Science Fairs and Inquiry Conferences

Education literature for science fairs and science education based on the inquiry method seldom include the value of school library collections and services. Mirah J. Dow, professor at the School of Library and Information management at Emporia State University, recently outlined the power of collaboration between science educators and school media professionals in the promotion of the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education standards. This support includes an active role for the school librarian in science fair project development—an active role that can expand across nearly the entire curriculum.

WHO AND WHAT

Dow defines the traditional steps of the scientific method and sorts these between two overall collaborative stages involving three populations: students, STEM educators, and the librarian.

• The Preparation Stage > Literature Context Research involving topic, observation, question(s), and hypothesis.
• The Experimental Stage > Data Context Research involving design, conduct of experiment, analysis of data, conclusions, and communication (or presentation of findings in written and oral formats) (18, 2011).

The Literature Context stage has grown in depth and importance in science fair project development over the past five years. Many fair guidelines and help sites now include expectations for students to be critical reviewers of previous studies and to draw from those a context for the methods, general state of the field, and the key leading names associated with the area of study relevant to the project’s topic. Science Buddies, for example, lists these reasons for establishing a background research plan:

• Learn the history of similar experiments or inventions.
• Define important words and concepts that describe your experiment.
• Help answer your background search questions.
• Identify and understand mathematical formulas, if any, needed to present results.
• Establish a network of experts who [through the literature and possible interview] will help you think about and plan your project (http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_background_research_plan.shtml).

MEANING AND CREDIBILITY IN THE BACKGROUND LITERATURE

Dow extends background literature compilation by adding resources and methods for wider information search and review processes. Any of these methods can greatly enhance the literature review and help to support the student’s growth in using more complex text resources. The result can be more depth in answering additional questions and a better educated student scientist who is knowledgeable in the discourse and vocabulary of the scientific field he has selected.

Shannon Brown and Jim Hilburt were graduate students in my online section of the Drexel University iSchool course, “The Instructional Role of Information Specialists” (Summer Term 2013). Their task was to develop an instructional plan that would further engage the school librarian in development and presentation of high school science fairs. This project culminated in their document, “Team E: Senior High Scientific Method.” A portion of what they developed included application of Delia Neuman’s I-LEARN process to the literature review (2011). The purpose was to draw out what the science fair student actually learned from the literature, not just the few items they may have located solely for the project. A new assessment instrument resulted, and they established a rubric to test for the student’s ability to apply knowledge from the literature:

• Information sources are credible, reliant, and timely.
• Information is corroborated from at least two credible sources.
• A thorough explanation demonstrating source credibility is provided.
• A thorough explanation either supporting proof or disproving the hypothesis is provided (Brown and Hilburt 2013).

Achieve Texas, a new initiative for college and health career education, has established clear steps for a practical and meaningful scientific literature review (http://www.achievetexas.org/). Such an exercise is important because the student has the opportunity to:

• determine the extent of the theory and research that have been developed in the field of study.
• identify the definition of concepts and variables that have already been established in the literature and examine the research designs, methods, instruments, measures, and techniques of data analysis.
• discover what is known and what remains to be learned in the field. Many times a study can be identified that can be replicated or whose findings might be compared or contrasted with the proposed research study.
• become aware of difficulties experienced by others that may save time or money, reduce chances for error, or identify new ethical issues.
• find a well-written article to use as a guide in writing his/her new research paper.

EXTENDING THE SCIENTIFIC CULTURE THROUGH CONFERENCES

While these literature review experiences are important, opportunities for students to experience additional environments can help create a scientific climate for the entire school. This increases the possibility at all grade levels that students gain a greater understanding of what scientists do and how the student’s own project relates to the projects and ideas of other students (Callison 2005).

Establishing these additional environments, either prior to or after science fair events, can lead to greater engagement of the school library staff, resources, and facilities. The coordinating and facilitating roles for the school library professional can result in events that gain the approval of both administrators and parents. The library becomes a learning lab for science in its many forms. It is not so much just for test tubes, but for testing resource content, understanding of intended message from practice student presentations, gathering data from interviews or guest speakers, and surveying for opinions. Scientists read, converse, think, and formulate ideas that are expressed at multiple levels of development, and these ideas are often revised through various interactions with others—informal and formal.

ELEMENTARY: THE KID’S INQUIRY CONFERENCE

Wendy Saul and her colleagues have initiated many field experiences in elementary schools in order to promote quality science books and science inquiry (2005). During her years as professor of education at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, she worked with area teachers to bring into action the concept “Kid’s Inquiry Conference.” The purpose was to create events constructed around student science projects that would allow elementary and middle school students the opportunity to present their projects to peers, parents, and other audiences. Ultimately, the events have made science projects visible and valued. Guest speakers, often local scientists, lead discussions about their profession—everyday issues and not isolated work in dark laboratories.

Saul has an extensive documented history of being a promoter of read-alouds and think-alouds as a means to generate questions. Sparking this questioning process is an essential role of teachers and librarians. Priming inquiry ranges from picture books at kindergarten (Mantzicopoulos and Patrick 2011) to introductions of juvenile literature (Bircher 2009): What if? Do you think this is possible? How would you solve this problem? Other such questions are constantly raised during interactions while nonfiction texts are read aloud. Questions that raise self-reflection, persistence, and determination are important, too: Did he find his answers with one experiment? Did others work on similar problems and did they share early discoveries that led to later and greater ones? What does it mean to be ethical in the study of animals?

Saul’s colleagues give numerous examples of how various children’s books can lead to discussions of “what scientists do.” Familiar titles are A Snake Scientist, Elephant Woman, and How to be a Nature Detective. Kent State Professor Emeritus Carolyn Brodie, a regular contributor to School Library Monthly with curricular connections to books for children, introduced the work of arachnologist Sam Marshall, a scientist who studies spiders and their eight-legged relatives (2005). According to Brodie, Dr. Marshall specializes in study of tarantulas, and while he may take expeditions to other countries, student scientists can envision science exploration in their own school yard (with proper safety precautions as Dr. Marshall would expect as well). Exploration locally can be as much an adventure as exploration globally. The point Saul and others emphasize is that science is much more than the final presentation.

An example of a Kid’s Inquiry Conference can be found on the Internet at the Pine Crest Lower School website. Photographs illustrate the typical event during which local scientists were invited to speak and to attend student presentations. Parents and siblings also came to hear and participate in science topic discussions. Paula Magee and Ryan Flessner from Indianapolis have managed several inquiry conferences for kids and have learned that conferences provide a noncompetitive environment where students gain a greater appreciation for the work ethic of local scientists (2011). Such a broader study of scientific methods and inquiry is in direct support of the National Science Education Standards (1996). International studies have shown that the sScience fair format, however, often falls prey to just meeting basic rules and mechanics of routine experiments. There is danger in a mismatch between the intended science fair inquiry curriculum and what the student actually experiences (Hume and Coll 2010).

SECONDARY: THE CULTURAL CONFERENCE

Science projects can obviously be used as the content for presentations and interactions on the high school level as well. The school library can often provide a variety of spaces for large and small group presentations, as well as a setting for display and examination of resource holdings ready to support student projects. Infographic posters, for example, designed by students to summarize major findings from their projects can be displayed in the library and hallways. The tie between scholarship and supporting resources and services can become very tangible.

Mike Printz is familiar to many school librarians because of the young adult literature award that carries his name. As a school library media director at Topeka, Kansas, in the 1960s through 1990s, he was a curricular innovator and leader in inquiry learning long before the concept became fashionable. His programs serve here as an example of how the concept inquiry conference can be much more than an alternative to science fairs.

Printz, in collaboration with dozens of his teachers, would create cultural celebrations based on student projects ranging from local oral histories to poetry and drama, sculptures and paintings, historic artifact displays, video and film productions, and biographical sketches of local leaders from various ethnic groups. Library forums and a Speaker’s Bureau organized by the library staff, provided guest speakers on rotating topics relevant to the culture being explored for the given term: Native Americans, African Americans, Jewish Americans, Mexican Americans, Chinese Americans, and others. It was a multi-disciplinary response to the expectation that public schools in Topeka should celebrate diversity. And celebrate they did at Topeka West High School—usually for a full week of presentations during each school day and evenings, centered in the school library and touching all study disciplines (Miller, Steinlage, Printz 1994).

Good, complex literature can generate inquiry. Just as the previous examples from the elementary level, Printz, at the secondary level, would spark the teacher and student projects based on a common core of literature that would be read and discussed by everyone—including principals and assistant principals. “Whole Language” is what some called it then, with a five-day conference experience that was recorded and shared widely with other schools over several semesters. “Inquiry” is what it is called now. No matter what it is called, students are given the opportunity and resources to investigate issues and topics of interest to them and others and a way to share them with others in a nonthreatening manner.