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High school science fair: Positive and negative outcomes.

ABSTRACT: The goal of our ongoing research is to identify strengths and weaknesses of high school level science fair and improvements that can help science educators make science fair a more effective, inclusive and equitable learning experience. In this paper, we confirm and extend our previous findings in several important ways. We added new questions to our anonymous and voluntary surveys to learn the extent to which students had an interest in science or engineering careers and if science fair participation increased their interest in science or engineering. And we surveyed a national rather than regional high school student group by incorporating our survey into the Scienteer online portal now used by Texas and some other states for science fair registration, parental consent, and project management. We learned that about ~60% of the more than 300 students in the national cohorts completing surveys in 2017 and 2018 said that they were interested in a career in science or engineering, and ~60% said that participating in science fair increased their interest in science or engineering. About two-thirds of the students were required to participate in science fair, and that requirement reduced the frequency of students who said that science fair increased their interest. In the worst case, ~10% of the students who said that they were not interested in a career in science or engineering and who were required to participate in science fair engaged in research misconduct (i.e., plagiarism and making up their results). Students' positive comments about competition in science fair focused on the competition incentive, whereas their positive comments about science fair that was non-competitive focused on learning about the scientific process and learning in general. We discuss the findings in the context of National Science Teaching Association guidance about voluntary science fair participation and begin to identify features of science fair practice consistent with increased student interest in the sciences or engineering.

SUBMITTER: Grinnell F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7018130 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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High school science fair: Positive and negative outcomes.

Grinnell Frederick F Dalley Simon S Reisch Joan J

PloS one 20200213 2

The goal of our ongoing research is to identify strengths and weaknesses of high school level science fair and improvements that can help science educators make science fair a more effective, inclusive and equitable learning experience. In this paper, we confirm and extend our previous findings in several important ways. We added new questions to our anonymous and voluntary surveys to learn the extent to which students had an interest in science or engineering careers and if science fair partici ...[more]

PMID: 32053697

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Project description:Science fairs offer potential opportunities for students to learn first-hand about the practices of science. Over the past six years we have been carrying out voluntary and anonymous surveys with regional and national groups of high school and post high school students to learn about their high school science fair experiences regarding help received, obstacles encountered, and opinions about the value and impact of science fair. Understanding what students think about science fairs will help educators make science fairs more effective learning opportunities. In this paper, we focus on the findings with two national groups of post high school students-undergraduate research fellows (SURF students) who did research at UT Southwestern Medical Center during 2014-2019 and undergraduates biology students attending the 2019 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Alliance (SEA) summer symposium. About 25% of the students who completed surveys indicated that they had participated in high school science fair, but more than half attended high schools where science fairs were unavailable. Effectively, 6 out of every 10 students participated in science fair if available. Students who could have participated in high school science fair but chose not to do so identified not enough time and coming up with their project idea as major reasons why not. About half the SURF students favored requiring non-competitive science fair regardless whether they themselves had participated in science fair. On the other hand, less than 1 in 5 thought that competitive science fair should be required. Introduction to the scientific process and general learning were mentioned most frequently as the reasons to require non-competitive science fair; these reasons were mentioned rarely in connection with competitive science fair. Unlike the national cohort of high school students we surveyed previously, who mostly did science fair in 9th and 10th grades, SURF students participated in science fair throughout high school and were twice as likely as high school students to have carried out science fair more than once. In conclusion, our findings suggest that participation of the undergraduate bioscience majors in high school science fairs occurs far more frequently than recognized previously and provide insights into how these successful college students (gauged by the fact that they are doing summer science research) view science fairs. The findings emphasize further the importance of incentivizing rather than requiring science fair participation, especially in 9th and 10th grades, and the potential value of developing non-competitive science fairs.

Project description:The goal of our research is to identify strengths and weaknesses of high school level science fair and improvements that might enhance learning outcomes based on empirical assessment of student experiences. We use the web-based data collection program REDCap to implement anonymous and voluntary surveys about science fair experiences with two independent groups-high school students who recently competed in the Dallas Regional Science and Engineering Fair and post high school students (undergraduates, 1st year medical students, and 1st year biomedical graduate students) on STEM education tracks doing research at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Herein, we report quantitative and qualitative data showing student opinions about the value of science fair. Few students in any group thought that competitive science fair (C-SF) should be required. The most common reasons given for not requiring C-SF were no enjoyment and no interest in competing. On the other hand, student attitudes towards requiring non-competitive science fair (NC-SF) were nuanced and ranged as high as 91%, increasing with student maturation, science fair experience, and STEM track. The most common reasons given for requiring NC-SF were learning scientific thinking skills and research skills. Students opposed to requiring NC-SF most frequently mentioned no enjoyment and no interest in science. Several student comments critical of the fairness of science fair led us to determine possible differences in science fair experiences depending on whether or not students received help from scientists. Those who received help from scientists had an easier time getting their research idea, more access to articles in books and magazines, and less difficulty getting resources. We discuss the idea that two different types of science fairs-competitive science fair with a performance goal orientation and non-competitive science fair with a mastery goal orientation-might be required to promote the broad goal of educating all students about science and engineering.

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High school science fair: Positive and negative outcomes.

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High school science fair: Positive and negative outcomes.

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