Yes! There are many ways to do science fair, without “biting off more than you can chew,” but first let’s consider WHY science fair is important.
It shows that your science department CARES about science as a practice.
It includes many of the NGSS Science and Engineering Practices
It gives students a way to get involved with science and increases their interest in science and engineering.
Participating in science fair opens up opportunities beyond the classroom for students. Students may win monetary prizes from donors in the community, or be selected to participate at the regional, state or international level.
Students who have participated in summer institutes have another opportunity to showcase their work.
Let’s not kid ourselves…science fair is a lot of work, but you can limit your participation to something you can handle.
When I taught, I was the only teacher at my school that participated in science fair. I had to figure out a way to fit science fair into the limited time beyond the day to day work I had to do with my classes. There are some ways to control the scope of your science fair participation. If other teachers participate in science fair, collaborate and divide tasks. If you are the only teacher participating, determine how much you can take on. Consider the following options:
Let students volunteer instead of requiring everyone to participate. You might need to offer a “carrot,” like an activity or reward exclusive to this group (always discuss with administration). You could form a science club exclusively for your project students. You could meet with these students once a week (at lunch or before/after school) to help them.
If you are requiring all of your students to participate, count the project as a grade. Better yet, count all the parts that you must review as grades. Grade each part as you go along in the process. This is very important.
Ask your principal for a substitute so that you can grade and judge final projects at school in a quiet location away from your classroom.
You might want to bypass the “school science fair” situation which requires more time and event planning. This is great PR for you and the school, but requires A LOT of planning. Teachers normally select which projects they will send to school fair, so if you find yourself without help, you can be the sole judge of which projects will go to the district level.
sciencebuddies.org has many helpful items for science projects/fair
I taught honors biology most of my career, and I required all of my students to do a project.
I felt that being in honors should mean that students needed to produce at a higher level, and science projects were part of that. This approach will, however, mean that some students who are not really interested will take opportunities to cheat. Trying to close all the opportunities to cheat is like herding cats. Here are some suggestions for this:
Develop ways to recognize recycled projects. Plagiarism detectors are available. Discussing the project with the student can also be revealing.
Some students just lack interest and investment. Offer these students to use a project or demonstration they find online, but inform them that this will place limitations on going to the next level, and possibly impact “creativity” points in judging. These students will still have to meet requirements that may not be part of the online project they find, so they will still have to show their understanding of the concepts.
Many teachers I know say they don’t do science fair because of the “paperwork.”
They are referring to the ISEF forms and state forms. Yes, these can be challenging, but there is an online wizard for the ISEF forms. I went over how to use the wizard with my students before the forms were due. These forms protect the teacher because they show that all protocols were followed in the performance of the project. You will need a few administrators and colleagues to review them and sign off on them, but this is not an arduous thing, and most will be willing to help. If not, your district can usually offer some assistance with this.
You can start small with just a few student volunteers or you can go big by requiring a science fair project of all students.
Just make sure you are comfortable with whatever you decide, and enjoy. You never know, you may be fostering a future Nobel prize winner!
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