Science fair

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about school events. For public events, see Science festival.
For other uses, see Science fair (disambiguation).
Science fair project display

A science fair or engineering fair is an event hosted by a school that offers students the opportunity to experience the practices of science and engineering for themselves. In the United States, the Next Generation Science Standards makes experiencing the practices of science and engineering one of the three pillars of science education. Students perform some sort of research and then present their experiment in a poster session or other display format.

History

Science fairs began in the United States in New York City in the 1930s under the auspices of a civic organization called the American Institute of the City of New York [1] with the effort led in New York City by Morris Meister who later founded the Bronx High School of Science. Meister believed in the educational ideas of John Dewey that focused on doing rather than just learning what already had been done. The goals of the after-school science club federation were twofold: "to aid in the development of the scientific leaders of the next generation and at the same time foster a better understanding of science among its laymen".[2]

Initially, science fairs were mostly exhibits and demonstration projects or mere displays of projects. This changed after the

Sputnik, brought science fiction to reality and attracted increasing numbers of students at every level to fairs.[4]

Goals

Science and engineering fairs attract students at every level—elementary, middle and high school—to compete in science and technology activities. Science fairs also can allow for students with intense interest in the sciences to be paired with mentors from nearby colleges and universities, so that the students have access to instruction and equipment that the local schools do not provide. This mentoring, along with coaching students for their science fair interviews, has been shown to be very important for student success.[5]

International events

Most countries have regional science fairs in which interested students can freely participate. Winners of these regional fairs send students to national fairs such as the

EUCYS. Currently, the biotechnology company-sponsored Regeneron Science Talent Search offers a grand prize of a $250,000 scholarship. The 2018 documentary Science Fair
chronicles the competition.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-349-44089-4
    .
  2. ^ New York Times, Plans Science Club for School Pupils. May 22 1932
  3. doi:10.1002/sce.20329. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help
    )
  4. ^ Cox, Jimmy. "A History of Science Fairs". Streetdirectory. Retrieved 8 March 2018.
  5. ^ "High school science and engineering fairs: Lessons learned".
  6. ^ "Student Science - Find a Fair". findafair.societyforscience.org. Retrieved 2018-11-14.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Science competitions.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Science_fair&oldid=1188145528"