Refocusing on The Reason for Science Fairs

This article is a great read for an elementary or middle school teacher who has yet to prepare their students for their first time experience in creating and presenting a science fair projec... See More

This article is a great read for an elementary or middle school teacher who has yet to prepare their students for their first time experience in creating and presenting a science fair project. All steps are provided in this article. This article might also be a good read for teachers who have done science fair projects for a long time and who need to refocus on the purpose of a truly good science fair project.

Good starting place for mentors & teachers

The article addresses a serious concern, not only about the rigor of science fair projects, but about how inquiry-based science is taught in science classrooms. Specific strengths of the art... See More

The article addresses a serious concern, not only about the rigor of science fair projects, but about how inquiry-based science is taught in science classrooms. Specific strengths of the article are the author’s discussion of asking investigatable science research questions linked to a rationale framed by core concepts as well as of providing scientific explanations that include claims, evidence and reasoning. It is critical for teachers to understand both the centrality of these skills to science as well as how to help students develop these skills. An example rubric is presented, although the final row is too vague to guide meaningful assessment of students’ knowledge of the nature of science. It does not treat such knowledge as a planned cognitive outcome that is to be taught explicitly.

Scientific Processes

This article deals with being sure that the scientific processes are achieved in science fair projects. It does a good job of explaining these. But one problem area is the fact that the fi... See More

This article deals with being sure that the scientific processes are achieved in science fair projects. It does a good job of explaining these. But one problem area is the fact that the first picture in the article is a volcano project, yet later in the article it says an erupting volcano is not acceptable as a science fair project.