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February 28, 2017

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Home » Feature » Education

Expo events put student skills to the test

By Martin Mavec | February 28, 2017, Tuesday | Print Edition

IT’S that time of the year again for the annual Science Expo. The primary objective of the Science Expo is to have students approach a problem scientifically and present it to the public. This includes: asking questions and forming hypotheses, creating experiments to test those hypotheses, organizing data and drawing conclusions, and writing about scientific research

Usually the project must be experimental in nature, but sometimes it can also be research-oriented from the science unit the grade level is currently studying. In other words, students must do a test, survey, or experiment to determine the answer to their question, or they are required to do in-depth research on a specific topic.

Our ability to solve present and future problems depends on our ability to question the world in new and creative ways. With our knowledge of the world growing so rapidly, we must move away from having our children simply memorize facts. Computers can do that much better and more efficiently. Instead, we must emphasize the thinking skills that can put those facts to use and the skills to organize new facts as they emerge.

What better opportunity for a child to develop such skills than to participate in his or her school’s science fair! The thinking skills a child develops while doing a Science Expo project are the same basic skills he or she will use daily throughout their life — to identify problems and find creative solutions to those problems.

In addition to providing students with practical research skills, Science Expos provide students with an opportunity to participate in an enjoyable hands-on activity in an area of interest outside the classroom.

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