High School Science Fair: Ethnicity Trends in Student Participation and Experience

AbstractIn this paper, we report ethnicity trends in student participation and experience in high school science and engineering fairs (science fairs). Science fair participation showed significant ethnic diversity. For survey students, the approximate distribution was Asian-32%; Black-11%; Hispanic-20%; White-33%; Other-3%. Black students made up only 4.5% of the students who participated in science fairs beyond the school-only level, whereas students from other ethnic groups were more equally represented. The lower percentage of Black students resulted from a combination of lower science fair participation and lower percentage of students advancing to science fairs beyond the school-only level. Students who advanced to science fairs beyond the school-only level frequently received help from scientists, coaching for the interview, and were not required to participate in science fair. Black students received the least help from scientists and were most likely to be required to do science fair. They also were most likely to receive no help from parents, teachers, or scientists. Asian and Hispanic students (63.8% and 56.8%) indicated greater interest in careers in science and engineering (S&E) compared to Black and White students (43.7% & 50.7%). The most important experiences that correlated with students indicating that science fair increased their interests in S&E were getting help from the internet and/or books and magazines; getting help fine tuning the report; and overcoming obstacles by doing more background research, making a timeline, and perseverance. Black students did not report a positive effect of any of these strategies but experienced time pressure as more of an obstacle than did other students. Our findings identify a wide range of student experiences associated with positive science fair outcomes that could be enhanced for all students but especially Black students. More involvement of scientists in helping science fair students would be particularly valuable.

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High school science fair: Experiences of two groups of undergraduate bioscience students

PLoS ONE ◽

10.1371/journal.pone.0252627 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 16 (6) ◽

pp. e0252627

Author(s):

Frederick Grinnell ◽

Simon Dalley ◽

Joan Reisch

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

High School Students ◽

Medical Center ◽

Science Research ◽

School Science ◽

Medical Institute ◽

High School Science ◽

Science Fair ◽

School Students ◽

Science Fairs

Science fairs offer potential opportunities for students to learn first-hand about the practices of science. Over the past six years we have been carrying out voluntary and anonymous surveys with regional and national groups of high school and post high school students to learn about their high school science fair experiences regarding help received, obstacles encountered, and opinions about the value and impact of science fair. Understanding what students think about science fairs will help educators make science fairs more effective learning opportunities. In this paper, we focus on the findings with two national groups of post high school students–undergraduate research fellows (SURF students) who did research at UT Southwestern Medical Center during 2014–2019 and undergraduates biology students attending the 2019 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Science Education Alliance (SEA) summer symposium. About 25% of the students who completed surveys indicated that they had participated in high school science fair, but more than half attended high schools where science fairs were unavailable. Effectively, 6 out of every 10 students participated in science fair if available. Students who could have participated in high school science fair but chose not to do so identified not enough time and coming up with their project idea as major reasons why not. About half the SURF students favored requiring non-competitive science fair regardless whether they themselves had participated in science fair. On the other hand, less than 1 in 5 thought that competitive science fair should be required. Introduction to the scientific process and general learning were mentioned most frequently as the reasons to require non-competitive science fair; these reasons were mentioned rarely in connection with competitive science fair. Unlike the national cohort of high school students we surveyed previously, who mostly did science fair in 9th and 10th grades, SURF students participated in science fair throughout high school and were twice as likely as high school students to have carried out science fair more than once. In conclusion, our findings suggest that participation of the undergraduate bioscience majors in high school science fairs occurs far more frequently than recognized previously and provide insights into how these successful college students (gauged by the fact that they are doing summer science research) view science fairs. The findings emphasize further the importance of incentivizing rather than requiring science fair participation, especially in 9th and 10th grades, and the potential value of developing non-competitive science fairs.

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High school science fair: Experiences of undergraduate bioscience majors

10.1101/2021.01.10.426070 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Frederick Grinnell ◽

Simon Dalley ◽

Joan Reisch

Keyword(s):

High School ◽

High School Students ◽

Medical Center ◽

School Science ◽

Medical Institute ◽

High School Science ◽

Science Fair ◽

School Students ◽

Science Fairs ◽

National Cohort

AbstractIn this paper, we report findings based on voluntary and anonymous surveys completed by post high school students on bioscience education trajectories -- summer undergraduate research fellows (SURF students) who were doing research at UT Southwestern Medical Center during 2014-2019 and biology undergraduates who participated in the 2019 Howard Hughes Medical Institute annual Science Education Alliance (SEA) summer symposium. About 25% of the students who completed surveys indicated that they had participated in high school science fair, but more than half attended high schools where science fairs were unavailable. Effectively, therefore, 6 out of every 10 students participated in science fair if available. Students who could have participated in high school science fair but chose not to do so identified not enough time and coming up with their project idea as major reasons why not. About half the SURF students favored requiring non-competitive science fair regardless whether they themselves had participated in science fair. On the other hand, less than 1 in 5 thought that competitive science fair should be required. Introduction to the scientific process and general learning were mentioned most frequently as the reasons to require non-competitive science fair; these reasons were mentioned rarely in connection with competitive science fair. Unlike the national cohort of high school students we surveyed previously, who mostly did science fair in 9th and 10th grades, SURF students participated in science fair throughout high school and were twice as likely as high school students to have carried out science fair more than once. Re-evaluation of the national cohort of high school students based on grade level showed that for those doing science fair in 12th grade, about 80% indicated that they were interested in careers in science or engineering up from 50% in 9th grade, and those uninterested in a career dropped from 35% to 3% over the same period. In conclusion, our findings show that participation of undergraduate bioscience majors in high school science fair occurs far more frequently than recognized previously. We emphasize the importance of incentivizing rather than requiring science fair participation and the potential value of developing non-competitive science fairs, especially for students in 9th and 10th grades.

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