CHEYENNE - Laramie County School District 1 is set to see a shorter timeline for science fairs this year.The district's science fair has been moved from mid-March, when it took place last year, to January, district science curriculum coordinator Melanie Fierro said.'When our fair occurred in March, the regional and state fair had concluded by the time our kids went to district,' she said. 'So for our sixth-grade winning students, there was no higher level of competition.'The new timeline will allow winning sixth-grade students to move on to the junior category at the regional science fair in February, she said.'They have the chance to really engage in the scientific thought process, and they're gaining a wealth of experience,' she said. 'It's about being engaged in the inquiry process, and it's about sharing information.'The district had already made some changes to how projects were classified last year in order to align with other levels of competition, she added.There may be some challenges with the tighter timeline, Fierro said. But the projects are still important, she said.'It requires more motivation on a student's part, and it requires them to be more focused and independent for themselves,' she said. 'More of the onus is on them.'At the building level, district changes have been prompting some conversations.In at least one elementary school, a survey is going out to parents regarding what they'd like to see the science fair be going forward, Anderson Principal Jim Fraley said.'We're in discussion about what we're going to do about science fair,' he said.The results of the discussion and survey would only affect the school's fair, not the district one, he said.The school puts time, effort, money and volunteer hours into having its fair and judging it, he said.'We have put a lot of money into it in the past, and put a lot of man hours into it with teachers and volunteers,' Fraley said. 'They do a wonderful job, but we know it's a lot of time commitment, especially for parents at home - they spend a lot of time with science fair.'There have been some complaints in past years about how much time is involved, he said.'We're going to put out a survey to parents to get their input, but one of the options is do away with the science fair,' he said. 'Another option would be to scale down and do a classroom-level fair or keep it as it is.'To meet the timeframe put in place by the earlier district science fair, the school's fair would have to be done before the December break, he said.Last year's Anderson Elementary fair had about 120 entries, though students in fourth grade are sometimes required to take part.'We want to increase the passion kids have about science,' Fraley said.If the traditional school science fair isn't helping with that, then it is time to look for something else, he said.'We thought it would be a good time to take a look at our practices at the building level,' Fraley said.
Published on: Thursday, Sep 25, 2014 - 11:14:38 pm MDT
Education Reporter
Entities 0 Name: Fraley Count: 3 1 Name: Fierro Count: 1 2 Name: Melanie Fierro Count: 1 3 Name: Anderson Principal Jim Fraley Count: 1 4 Name: Anderson Elementary Count: 1 5 Name: Laramie County School District Count: 1 6 Name: CHEYENNE Count: 1 7 Name: MDT Aerin Curtis Education Count: 1 Related Keywords 0 Name: fair Score: 64 1 Name: science Score: 41 2 Name: fraley Score: 40 3 Name: district Score: 33 4 Name: said Score: 24 5 Name: school Score: 20 6 Name: sixth-grade Score: 20 7 Name: timeline Score: 19 8 Name: fierro Score: 18 9 Name: students Score: 16 Authors Media Images 0
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