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Science fair

A science fair is generally a competition where contestants present their science project results in the form of a report, display board, and models that they have created. Science fairs allow students in grade schools and high schools to compete in science and/or technology activities.

One of the main educational advantages of science fair is that it requires completing a larger project than can be easily included in the short periods provided in most schools. Although writing assignments that take a long time to complete and require multiple drafts are fairly common in US schools, large projects in the sciences (other than science fairs) are rare. Science fairs also provide a mechanism for students with intense interest in the sciences to be paired with mentors from nearby colleges and universities, so that they can get access to instruction and equipment that the local schools could not provide.

History

In the United States, science fairs first became popular in the early 1950s, with the ISEF, then known as the National Science Fair. Interest in the sciences was at a new high after the world witnessed the use of the first two atomic weapons and the dawn of television. As the decade progressed, science stories in the news, such as Jonas Salk’s vaccine for polio and the launch of Sputnik, brought science fiction to reality and attracted increasing numbers of students to fairs.

Criticism

Some people pointed to the primary school experience as one factor which may actually discourage students from taking further interest in the sciences.

They claim that traditional science fairs, as well as programs like the Westinghouse Science Honors Institute, place too much focus on competition, a charge which science fair supporters answer by pointing to the real life competitive nature of awarding scientific grants and even the Nobel Prize.

A related source of criticism is the tendency for an inordinate amount of parental contribution to the projects, especially of winning projects. In the desire to see their children win the competition, many parents direct the children to choose projects far above a secondary student's capacity for understanding. Therefore, the parent or a connection of the parent with scientific or technical expertise will direct the development and execution of the project. Not only does this minimize the educational value of the project for the student, but also provides an unfair advantage to students whose parents have the technical connections and financial resources to invest in these projects.

Often, prizes in science fairs do not go to the best science, but to technology that is currently fashionable (green technology or health-related projects, for example). Judges often over-compensate for the possibility of parental involvement and downgrade advanced students who do work beyond what most of their peers are capable of.

List of science fairs

International

National

Canada

Canada-Wide Science Fair, hosted by the Youth Science Foundation Canada

Ireland

BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition

United States

In Popular Culture

Elementary school science fairs (many of which are required as part of the students' overall grade) are a recurring theme in Nicktoons.
A successful science fair entry was the subject of the 1999 film October Sky.
A science fair is the central element of the plot of the Pulitzer Prize-winning 1964 play The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and the same-name film.