glitches. They both did very well.
Please do share your perspective:-)
Ania

No science fair this year for us (unless it just hasn't been assigned yet) other than elementary level. We have a first year teacher for middle school who devoted herself entirely to coaching science olympiad team. She has a lot of energy and enthusiasm and wants to start a science club in April.

Our science teacher last year did a really great job with science fair. The projects were soooo interesting and independently done. There is no city-wide fair.

In elementary school, the kids are required to participate in the science fair BUT there are no prizes. They're so worried that self esteem will be devastated...or something?

Ania-

I hope your kids do well. We enjoy the annual science fair here, but it is non-competitive and the homeschoolers who participate range from three year olds putting out their dinosaur collection to teens who have sheep's brains and other body parts on display with elaborate hypotheses. It's really cool that each child can do their own thing and make it as complex or as basic as they like.

Last year, my school age kids did a fish breeding experiment. The first batch of breeders died though, and the replacements didn't give birth before the fair! We had a big question mark on the board where the results were supposed to go!

Hate it!!!!!!
We love doing all our science in the safety of our own home.
A small child or meek adult could easily get trampled at one of those things.
Besides, I don't care what the other PARENTS know about science.



I

Excessive parental involvement and store bought kits are not downgrades at our school science fair. This year, there were no student oral presentations and the projects were judged by select parents. Surveys and consumer reports have fared quite well in past years, but were banned by the science teachers this year. Well decorated boards are always a hit. As best I can tell, a pretty and straight forward demonstration of the scientific method is the objective.

DS built a water turbine and a generator from scratch. He measured the level of electricity produced at three points of the different shaped channels he created by fastening siding to a gigantic sheet of wood in various configurations. He did earn a first, so he gets to compete in the next level science fair, which again, has no student presentation.

Last year, DD bred Brine shrimp in different concentrations of salt water over the course of four weeks, while taking very detailed notes each day. This year, she adjusted her effort to meet the task. She tested whether students do better or worse on a complicated maze after consuming caffeine. She earned a respectable second, out of the proportionate first-fourth place awards and the additional dreaded category of �honorable mention�.

I judged once and a girl was about 2nd grade, she did a very nice project about galileo thermometer, but when asked why this subject she answered "I don't know, dad bought it" :-)

I wrote before that I really enjoy the experiment part of it. I even kind of like the tension my kids have when things are not going the way they thought (mean mom :-) I think that they learn tons. Putting up a display board - hate it! My kids generally are finished with the experiment way before the projects are due and they procrastinate terribly with the display. Ghost has been on his own with producing a display (we still help with glue and give advice on how to arrange it so it will "catch the eye" so to speak), but it was the first year DD was on her own. She did not even think twice, went to the basement, dug out last years display and used the same lettering :-) But of course, due to the unforseen printer trouble, I still had to drive DS to Kinkos at 9:30 at night!

DD's problem this year - do ants built the same tunnels over and over again or are they different each time. (no personal reason to think of at all :-)
DS's problem - what is the best Angle of Attack for lifting the most weight. He had a difficult time writing it out in laymans therm - one of the criteria was that mom had to understand what he was talking about :-). Huge personal interest in this one and I hope that it showed.

In our school there are two teams of judges judging each project.
The first team conducts an interview with the contestant, the second team judges the experiment based on the clarity of the display board. The second team of judges generally gives way lower scores. It is a challenge to explain your project with clarity yet some depth:-)
Oh, and the school uses parent volunteers to tally numbers only. They invite engineers from local companies to serve as judges.

I love this, Ania! Mistakes and surprises are what science is all about.

You're not a mean mom, you're a smart one!

Can my kids join that science fair? I have a kindergarten paleontologist who'd love to show off his dinosaur collection and the fossils we find at a couple local fossiliferous beaches.

One aspect of science fairs that really bothers me is the proliferation of books with titles like "The Complete Handbook of Science Fair Projects." I'm a scientist and I see science fairs as being pretty pointless if the kid doesn't think up a question on his own and then try to answer it through experimentation --- even if it's just something small. Anything else seems to miss the point from my perspective.

If the fairs were non-competitive, the kids would probably feel a lot freer to use their imaginations.

Val

Ditto what you said Val.

If I lived by Lorel, perhaps I would not be afraid to go to the science fair!

Incog