My objective is the third objective from unit one. It states: Propose experiments to answer questions about the process.
Whenever I think about experiments I think back to fifth grade when all of the classes participated in a science fair. The students were expected to pick a question and carry out their own experiment. At the end of the unit they displayed their findings at a Science Fair. I thought this was the best way to learn about the scientific process or asking questions and using science to find answers. In order to teach this objective I would want to put together a science fair for the children to participate in. However, I had no idea how to go about doing this. I decided to look for a tool that would help me know how to do a science fair. I found the website Science Fair Central. It is designed to do just that, help teachers put together a science fair. This website has a section dedicated to teachers. The teacher section or, science fair coordinator, has information on everything from why to do a science fair, to a list of what will need to be done, to judging criteria. The website lays everything out for a teacher so it does not matter if they have done a science fair or not it will tell them exactly what to do. This site is also useful because it has a parent section as well. It gives the parents ideas on how they can participate and help their child in the best way possible. This is important because all the children will be doing different projects and their parents will play a large role in helping them be successful in this assignment. Not only does the site guide parents in helping their child, it also gives different project ideas, the steps required to completing the project, and getting it ready for a science fair.
This tool is not my creation. Science fairs have been going on for many years now and I am not sure who came up with the idea. Putting together a science fair would be extremely difficult for me and I would greatly rely on this website to help me throw a successful science fair. The citation information for this website is:
“Science Fair Central,” retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/Getting-Started.html
I would use this site in many different ways. I would provide it as a resource to my students and parents to help them get ready for their projects. I would also use the science fair coordinator section as a resource to conducting the fair. I would use it to help me know how to get parents involved, set up the fair, and finally to judge it.
One of the main reasons I decided to use this site, is because it is very useful for many different people. The learners would include me (learning how to put on a science fair), parents (learning how to help their child be successful in this assignment), and finally the students who are learning to ask questions and test them to try to find a result or to come up with a logical conclusion. This website is self-explanatory and is very good at walking through the process of conducting a successful science fair or science experiment. The learners would not need a lot of previous knowledge to use this tool. In fact, it is good at helping people know exactly what they need to do. It would help them build that knowledge base. For the reason that this tool is so instructional, people with a little knowledge base could use the tool and it would even be a good resource for people with a strong knowledge base of experiments.
This tool would mainly be a resource. It would not be required for the students or parents; however, I think it would greatly benefit them. I would provide this resource to them at the beginning of the unit. It would be optional for them to use it or not. Yet, if they do choose to use it they are provided a step by step approach to completing the science project. As the teacher, I would use the website to help me know how to conduct the science fair. I would first read how to plan the science fair and get the students started. Next I would use it to help me know how to set up the actual fair. Finally I would use it as a resource to judging the fair.
There should not be any safety, legal, or ethical issues that go along with using this tool. This website is open for public use. Parents and students would be able to access it from school computers if they do not have a computer or internet at home. This resource would be accessible to all.
This site is very useful in helping me complete my objective in the manner I have planned. It provides many valuable resources that are set up in an organized fashion. It is easily navigated or user friendly. The website would help a teacher who has does not have previous science fair experience know exactly what they need to do in order to have a successful science fair. I believe that this tool would be very beneficial to elementary science teachers and provides all the components they would need to carry out the science fair. Not only was this site beneficial to teachers, it was more complete than what I expected. It not only provides the teacher with the necessary materials it also has a section for parents and students.
I have mixed feelings about the effectiveness of this tool for the objective. I think a science fair is very effective in helping students learn the process that scientists use. I also think it is very useful in getting students to ask questions and think of ways to test their questions. However, as the teacher you have to play an active role and make sure that the students are conducting accurate experiments. In other words you want to make sure that they are asking testable questions, the experiment is testing the question, they can get an accurate result through their test, and so forth. I believe that this site will help prevent problems in these areas but I also think it is important for the teacher to play an active role in assisting the children. Also, the effectiveness may vary with the different levels of learners that will be using it. However, overall I believe it will be effective.
This tool is a free website. The teacher, parents, and students will all need a computer with internet access in order to use it. However, most public schools provide this and so it should not be a problem. The website is very user friendly and easily directed. So while it will take time, I think that it would take less time to use than the alternative resources that may be available. It seems like all the information you need is compiled together and so it would save time in that manner. I think that the costs of using this tool in respect to other tools is justified and is much less than what they could be.