![]() ![]() If they want to do a model of grasshopper, cool. How about a Science Festival? If a student wants to do a classic science fair project – fine. What about the kid who does not have that resource? How do you compare and judge them against each other? We organize lots of data with a spreadsheet program, we include photos, interesting observations, and a nice looking project. How is that fair? As I am working on the project with my child, asking questions, talking about the data, posing new questions, it is so much fun – but then we have to make our exploration fit the criteria set out in the science fair packet. I’m a science education consultant – I have an idea what will please the judges. I have six kids so we have done our share of science fair projects. As you mention, they are so hard to score fairly and it takes forever to do well. They put a good face on it, but they were not having fun. They were enthusiastic and supportive, but did not know what would make a great project. I remember a fair where the judging team included a Kiwanis Club representative (they paid for the trophies), a school board member, and a pool contractor who was a volunteer at the school. You might add: Science Fair Judges Hate Them. Science Fairs do not make kids love Science. Here’s the question you need to ask yourself: What can I do to make this kid love science? Every one of them will be in the kids’ hands in two minutes. If you don’t think so, leave a pile of mechanical puzzles on the table and don’t draw attention to it. Kids want to be creative, they want to think, they want to learn. OK, maybe once, but you lost them as a customer forever if you do that. You can’t sell someone something they don’t want or need. I know, it’s not the county science fair. I help them to make sure they are doing good science. I call it my “ Mythbusters Project.” To be honest, I don’t care if it’s a stupid idea they are testing. I will be doing a science fair in my classroom in about a week. Is science really distilling everything they know about a topic and making it fit on a bent poster board? If they make a paper airplane in my class, they better make five or ten and tell me what design works best and why. I make them launch rockets and throw balls. I want them to ask questions and be curious. I want them to play in science, find the joy and excitement. I make my students experiment constantly. OK, now that I got that off my chest, let’s talk about this. Be honest, they are brutal to grade, the work is not worth the effort. They don’t understand the need for the formality in the presentation. There are dozens of books on the topic and everybody is clawing at them, trying to find something they can handle. Coming up with a good science experiment project is really hard to do. The pressure on the parents to create a decent project is awful. Most aren’t any more science literate than their kids. Compare the wet strength of different brands of paper towels.Parents hate them.Is there a correlation between attendance and GPA? Is there a correlation between how close to the front of the classroom a student sits and GPA?.Determine whether ethanol really does burn more cleanly than gasoline.Study the effect of landscaping on a building's energy consumption.Can you tell how much biodiversity is in a water sample by how murky the water is?.Can bath water be used for watering plants or the garden?.Test the efficiency of different shapes of fan blades.Make an edible water bottle and compare the environmental impacts of it versus other water bottles.Formulate a non-toxic or biodegradable ink.Which brand of disposable contact lenses last the longest before a person decides to switch them out?.Which sunless tanning product produces the most realistic-looking tan?. ![]() If a label says a product does not contain heavy metal, is the label accurate? Do you see any evidence of leaching of hazardous chemicals from plastic into water over time? For example, you could compare the amount of lead in different brands of bottled water.
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