Hamilton Invitational Science and Engineering Fair (HISEF) Sponsored by Intel Hamilton High School Chandler Unified School District # 80 Anatomy of a Science Fair Developing and Maintaining a Successful Science Fair Program
Jan 28, 2016
Hamilton Invitational Science and Engineering Fair (HISEF)
Sponsored by Intel
Hamilton High SchoolChandler Unified School District # 80
Anatomy of a Science Fair
Developing and Maintaining a Successful Science Fair Program
Science Fair Goals
Present a sustainable concept for hosting a district science fair
Give novel ideas to involve community support and gain participation
Discuss curriculum alignment and other ideas for long term maintenance of your program
Three Program ComponentsI. Science Fair Event
Student accountabilityII. Community Involvement
Mentors Judges Funding Volunteers
III. Supporting Curriculum Maintain the program Program success and accountability Research class
History of HISEF1998-1999 School Year
“Dare To Dream”
• No CUSD Schools participated in school science fairs. No CUSD Student has ever been selected to compete at ISEF.
• In 1999 HISEF was born with the theme “Dare to Dream”
• 650 students competed in HISEF.
• 27 students competed at CARSEF; 5 students placed. None were selected to go to ISEF.
We now primarily compete on the National and International Levels, to include such competitions as:
• Intel ISEF• National Junior Science and Humanities
Symposium• International BioGENEius Challenge• Stockholm Junior Water Prize Competition
In the last eight years, CUSD has had Forty one Intel ISEF Finalists
I. Science Fair Component
• Establish a team
• Develop a purpose or mission statement for your Science Fair Program.
• Use the science fair event as a pathway to teach students the scientific process and foster young scientist
• Gain community support and participation
• Gain interest and participation at the younger grade levels
• Gain support of your governing board
• Foster and maintain community relationships
Announcing The Event
Determine a name for your event Select a date and venue Start looking for the guest speaker(s) Determine who is invited and how many
projects each site can send
Registration
Create a timeline that works for your school and district.
The Science Fair team should work with school liaisons (cadre members) who help disseminate the information to teachers
II. Community Support Component
Make the fair interactive for all age groups. (Parents, siblings, retired communities, local industry)
Have your guest and participants experience science.
Find ways to involve all types of students Find programs and key individuals in your
schools that can contribute to the experience
School Exhibits
Technology displays Science Club Student orchestras and choirs (4-12) AP Chemistry Magic Show Robotics Club FFA (Future Farmers of America) Biotechnology Academy
Community Exhibits
Intel SRP City of Chandler Police/Fire Department Electric and other Utility Companies Community Colleges and Universities
Inviting Community Exhibits
Call/email everyone you want to invite and obtain confirmation.
Mail information about the event and a survey sheet to determine needs:
SpaceElectricityTablesSpecial arrangements
Mail final confirmation and a map of their location at the site of the event
Gain Financial Support
Determine the cost of your event
Market your ideas and arrange meetings with potential industry and their Public Affairs Officers.
Write grants to local companies that are known to support public education
Determine how much money your district and school are willing to contribute
Advertising to the Public
District Webpage Newsletters Local newspapers Emails School websites
Volunteers
Determine what areas you will need volunteers Judges Set up Decorating, balloons, table cloths/skirts, signs,
check-in participants Tag Projects with participation ribbons Backpack/prize prep
Volunteers
Direct students and teachers dropping off projects
Welcome visitors Working booths Welcoming and directing judges Registration – utilize science departments and
cadre members
Judges
Find organizations that have grant match programs for volunteer time
Work with your financial contributors Community Colleges University graduate and undergraduate
programs
Network, network, network!
Volunteers and Judges Continued
Create electronic data bases to keep track of your volunteer
Electronically send out information related to the event: Shift Time and Date Job Descriptions Parking Information Judging Criteria Contact Information
Setting Up For the Event
When the doors open make sure all judging is complete
Have someone make periodic announcements about the different activities and their start times.
Greeters welcome visitors and pass out programs for the event.
Awards Ceremony
Create an agenda with all parties involved and what their parts are.
Involve your school AV department or club to help with the lights, microphones, music, video, etc.
Use the awards templates for the PowerPoint and the announcer at the podium.
Ask a student in Photography class to take pictures of the winners.
Awards and Incentives
Every student participant gets: HISEF Participation Ribbon HISEF Backpacks Give away items from financial supporters
Student Awards
We don’t want students to compete for monetary or extrinsic rewards
Ribbons Best of Fair Plaques for Physical and Biological
Sciences Intel Innovation Award City of Chandler Water Wise Special Awards are offered by outside
organizations Opportunity to move forward and compete at the
Arizona Science and Engineering Fair. (AzSEF)
III. Curriculum and Long Term Management
Build student research into your core content science courses
Create an Independent Science Research course Keep key students Interested Allows the teacher and the students to work
on authentic research without the pressures of a regular classroom or school work.
Increases project quality
Long Term Management Improving Project Quality
Provide lesson plans or teacher workshops Provide excellent student models models
for both teachers and students Inform everyone including students of your
goal Host student workshops at your school or
site Teacher Experts host specialized
workshops (Example - Microbiology)
Long Term Management Improving Project Quality
Evaluate the overall quality of your student projects that are present at the fair.
Find one area that really needs improvement over all others.
Develop a plan to help teachers increase quality in this area.
Long Term ManagementPreventing Teacher Burnout
Conduct a post evaluation of the event with SF team.
Don’t do all the work alone or assign this task to just one individual.
Give everyone in your department an assigned duty. They need to be part of the mission.
Contact Information
Debbie Nipar
AP Chemistry Teacher, HHS
Research Facilitator
(480) 883-5000
Debbie Crane
Honors Chemistry Teacher, HHS
HISEF Co coordinator, HS Liaison
(480) 883-5000Jennifer Gutierrez
Instructional Specialist
K-12 Science Facilitator
HISEF Co coordinator, District Liaison
(480) 224-3764
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Questions and Discussion