The Lowcountry Hall of Science and Math is pleased to announce the 2015 Lowcountry Regional Science and Engineering Fair for Tuesday March 24, 2015 at the TD Arena. Please mark this date on your calendar.
Given the new science standards and some research that has been done regarding science fair, we would like to slowly begin moving in a new direction. As such, we will be adding a new category this year: Problem-Based. This category will include projects that are whole class projects, structured around real-life problems – something relevant to the community and your students. They will be done in class as part of a science theme (this idea fits nicely with the science and engineering practices and the crosscutting concepts found within the new standards). Questions could be related to things like climate change/sea level rise, water pollution, invasive species, engineering new designs for renewable energy, etc. This list could go on and on. The goal however is to get students more engaged in and practicing scientific inquiry, using those important science and engineering practices:
- Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
- Developing and using models
- Planning and carrying out investigations
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Using mathematics and computational thinking
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
If you would like to pursue this route rather than the classic science fair (which is totally acceptable as well), I will be more than happy to help you and your students in any way that I can…determining a question, finding a scientist or engineer mentor (at a local College), obtaining equipment for collecting and analyzing data, etc. Please let me know! To participate in the regional science fair, you would need to select 2 students to represent your classroom at the fair. If the project wins, instead of the student(s) getting an award, the classroom would be get the award.
Again, there will be the classic science fair; however we would like to begin moving in a new direction. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of the new science standards and this new approach to science fair.