Go to a Science Fair! Seriously, it will recharge your sense of science wonder, it did mine!
I had the opportunity to judge a science fair at the Marine Military Academy in Chicago this morning. In between bites of bagel and cream cheese, I was given science reports to read in a conference room before I went to the library to see the students and their science posters. My first student, I was also his first judge, was really nervous. However, by the time I got to my third student, the students were warmed up, had improved their spiel, not to mention thinking about answers to questions that more than one judge asks.
So what did I talk to the students about? I was interested to find out where they got the idea to tackle the science problem they did, and how they decided on a particular experimental strategy. One student explained that he was reading the Chicago Sun-Times, and came across an article about how calcium chloride affected the grass in the winter; consequently in his experiment he watered grass with various concentrations of calcium chloride.
I wanted to hear about how the students decided what data to collect, how they should analyze, and interpret that data, and whether they had ideas about what additional data might settle any lingering questions. Another student whose science fair project was about plastic, made different plastics (glue being the variant material) to determine what plastic was the strongest. Although, she observed the various strengths of the plastic, she did not test them in any quantitative way. So I asked her how she would go about doing that. She was thinking about it, and said she would let me know (I am still waiting).
Of course, I also asked what parts of the Science Fair project were harder than they foresaw, or took unexpected turns. One student whose Science Fair Project was on peripheral vision, observed that for some people the color blue is easier to see than red, and that circles are easier to see than squares. She had some difficulty explaining why exactly this happened, but she threw out some great ideas. I still don't know.
All of the students in my judging group were really smart. They had thought a lot about their Science Fair projects, and they were all pretty good at talking me through them. As it turns out, the science reports were not reliable predictors of which students would be the most articulate. Some students clearly had their science epiphanies while I was standing in front of them, where, for example, they realized that they had stumbled upon an interesting and unanticipated tangle of causal factors, and were starting to think up clever strategies for teasing them apart. It was really neat to see this happen!
I had an amazing morning at the Science Fair (you all made my week), a big shout-out to all the students who participated! Go Science!
Author's Note: This article was posted to the Science Chicago blog by Heather, one of our correspondents.
Sources:
http://www.chicagojrotc.com/school_info/mma.jsp
http://www.suntimes.com/index.html
http://www.medterms.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=10638
Editor's Note: For more blogs from Dr. Rabiah, visit Science Chicago's website at: http://www.sciencechicagoblog.com
