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How to Create an Exceptional STEM Fair Experience

How to Create an Exceptional STEM Fair Experience. Kristen Winn Science and Engineering Coordinator. San Mateo County STEM Fair Goals. Create interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education Increase students interested in STEM Careers

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How to Create an Exceptional STEM Fair Experience

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  1. How to Create an Exceptional STEM Fair Experience Kristen Winn Science and Engineering Coordinator

  2. San Mateo County STEM Fair Goals Create interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math education Increase students interested in STEM Careers Increase the number of under represented students participating in the STEM Fair Foster school-community cooperation in developing the scientific potential and communication skills of tomorrow’s leaders.  Increase Scientific Literacy for students in San Mateo county Publicly recognize the achievements of talented science students, grades 5-12, in San Mateo County

  3. Ravenswood City School District Goals Hands-on projects/experiences enhance curriculum, awareness & engagement District staff will establish hands on projects and experiences that compliment the curriculum/standards and enhance awareness and engagement Share STEM projects learning at RCSD STEM Fair District staff will create RCSD STEM Fair to share STEM projects and learning in 6th-8th grade

  4. San Mateo County STEM Fair Background This is the 25th year for the San Mateo County Science Fair Last year we had 313 projects 5th – 12th grade 46 schools/districts represented 36 projects advanced to the California State Science Fair – 4 second place; 6 honorable mention; 1 Teacher of the Year!

  5. Core Teaching Standards and the STEM Fair How the STEM Fair project aligns to NGSS 8 Science and Engineering practices and the STEM Fair Project How the STEM Fair project aligns to CCSS in ELA and Math Webb’s Depth of Knowledge

  6. Why do STEM Fairs? Rigorous projects help students learn key academic content and practice 21st Century Skills Students will develop, and hopefully master, technical writing and reading skills which are key to fulfilling daily citizenship and parenthood duties Increases Science Literacy (Reading Writing, and Academic Discourse) in order to prepare all students for college, career, and citizenship

  7. Timeline Deadlines for forms: Scientific Review Committee (SRC) – February 1, 2014 Intent to Participate – District – December 13, 2013 Student Registration – Students – February 19, 2014 Handout: Suggested Timeline for Projects

  8. Choosing a Topic Students should be encouraged to choose something they care about or are genuinely interested in Try a few different things before deciding Something that matters to developing countries, disabled people, the environment Use a authentic notebook Do thorough background research

  9. Choosing a Topic A Science Research Project seeks to find new knowledge for the student at his/her appropriate grade level. A science project is one way of asking a question and answering it via the scientific method. One recent winning project asked, “What frequency of sound wave would travel through water with the least intensity?” An Engineering Project uses scientific principles to improve or create new applications. The project may be theoretical or an experimental study on a model. Computer Projects may deal with innovative programming, designing or improving applications, or improving hardware. An existing program may be improved to run faster and use less memory. A Mathematics Project deals with math not usually covered in the classroom. The project should represent a new point of view of a known topic.

  10. Background Research Find out what has been written about the topic recently Take notes on reading in notebook Record all information for a bibliograpy Use at least 5 reputable sources Use community partners, parents, scientists, teachers

  11. Developing a Hypothesis Statement of what they think will happen in the experiment and why Must do the background research in order to make an educated guess What kind of data will they need to determine if their hypothesis is correct How will they measure and record data They may need to do some preliminary experimenting to work out the bugs

  12. Experimental Design Materials Methods/Procedures Controlled Experimentation with few variables – independent variable and dependent variable A control group if possible Consistent measurements throughout the experiment Results and Data Collection Observations Data tables, Graphs

  13. Experimental Design Analysis of Data and Results Discussion of data Statistical analysis Conclusion Was the hypothesis supported by evidence (data)? Suggestions for further study So what? Real world application? References Section

  14. Common Mistakes in Experimentation Only doing one test, not enough trials Forgetting to include a control Did not control variables Too many variables Not keeping complete/accurate notes in notebook Incomplete or inaccurate data analysis

  15. Writing the Abstract Students will write an abstract and turn it in online during the student registration process. It will also be displayed with the project It is an abbreviated version of their science project limited to 250 words and should include: Introduction Objective or essential question (Hypothesis) Materials and Methods Results Conclusion/Discussion

  16. Project Categories & Display Guidelines Project categories have been revised to make categorization and check in easier Categories have been aligned to NGSS Disciplinary Core Ideas and California State Science Fair Display regulations are aligned to California Sate Science Fair

  17. The Presentation/Interview As part of the judging process, ALL students will be asked to explain their project to judges. Don’t just repeat the abstract. Organize and plan what will be said to the judges in the personal interview. Be clear and enthusiastic Dress prefessionally Include safety information Use metric Know the variables Check for all the special forms the project may require

  18. Things to Avoid Canned science experiments from websites Experiments that have been done a million times (i.e., pouring coke on anything, plants growing with or without fertilizer, different colors of light on plant growth, strength of paper towels, etc.). Experiments that are not meaningful or have no real world application

  19. Important Changes from Last Year Categories Judging process – all students get interviewed One day shorter Students have to submit an abstract with registration Emphasis on increasing Computer Science and Math category projects

  20. STEM Fair Resources STEM Fair Web page on SMCOE web site: http://goo.gl/mhuaiZ CSSF resources page: http://www.usc.edu/CSSF/ Synopsis Santa Clara website: http://www.science-fair.org/ Google and Google Scholar

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