I know there seems to be a GREAT DEBATE on whether teachers should have students complete a science fair project or not as part of the curriculum. I am sure there are many naysayers who don’t think it is a good use of instructional time- but I can tell you in my class that the Science Fair was a HUGE confidence builder and usually one of the FAVORITE things students did all year.
I taught in a Title 1 school where students did not have much support at home to help with science projects, because many of the families I worked with were working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Long hours made it near impossible to help with homework and projects for their children. Even if students had the support at home, they did not have scientific tools or materials available to them. We also had a very high population of students who were learning English as a second language and a high population of students with special needs. Knowing this, I approached Science Fair Projects in a different way than I was taught growing up. Instead of giving kids a packet and then expecting them to complete everything on their own at home, I came up with a way to support all of my students in understanding and conducting their own science projects at school.
Teaching the scientific method
With each lab we would conduct in class during the year, I would model the scientific method- explaining the steps taken and also making sure that students understood that the scientific method is cyclical- not linear. We talked at length about the engineering cycle and how that works alongside our scientific method as we look to draw conclusions while testing our hypothesis. Weaving this instruction into what we were already doing in our curriculum helped to build schema for my students before they conducted their own projects, while not stealing any time from my instruction to “teach science fair”. Throughout the fall semester, we repeated this process. In November, I explained to the students that we would be having a Science Fair when we returned from winter break. I encouraged them to come up with ideas of things that interested them. They were to submit a proposal to me on what they might want to do their project on the week before we went on winter break. I set up some guidelines- If they knew that they could complete their project on their own and had all of the materials, they could come up with any idea that fit the rules of the science fair that our winners would advance to. If they knew that they would require tools and assistance at school, then I gave them a list of the tools/materials we had and told them whatever experiment they chose needed to be able to be completed in one day. For those that had no idea, I directed them to www.sciencebuddies.org to find something that was interesting to them. The week before break, each student submitted their proposal to me. I looked over their proposals and either approved them or conferenced with students to make tweaks to their proposal in order to get approval. Before they left for winter break they knew what they would be doing when they got back.
Getting Staff & Parents On Board
When we returned from winter break, I reached out to the staff at our school and asked for volunteers to participate in Science Saturdays (2 back-to-back Saturdays at the school from 8am-2pm), offering coffee, hot chocolate, donuts, and the feeling of knowing you did something great for our students, as payment. English teachers, History teachers, Math teachers, Elective teachers, and even past elementary school Science teachers volunteered to come and help. Students were given a letter to take home explaining to parents that the following month we would be having Science Saturdays. Parents were given a copy of their child’s proposal and told what support and tools we would be providing. I also provided doughnuts as an incentive to my students to show up (middle school is all about free food). Parents were super appreciative that they didn’t have to try and do science projects at home, and I had 100% participation that first year (and EVERY YEAR that followed).
Prepping for Science Saturdays
My classes were split into two groups- one for each Saturday. I tried to put similar projects into groups with a teacher as an advisor to oversee the experiments and guide students through the steps as needed. Knowing that most of my volunteers had never taught science, I put students who needed the most support or those with more complicated projects/those that needed an actual science lab in my group. My Special Education staff showed up in full force, excited to support our students with special needs as they completed projects that met the requirements of their IEPs.
Prior to each Science Saturday, I had students list their materials and use bins to gather their supplies for the next day and label it with their name. Doing this ahead of time took about fifteen minutes of class time and allowed us to be more organized the next day as we started.
I created Sentence STEMS on posters and as handouts for students to refer to as they worked to write up their experiments and conclusions.
I went to our local Walmart and craft store and secured a donation of tri-fold boards for all of our students. The school gave us construction paper, access to computers /printers, and of course I busted out my supply of glue sticks and staples for securing things to the boards.
I set up all of these things in my room, in the rooms of the teachers that were volunteering, and throughout hallways in the school the night before our event.
It’s FINALLY HERE!!! Science Saturday
As students arrived Saturday morning, we welcomed them outside and immediately broke into our groups. Students followed their “Mentor Teacher” back to the area they would be working. Mentor Teachers handed out the bins of supplies to their students and students got right to work! It was AMAZING to see all of the SCIENCE THAT WAS HAPPENING!!! Students and teachers alike were laughing, students were learning and writing, and some were even teaching their non-science Mentor Teachers about the scientific method and what they were learning. As students would complete their experiment and move into writing up their labs, they would be given laptops. Students would print out their writeups and then the Mentor Teacher would provide them with the construction paper/glue/staples so they could put their boards together. A SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT IN A DAY. All of these projects were done start to finish BY STUDENTS, with only a guiding hand as needed to stay on track or remind them of lab safety. We provided the means, but THEY DID THE WORK.
Science Fair
We hosted a school science fair the week after our Science Saturdays were completed and the top three places from each category advanced to the next level- a regional Science Fair at the local University. Every year we would have students receive an honorable mention or place at the regional level and win prizes. Some of my students who placed were students who had struggled in their classes, some were still learning English, some had special needs. All seemed surprised when they were chosen. The PRIDE I saw in my students’ faces as they were recognized for their hard work was worth EVERY SINGLE SECOND of planning and carrying out these Science Saturdays.
Every year that I taught, I hosted Science Saturdays (with 100% participation). Each year, more staff would volunteer because they heard such wonderful things from the participants the year before. At the end of the year I would always survey my students on the things that they loved most during the year- favorite topics, best lessons, favorite memories (I also surveyed for areas I could improve my teaching). Every year students would name their TOP TWO FAVORITE MEMORIES as Science Saturdays and Survivor Week (more info here for that). Students LOVED our science Saturdays! I loved them too, because they gave my kiddos confidence in their own abilities, Science Saturdays allowed them to SHINE. My students faced a lot of challenges because of their unique life situations, but Science Saturdays gave them the opportunity to take control of their own learning, to be creative, to be SCIENTISTS.
I hope you will consider hosting Science Saturdays for your students. I promise that the payoff is HUGE! I’ll even give you my Science STEM Starters to get you started!
Happy Planning!!!
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