In this five-part series, we’ll take a closer look at the unparalleled educational value of student science projects and science fair participation. Follow along for tips, tools, and best practices for managing STEM projects and science fairs with K-12 students.
A Powerful Learning Sequence
Independent science projects support personalized, active learning, which can boost and empower student engagement and interest in STEM. Combining independent projects with culminating participation in a science fair creates a unique and powerful learning opportunity in which students develop and demonstrate science, math, language arts, critical thinking, and communication skills. Together, science projects and science fairs offer students a robust educational opportunity, one that can make a difference in their outlook on science and engineering, in their awareness of themselves as scientists and engineers, and in how they think about the future.
At the curricular level, having students do independent science projects for science fairs addresses and meets multiple standards, including Common Core (Math and Language Arts) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).
Science projects, alone, offer enormous educational value and support a student-centered, personalized learning framework for STEM education. But both parts of the equation are important. At every grade level, doing projects without a science fair component misses out on an unparalleled chance to develop and showcase skills that are naturally encompassed by science fair preparation and participation.
Whether you are new to the science fair experience or a seasoned veteran, stay tuned to this series for resources, tips, best practices, and more to support your teaching objectives.
What About Engineering?
When we talk about science projects and science fairs, we include both science and engineering. We believe students should have the opportunity to learn and use both the scientific method and the engineering design process and should emerge with a confident understanding of how to choose the best method to solve a problem or answer a question. Teaching students to differentiate between methods is critical to empowering them to use STEM to tackle real-world problems now and in the future.
Making the Most of Science Projects and Science Fairs
In the rest of this series, we will look more closely at:
Pictured: Ashleigh, a student who explored her interest in space science with a series of science fair projects in third, fourth, and fifth grade. Browse success stories for other inspiring stories.
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