Creating Better Incentives and Guidance for Science Fairs

There are some schools that have great participation in science fairs and other schools that have very little participation. In general participation is low at the high school level. There are many reasons for this low participation. A lack of experience of students with the process, a lack of incentives to participate, and the lack of assistance are all significant factors.

Students have little incentives to participate in science fairs. They may simply receive a piece of paper that indicates if they have won first, second, third place or perhaps "honorable mention". At best they may receive a small monetary award, but only those who win at a state or national level have a chance to win a significant prize. Even though learning should become a desire based largely on the desire to learn with no reward other than the learning itself, this is not a sufficent reward for many students initially. Because a science fair project should have a high degree of effort and an overall professional look, it is somewhat difficult for students to accomplish. If parental attendance at such events is low then it does not even give the student much attention. If the local newspapers do not cover the science fair, students do not get public recognition. Some schools have been awarding students with perfect attendance a chance to win a brand new car. This shows exactly what we value.

By not training students properly to participate and by not providing materials and equipment we almost guarantee a lack of participation and at the same time a lack of that professional look. The result is in some cases a fair amount of particpation of relatively poor projects. Teachers have significant problems getting students to participate because they have less and less time in the classroom to instruct students properly in the process and many teachers actually lack enough experience to properly guide students in the process. Many students can not stay after school to work on such projects and the number of "club days" in which they might work on a science fair project through a science club is limited. Still some science teacher require such a project and award a high amount of points for participation, but often deduct points for non-participation. Such grading, has a tendency to force students to produce something, but not something of real value.

The student that has some artistic or at least a sense of order, can sometimes produce a fairly good looking product, but it may not be all that scientific. The ability to merge both the scientific concepts and the appropriate professional look is less common than you might think. Also, remember that many students will not start on such a project in sufficient time to complete the project properly.

My own experience with doing a few science fair projects in high school has in part forged my present evaluation of the process. I had done a project on "Fused Quartz Scales" that had the potential of being able to weigh a single bacteria, while my closest competetor had made a wind tunnel. I know that he had help with his project, I did not. His project did look better overall. I think I should have won, but I am actually glad he won, he was a friend. The prize was a $50.00 certificate and all winnders got their picture in the paper. Overall I was happy and I was invited to participate in the state science fair in New Brunswick, New Jersey. My project was looked upon better at the state level and I won an honorable mention there, but easily could see the difference in the projects completed by really dedicated students. Even at this level there was only one winner of the grand prize, which was a great prize. I felt bad for many of the others however who had projects worthy of rewards. I now realized I was out of my league, some of the others were great. I never made it beyond the state level, but really appreciated getting that recognition.

The people we select for judges, need to be really good at the process, they need very specific rules to guide them in the process and they need training. This also needs to happen at the school level. If the projects are poor however we should not feel compelled to award prizes for projects that are not suitable. As difficult as this may be, a first place prize should not be given if there really isn't anything worthy. Honorable mention is a level of recognition for attempts at producing something of value.

One way to help students is to have materials ready. If we had the three part folding display boards available in the school bookstore, if we had guides to produce the lettering, if we had the rulers and tape available, if we had examples of proper presentations we would then have a realistic expectation that our students might be able to produce something suitable.

Lists of project ideas usually lacks one very significant aspect of great science fair projects and that is that a science fair project that is simply a copy of a project that has been done before is generally not a suitable project in itself. A project that goes just a bit deeper or conducts variations of experiments previously done is a great improvement in the direction of a proper project. Students do not need to discover a cure for cancer, but they could possibly observe cancer cells under a microscope and carefully make observations.

Smaller projects that have similarities to the science fair project could help students learn the process. We need to take time to train students properly, they can not simply be expected to produce something without training. Some students will meet the challenge without training, but all students should not be denied a chance to participate simply because we do not provide the proper environment. I remember staying up all night simply to put the lettering on the display board. I literally did not sleep at all and of course the next day I was pretty much worthless at school, the project was done, but so was I until I got some rest.

In recent years many school districts have wanted to get much more participation in science fairs and especially at the high school level. This can be accomplished, but will require a great deal of effort, preparation, training and incentives. Each aspect of the process needs to be considered in detail. For example some three fold presentation boards have very light guidelines to help students mount things on the board properly. Even this little bit of extra help can make a difference in the overall look of the project. Some stores that sell the display boards also sell preprinted titles with things like: Problem Hypothesis, Observations, Data Collection, Conclusions printed in large letters that can easily be mounted on the board.

It is exciting, that we could make this work, if we do the work we need to do to get students ready.