Developing and Maintaining a Successful Science Fair Program
Hamilton Invitational Science and Engineering Fair (HISEF)
Sponsored by
Intel
Hamilton High School
Chandler Unified School District # 80
Copyright 2009 HISEF - T. Clark
Shop Talk Goals Present a unique concept for hosting a district
science fair
Give novel ideas to involve community support and gain participation
Discuss curriculum and other ideas for long term maintenance of your program
Three Program ComponentsI. Science Fair Event
Student accountability
II. Community Involvement Mentors Judges Funding Volunteers
III. Supporting Curriculum Maintain the program Program success and accountability Research class
HISEF Background 1998-1999 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
• 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
Announcing The Event
Determine a name for your event Select a date Select a theme (start looking for the guest
speaker) Determine who is invited and how many
projects each site can send Notify and invite other schools to participate
Registration
Create a timeline that works for your school and district.
Publish this information in September and continue to publish the project due dates, judging criteria and procedures each month.
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
Police/Fire Department Electric and other Utility Companies Intel Microchip Community Colleges and Universities US Army and Navy City Of Chandler
Inviting Community Exhibits
Call everyone you want to invite and obtain verbal confirmation.
Mail information about the event and a survey sheet to determine needs:
Space Electricity Tables Special 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
Newspapers Flyers go home with every student Postcards to local community VIP
School Board Members City Council VIPS in Community Principals
Volunteers
Determine what areas you will need volunteers Judges Set up Decorating, balloons, table skirts,
signage, Check in winners Tag Projects with participation ribbons
Judges
Find organizations that have grant match programs for volunteer time
Work with your financial contributors Community Colleges University graduate and undergraduate
programs Local Rotary Club, Lions Club, Kiwanis Club,
Lady Sun Birds
Judges Continued
Retirement Communities Build a Student Alumni Data Base AP Students make great judges for our
Elementary Schools Get a Buddy School Science Cadre Members
Volunteers Cont.
Direct students and teachers dropping off projects
Welcome visitors Working booths Welcoming and directing judges Registration
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 T-Shirt/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 Special Awards are offered by outside
organizations Opportunity to move forward and compete at the
Arizona Science and Engineering Fair.
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 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 all planning parties involved.
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. (Even if they are not assigning student projects)
Develop a team to problem solve issues that seem to cause the most stress.
Long Term Management Preventing Teacher Burnout
Team develops department reference manuals, criteria, web based lesson plans, etc. for department teachers to use.
Team presents solutions to the other teachers for department by in.
When hiring science teachers take into consideration their willingness to contribute to the mission. Hold them to their word.
Long Term Management Preventing Teacher Burnout
Find ways to reward your team and other department participants.
Trip to Intel ISEF
Brag about your school and district accomplishments in newspapers and givethem credit for their hard work
Thank you letters from Principals or District Superintendents
Questions and Discussion