This document provides information about coordinating and conducting a school science fair. It discusses the benefits of science fairs for students, including promoting critical thinking and inquiry-based learning. It outlines the key steps for organizing a science fair, such as establishing a planning committee, setting deadlines, recruiting judges, and ordering prizes. The goal is to make the science fair experience as realistic as possible to encourage student interest in science.

1. SCIENCE FAIR
AND
EXHIBITIONS
Submitted by,
Arun.R.S
Roll.No.18114368002
Natural Science
Kaviyattu College

2. INTRODUCTION
A science fair experiment and exhibitions are
generally a competition where contestants present their science
project results in the form of a report, display boards and models that
they have created. Science fairs allow students in the elementary,
middle and high school to compete in science and or technological
activities.
Science fairs are started by William Emerson
Ritter and Edward W. Scripps in 1942 as “The science Talent Search” for
high school students. The first ever American National Science fair was
won by Alan. J. Fletcher when he has 18, who demonstrated the laws of
motion in 1950 Pennsylvania.

3. ` SCIENCE FAIR
Science fair was first become popular in the
early 1950’s, with the ISEF, then known as National Science fair.
Interest in the sciences was at a new high after the world witnessed the
use of the first atomic weapons and the dawn of television. As the
cascade progressed, science stories in the news, such as Jonas Salks
Vaccine for the polio and the launch of sputnik, brought science friction
to reality and attracted increasing numbers of students to science fair.
Science fair projects are normally intented
to demonstrate scientific concepts on a small scale and often relate to
green energy or student health. For example frequent science fair
projects are how much water it takes to leave the water on while
brushing your teeth, or what happens when you leave soda in a cup of
soda. Science fair projects normally have to have a purpose, hypothesis,
independent variable, dependent variable, experiment results and a
conclusion and are normally intended to teach students about the
scientific method.
Gracia points to the process of elimination
as a factor which may discourage students from taking the interest in
the sciences. He claims that traditional science fairs, as well as
programs like the Westinghouse Science Honours Institute, place too
much focus on the competition, a charge which the science fair
supports on such by pointing to the real life competitive nature of
awarding scientific grands and events the Nobel.
A related source of criticism is the tendency
for an inordinate amount of parental contribution to the projects,

4. especially of winning projects. In the desire to see their children win the
competition. Many parents direct to see their children to choose
projects far above a secondary school student’s capacity for
understanding. Therefore, the parent or a connection of the parent
with the scientific or technical expertise will direct the development
and the execution of the project for the students, but also provides an
unfair advantage to the students whose parents have the technical
connections and the financial resources to invest in these projects.
Often prizes in science fair do not go to the
best science, but to technology that is currently fashionable [green
technology or health related currently projects]. Judges often over
compensable for the possibility of parental involvement and
downgrade advanced students who do work beyond what most of their
peers and capable. Additionally, most students find science fair to be
excessively stressful.
Science fair and exhibitions are conducted
mostly in science related educations. Science education is the field
concerned with sharing science content and process with individuals
not traditionally considered on the part of scientific community. The
learners may be children, college students or adults within the general
public. The field of the science education includes work in science
content, science process, [The scientific method]. Some social science
and some teaching pedagogy. The standards for the science education
provide expectations for the development of understanding for
students through the entire course of their k-12 education and beyond.
The traditional subjects included in the standards are the physical, life,
earth, space and in human science.
Scientific experiment is a procedure that carried
out to verify, refute, or establish and the validity of a hypothesis.

5. Experiment provide insight into the effect by demonstrating what
outcome occurs when a particular factor is manipulated. Experiments
vary greatly in the goal and scale, but always rely on the repeatable
procedure and the logical analysis of the results. There also exist
natural experimental studies.
Scientific method is a body of techniques for
integrating the phenomena, acquiring new knowledge or correcting and
integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific method of
inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject
to the specific principle of reasoning. It is a method or procedure that
has characterized natural science since the 17th
century, consisting a
systematic observation, measurement and experiment and the
formulation, testing and the modification of hypothesis.

12. COORDINATION AND
CONDUCTION
In a school science fair, individual students
or small groups of students work together on a science project. While
the topic of choice can be mandated by the teacher or grade level, the
most successful science fair projects will be due to the student’s
interest in a particular topic by the students. Usually science fairs are
grouped into three broad, main grade level, elementary, middle /junior
high and high school level. Depending upon your school/grade
involvement, the science fair can be solely for one grade level with the
competition between the entire school with appropriate age/grade
level categories. If you trend to work with upper grades, you can divide
the science fair by topic .

13. KEY TO SUCCESS
For a school science fair, we need a committee of solid
volunteers including other science teachers, parents and even scientists
and engineers and in the community. By including this range of people,
you are sure to cover all of science standards required by the state as
well as having the people to do clerical/data entry work and technical
people to do the judging.
Another important point is that you want to
make the science fair, no matter how small, as realistic as possible. A
note through you should you choose to let your school is to be a
jumping point to send kids to a city/country science fair or to the
International Science and engineering fair, you will need to follow the
rules provided by ISEF.
To find the judge, you will need to make a few
phone calls, but usually industrial scientists and engineers are more
than willing to help the sponsor and judge science fair projects check
the first among some of the parents in your school to see if there any
technical people among that pool. Check with local colleges and the
universities for undergraduate and graduate students in these
categories usually need to service hours for their organizations in our
city to judge.
If someone within the parent volunteers, schools or science or
engineering industry offers to a set up for the database with the
student projects and information do it. This will make your life much
easier in the end when you are tallying scores for prizes. Publicity is
always important, whether the science fair is one grade level or the
entire school with your city newspaper and convenience them to
include an article and pictures.

14. STEPS FOR COORDINATION
AND CONDUCTION
Choose a chair person that he will oversee the entire science fair.
Solicit volunteers for the committee.
At the first planning, meeting, set the dates and deadlines for the
science fair, including the date of the science fair, set up and take
down of the projects, deadlines for the student topic/projects
submission. Decide if you will need to provide the project board
or if the students will need to use their own. Also, work with the
school principal and teachers to determine if grades will be
involved with the projects, if the projects should follow and the
rules. Be sure to consider the venue for the content paying careful
attention to the amount of display space and the number of
tables available. Allow a table for each project as well as tables for
clerical or administrative needs. Draw a layout plan and
determine the number of volunteers needed to manage each
area.
Once the layout and rules have been established, create an
information sheet to distribute students and parents about the
science fair stating general information and the projects
guidelines. Be sure that stipulate any safety related restrictions.
Begin to recruit judges at least 3 months prior to the science fair.
Be sure to keep them updated with reminder at the beginning of
each month, the week before and the week of judging. It is the
better to accept what you feel will be lost almost too many

15. judges. Schedules do change at the backup judge. It is also
considerable to give the judge projects in his or her area of
specialty. Ask the judge for any preferences in advance and then
have a list to prepared to email beforehand to him or her for
review.
Establish the guidelines for how the students are to submit, set up
and represent their projects. Distribute the guidelines as well as a
floor to the students and their teachers in advance.
Order any prizes and establish a method for printing certificates.
It may take a couple of weeks for the prizes or certificate paper to
arrive. Be sure to generate certificates or letters of appreciation
to present your volunteers.

16. BENEFITS FROM THE
INVOLVEMENT
By coordinating a school science fair, you will be helping students to
think outside the box. Science fair projects provide students
opportunity to think critically and address their interest through
inquiry-based learning. Family and community involvement, students
success and the school recognition are all benefits from a school
science fair.
Science fair projects can be really exciting, especially now with all the
opportunities that the internet gives us. Most kids know how to use the
computer for fun and spend a lot of hours in a week for surfing the
internet. As parents we should like to encourage them to use some of
their computer time for school work and for educational projects,
researching the scientific studies and scientific methods is certainly a
good use of their time.
But in addition there are many other great reasons for
encouraging your children to do science fair projects. A science fair
project is an activity that integrate almost every skill children have been
taught. Students must learn how to apply their exiting abilities to new
areas as well as learn many new skills. A science fair projects can
involve reading, logical thinking, writing, grammar and spelling,
mathematics, statistics and the data analysis, IT and graphic arts as well
as scientific methodology. If a student participate in a formal
competition, then they will also practice public speaking and learn how
to explain and defend their work in front of a panel of judges.

17. Participating in science fair projects helps to develop a feeling of
confidence and competence among students and fosters a spirit of
scientific inquiry. Projects usually involve the scientific questions that
the student is interested in and a specific topic that have chosen for
themselves. Participants must research their questions, learn and and
apply the scientific method to create a valid experiment and think
about the meaning of their results. Kids get so immersed in their
project that they forget about other factors like prizes or the fact that
they forget about other factors like the prizes or the fact that they are
actually learning new skills. Science fairs are also a way for students to
demonstrate motivation, self learning, ethics and other important skills
and traits.
A science fair is a n experience that can be challenging and self
validating. Many students do the important research and discover
previously unknown facts. Many science fairs offer cash prizes which
can be significant incentive for some people. They also help to open the
doors of academic opportunity for students. Winners at regional fairs
receive recognition for their work and gain the right to participate at
the state level and at a higher level competitions.
Some of those kids qualify for the
international competitions at the annual Intel International Science and
engineering fair. Here the level of cash prize is significant. In addition
those whose projects qualify for the international competitions are
judged by the best in the world. Top scientists and the people from the
industry. These kinds of things do immersible good for the confidence
of the student and certainly encourage them further in all of their
activities.

18. CONCLUSION
Science fair projects can be really exiting, especially
now with all the opportunities that the internet gives us. Most
kids know how to use the computer for fun and spend many time.
Science fair programmes is an activity that integrates all the skill
of children can be taught and developed. It also develops to
develop a feeling of confidence and competence among the
students and fosters a spirit of scientific inquiry. It also helps to
develop a challenge and self validating mentality of students. It
helps in the entire development of the student through their
leadership quality, communication skill, observation skill,
observation skill and so on.