Have science fair projects grown out of control?

April 8, 2004

[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

[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.