Many elementary schools have been hosting science fairs for their students for many years now. Many students have this misconception that science is about mindlessly memorization and step by step procedures, rather than interactive, live experiments and processes. Len Kenyon, a former marine science researcher who teaches sixth-grade science at Tippecanoe Middle School in Tipp City, Ohio has been monitoring students through science fair projects since he began teaching. He is working to change this kind of thinking students have about science. Kenyon states “Students have these misconceptions…they think science must be conducted in a cookbook sequence. I teach my kids that science is a process. It’s messy, it’s here, it’s there. They might be doing something and all of a sudden they get data they didn’t expect to get and suddenly they’re off on a tangent. That’s real science.” (Kenyon, 2011).
Science fairs are beneficial to students for a numerous of reasons. First, students are actually educating the teachers and families themselves about their projects. The role is being reversed, which is incredible. They get to tell you their discoveries and show you how their experiment works. This can be very exciting and rewarding for students as they feel like they are teaching someone else, opposed to always being taught. The best thing is that they are still learning while they are doing this. They are learning the scientific method, how to research their topic (which expands their literacy skills), advancing their speaking and and communication skills, and they are realizing that science is not all about boring notes and explicit instruction.
At tippecanoe middle school in Ohio, science fairs are optional and students develop projects with guidance from their teachers and through a local science club. A majority of the science teachers at this school agree on the importance of helping their students come up with ideas that allow them to participate in the science fair and become part of the scientific process (Mascarelli, 2011). Michaela Iiames, who teaches fifth- and seventh-grade science at St. Timothy’s School in Raleigh, N.C., has been doing science fairs with her students for eight years. Iiames asks them to begin with journaling about their everyday interests. Liames states “We’re trying to really hook them into science and seeing how science concepts can be applied in their everyday life, not just with test tubes and chemicals” (Liames, 2011).
A major key to science fairs are creating a positive experience for students whether they win or not, and directing them to feel like they own their ideas and experiments. Science fairs can be a huge commitment, but teachers agree that the process is so delightful for students, teachers, families, and the community. Susan Duncan, a science teacher at Summa Academy at Meadow Park Middle School, keeps in mind a lesson that her own mentor taught her: The main goal should be to teach students how to become researchers. “So whether they go on to language arts or to become journalists or lawyers or doctors, they’ll leave with these research skills” Duncan concludes.
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