District Administration - October 2011 - (Page 58)

How Are Science Fairs Faring? a $50,000 college scholarship, a trip to the Galapagos Islands, and an internship at the world- famous European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland. For all the glory and other rewards that accompany these events, National Science Teachers Association President Francis Eberle says that the greatest value of science fairs, especially at the school and district levels, is that all participants receive a crash course in how science works. “A science fair allows students to raise their own questions, to answer those questions, and to come up with evidence for those answers,” he explains. “It allows students to engage in doing science.” That may sound like an infallible formula for making the most of high school science, and last fall President Obama added his own element by hosting a science fair at the White House. But in recent years, a growing number of schools and districts have been skipping science fairs, especially on the high school level— a casualty, say the proponents of these competitions, to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind law and the pressures of preparing students for standardized achievement tests. Tougher Times at the Grassroots While higher-profile international events— from the Intel fair, to the Siemens Westinghouse Science and Technology Competition, to the recent efforts of Disney and Google—are going strong, there’s rising concern about the grassroots science fairs that feed them. Over the past decade, the Los Angeles County Science Fair, one of about 350 regional fairs across the country that attract the top student winners in school and district competitions, has seen the number of participating schools drop from 244 to 185. At the regional Tidewater Science Fair in Virginia, the number of high school student projects declined from 450 in 1996 to under 200 in 2004, when the 58 October 2011 Second- and third-graders from Zachary (La.) Elementary School are growing bitter panicum grasses in their school nursery to eventually plant along the coast to help prevent coastal erosion. They won the 2010-2011 Disney’s Planet Challenge for elementary schools with the project: Wetland Warriors: Fighting to Save Our Coast. In the Creal Springs (Ill.) Schools, seventh graders are working in the Cache River wetlands at Buttonland Swamp where they are studying macro invertebrates to determine water quality. It’s part of their project, Wetland Warriors: Restoring Health to Our Wetlands, which won the 20102011 Disney’s Planet Challenge for middle schools. state’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests designed to meet NCLB requirements took effect, and all but two of the more than a dozen districts eligible for the science fair dropped out. Danny Peters, who directed the Tidewater competition from 2005 to 2010, increased participation to more than 300 by admitting middle school projects, but he says that the number of high school projects has wobbled between 100 and 120. “SOLs came into play, and that changed the way science was taught,” he says. “Doing science projects takes time from the teacher’s day. For the schools that do participate, it’s teachers who promote science projects. Without teachers promoting them, there’s not much participation.” District Administration

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - October 2011

District Administration - October 2011
Contents
From the Editor
Letters
News Update
Transportation Update
District Profile
Administrator Profile
Building a Blended Learning Program
How Are Science Fairs Fairing?
A New Age for Algebra
Early College High Schools
Changing of the Guard in Florida
CIO News
How Much Computing Power Do You Need?
An Unconventional Approach to 1:1
New Books
Problem/ Solution
Research Center
Product Focus
New Products
Professional Opinion
Going Mobile
Online Edge

District Administration - October 2011

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