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.
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
