2 Dayton Schools Students Place in Ohio Science Fair Top 10

Dayton Christian, C-J rate No. 7 and 8, respectively

DAYTON – Chaminade-Julienne and Dayton Christian high schools are among Ohio’s top 10 schools in the world of science fair achievement.

The distinction has come by way of an Ohio Academy of Science ranking of Ohio’s top 20 science teaching schools as measured by numbers of students who received State Science Day superior awards from 1996 to 2003.

With 75 awards, Carroll High School in Riverside is ranked No. 2 on that list. Upper Arlington High School near Columbus is No. 1, with 99 awards.

But just below those two, Chaminade-Julienne and Dayton Christian hold the No. 7 and 8 spots, with 54 and 50 awards, respectively.

“All three schools here are ranked in the top 10 in the whole state to not only get students to the State Science Day, but to have those students earn a superior,” Tom Minor, Dayton Christian science teacher and co-chairman of this year’s Montgomery County Science Day fair.

Science Day fairs, coordinated through the Ohio Academy of Science, are a series of judged competitions that begin with individual elementary, middle and high school Science Days and continue with the highest-rated student science research projects advancing to countywide, district and state Science Day competitions.

This year’s series will culminate with a State Science Day at Ohio State University in Columbus.

Projects are judged at each Science Day level for proper use of the scientific method, uniqueness of the research project and the student’s ability to support his or her findings and conclusions.

Projects receiving superior ratings through all levels of judging are considered the best in Ohio, and many students receive monetary awards and college scholarships.

The Dayton Christian and Chaminade-Julienne student performances in their schools’ Science Day, a March 13 Montgomery County Day at the University of Dayton and a March 20 West District Science Day at Central State University are another measure of their science project prowess.

Out of more than 100 who entered projects in the C-J’s Science Day fair in February, 19 sustained their superior ratings through the Montgomery County and West District science fairs.

Similarly, Dayton Christian is sending 15 students to the state.

And included in each school’s contingent will be six C-J students and four Dayton Christian students who earned special awards at the West District fair.

Science teachers at both schools attribute outstanding performance to using student research projects as a primary science education teaching tool. `We usually have the students do oral presentations in class so they can learn from each other and get practice representing their projects in class before having to tell a judge about what they have done,” Minor said.

Minor also said he believes that it helps that Dayton Christian is a religion-based school that has a “commitment to Excellence in Academics, not only to help the students do their best, but also so that they might glorify God in their lives.”

C-J science department chairman Michael O’Shaughnessy said the emphasis on science education begins with the fact that all students are required to take at least general science courses, with the more scientifically-inclined among them having a choice of enrolling in either advanced college preparatory or honors science classes.

“And it’s a requirement for all honors students to do a science fair project,” he said. “The requirement is that they have to present the project at our science fair at C-J. They don’t have to go on up if they don’t want to. But a lot of them really enjoy the experience. They get to the point where they see they can do pretty good with this and they do move on.”

O’Shaughnessy also said he and the C-J science teaching staff are firm believers in learning science through doing research projects.

Both O’Shaughnessy and Minor believe that emphasizing and promoting science education through science fairs is a necessity in the 21st century.

“The first and foremost reason is the world is going in the science and technology way, so the emphasis we push on these kids is the thing they need to do to be technology literate and be able to discuss scientific findings when they come out,” O’Shaughnessy said.

“They not only have to be able to read and write, they also have to understand science. And that’s across-the-board for all of us, really.”

Contact Jim Babcock at 225-2432.