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A Global Paradigm Shift in Science Fairs
Science fairs are exciting, hands-on, competitive-collaborative ventures that remain in the memory of middle school students long after they have forgotten the content of those typical school science lessons. During the 1980s the American School in Israel (WBAIS) conducted traditional science fairs each year, but the logistics of storing the projects, finding qualified judges, and commandeering the gym to display the tri-fold boards (with the PE staff glowering in the background) became problematic, and the annual science fair faded into a fond memory.
When Stuart Fleischer, veteran middle school science teacher, envisioned reviving the science fair at the WBAIS, he was faced with the same set of obstacles; however, he recognized that today’s middle schoolers are growing up in a digital environment vastly different from twenty years ago. Today, students easily master the technologies of chat, instant messaging, blogs, streaming video and e-mail, and a “virtual” science fair using internet technologies and digital tools was not such a daunting task.
Utilizing the powerful online tools provided by the Blackboard™ interactive software, Dr. Fleischer developed a “virtual” science fair with student projects hosted online with digital images and streaming video. While eliminating some of the logistical problems of the traditional science fair, this virtual fair tapped into the communicative potential of the web. E-Mentors skilled in science discussed the development of the project with teams of students throughout the design, research, experimental, and analytical phases of their projects. Using an e-dairy, the student reported and reflected on the process. Qualified e-judges (scientists and science education professors) interviewed the students and assessed their projects online.
To increase expectations that their students could guide their own learning, Dr. Fleischer with collaborative help from technology educators such as Kenny Paynter, Director of the NESA (Near East South Asia Coucil of Overseas Schools) Virtual School initiative, Brian Turner, technology specialist at The American International School in Muscat, and Dr. Randy Spaid, Associate Professor of Science Education at Mercer University, U.S.A, designed a new type of science fair that reflects today’s reality, the age of communication and collaboration. The embedding of e-learning tools into the traditional science fair fostered self and group-directed student inquiry and investigation. In this learning environment, scientific habits of mind were nurtured, and the tools and tactics for manipulation of information, discovery, generation of artifacts, and sharing of science knowledge were highlighted. Students were encouraged to investigate science problems at multiple levels of complexity, thereby deepening their understanding of scientific concepts. The NESA Virtual Science Fair is helping middle school science students in nine NESA Schools and one AISA (Association of Independent Schools in Africa) school to develop and design more authentic, “global” science investigations, reflect on skills used to manage their own learning, address misconceptions in their thinking, and categorize inquiries around themes and concepts.
The NESA Virtual Science Fair (NVSF) team began enhancing the traditional idea of researching a problem for a science project by adding pedagogical methods and instructional technologies to support such an enhancement or transformation to accommodate this future learning environment. These included new and creative approaches for students and teachers to learn utilizing sophisticated digital tools and Internet resources. E-learning tools refer to Internet-based programs designed for instructional purposes, such as interactive multimedia displays, threaded electronic messaging, chat, and email. The NVSF coordinators (the e-team as they are called) specifically looked at the development of strategies for web-based collaborative environments that support a group of learners in achieving a common learning goal.
The NESA Virtual Science Fair (NVSF) allows students to shift from the traditional science fair, which is totally physical in nature to a hybrid science fair which allows for virtual modes. Using "Blackboard™", which is currently used in many NESA schools, as the platform to create virtual communities of schools and virtual regions will lend to a more transformative view wherein students can use the power of e-learning and to enhance their “hands-on” science skills above and beyond the realm of the lab: sharing and interacting with both other students in other schools and with experts in science, academia and professional life. This is a middle school based program with the help of Blackboard™ has become a model project that can cross geopolitical borders in the Middle East and allow students from over 60 countries to participate in a scientific research and multi-cultural exchange project. Presently a group of 8th grade girls from WBAIS-Israel and AS Dubai are participating as one team and collaborating via e-mail, Blackboard™ and Skype to complete a jointly designed experiment. They are interested to see if two research groups in two different parts of the world following a strict protocol can come up with the same results.
Teaching in American International Schools in foreign countries generally precludes those schools from participating in a local event due to language problems and non-association which the host country’s department of education. Secondly in the Middle East, students can’t participate across some geopolitical borders and have inter-national competitions due to safety, travel restrictions or political issues. Creating a virtual science fair that is semi-physical and supported by e-learning tools on the internet can solve the above issues and allow students to share ideas and research, compete and learn from the rich resources available through Blackboard™’s e-learning tools. The most powerful tool of the project is to provide each student with a private research mentor (e-mentor). Using the discussion board (e-diary) in Blackboard™, students collaborate on their project with an e-mentor. Over 50 U.S. and other global universities are providing e-mentors through their science education departments to support the students during the research phase of the project (scientists in marine biology, molecular biology, chemistry, astrophysics are but a few of the additional e-mentors collaborating with our students. E-mentors are also participating from Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Pacific Region creating an entirely rich and dynamic global net of collaboration.
In designing the NVSF, a team of highly motivated and experienced science teachers  began to develop the objectives, goals and initial protocols for the NVSF. With an OSAC grant of $25,000 and the support of Dr. Bea Cameron, The Office of Overseas Schools, Department of State, the first NVSF Consortium meeting was held in Cairo during the fall of 2005. The primary objective to the NVSF is to allow experiential learning for the middle school student. The primary goal of the NVSF is to expand our student’s knowledge of science and transform their science habits of mind (i.e., learning how to think like a scientist), provide a motivation for the students to commit themselves to their research project through interaction with e-mentors who are knowledgeable in the field of science and have teaching skills, thereby expanding the options for potential career paths in science. Online mentoring supports much of what is currently known about how individuals learn, including the socially–constructed nature of learning and the importance of experiential, situated learning experiences.
According to constructivist theory, learning is most effective when situated in a context in which new knowledge and skills will be used and individuals construct meaning for themselves but within the context of interaction with others. Students are required to develop their Blackboard™ site to become an active archive of their science research and above all to support collaboration and communication with their e-mentor. The e-mentors can facilitate learning by modeling problem-solving strategies, guiding learners in approximating the strategies while learners articulate their thought processes. The e-mentors coach learners with appropriate scaffolds or aids, gradually decreasing assistance as learners internalize the process and construct their own knowledge and understanding. These processes are reflected in the mentor’s roles of guide, adviser, coach, motivator, facilitator, and role model within a contextual setting of NVSF. Functioning as experts, e-mentors provide authentic, experiential learning opportunities as well as an intense interpersonal relationship through which social learning takes place.
The NVSF uses Blackboard™ in two unique ways to present content and aid in organization of material. In the traditional sense of a science fair, students collect information in a physical journal from the experiment and then display this material on a placard. The students then wait for judges to arrive and show their traditional placard and explain their experiment. The NVSF transforms the way teachers and students have viewed the physical science fair. Students are assigned their own Blackboard™ course which becomes their “Virtual” placard that is no longer static but highly interactive. The research journal now appears under several different headings:
Interim reports – students upload interim reports on the progress of their experiment during each of the main three phases (development of idea and construction of equipment, data gathering from experiment and analysis of data to form conclusions.
Photogallery – contains additional pictures not embedded directly in an interim report or referenced from an interim or final report. This photogallery contains digital stills and video.
Final report- this section allows the research group (1-3 students) to construct a final report on their experimental research.
In each of the three cases above, the information posted is available to additional members of the research team. The supporting teacher can check work and ask for changes or clarification. The e-mentors, which collaborate with the research team, have additional research to review from the students thereby giving them more resources to comment and facilitate learning through the e-diary (discussion board). The e-judges are allowed to enter the site prior to the competition date. This allows for better preparation by the judges and a better question and answer session during the competition (asynchronous).
The engagement process of the NVSF becomes a transparent process. Engagement must happen at all levels of the research and competition and by numerous stakeholders. At the end of the 2005/06 NVSF competition, over 25 Mb of e-diary data was collected and archived for study. With 205 teams participating, over 2,000 threaded discussions between the e-mentor and the student research team were counted. Even more important was the remarkable power of the e-diary, students returned to re-read their discussions with their e-mentor over 10,000 times. If these were verbal communications with their local science teacher, the richness of dialogue would probably have been diminished.
During the analysis of these threaded discussions, the following seven instructional methods were observed by mentors and their mentees;
Modeling– Mentors showing their mentees how to think plan and revise an experiment similar to that of a scientist.
Training - Mentees attempt to mimic expert skills,
Scaffolding – Mentors apply "scaffolding" techniques in the form of support for learners, so that they can become more self sufficient in their exploration.
Departure – As the mentees become more proficient in developing their ideas and strategic planning of their research, the mentor becomes much less of a focal point
Articulating – The mentors help the students articulate what they are trying to say or how to express and convey information.
Reflecting - The mentors help the mentees look back over their problem solving process.
Discovering - Mentees are encouraged to find new approaches to problem solving.
Further Analysis by Dr. Randy Spaid through an exit survey by students after the completion of the NVSF, preliminary evaluations of informal teacher conversations through email and during the 2006 Bangkok and Bahrain review meetings, anecdotal feedback from the e-mentors, and archived interactions between e-mentors and students using a the e-diary inside the Blackboard™ site, it appears that the NVSF e-mentoring program has been very successful in assisting students to become more “proactive learners.” Mentors noted that they have really enjoyed working with their science fair team of students; teachers have noted that have seen quite a change in their students after being involved in this program; finally, students have noted that they have enjoyed participating in this program and are more interested in their science class inquiry activities. Results from the exit survey and discussions with the NVSF teachers also showed the NVSF had an impact on the following:
Improved writing skills
Increase in self-directed learning
Improved critical thinking skills
Increase teamwork
Increased desire to become a proactive learner
Increase in knowledge of the workplace/career awareness
Increase in integration of knowledge across subject areas and interest
Increase in the desire to go to college
Improved subject grades
Improved science comprehension
Improved math comprehension
With these positive findings in hand NSTA (National Science Teacher’s Association) published an article in the January 2006 edition of the middle school science magazine, Science Scope. The article described the successful partnership between participating NESA schools and e-mentors from the United States, Europe, and Asia; how the program was set up; why it was initiated; NVSF goals; and students’ reactions as they participated. Further manuscripts are under review for tier one research journals such as: Middle School Journal, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, Journal of Science Teacher Education, Journal of Research in Science and Teaching,
Since 2005, Dr. Stuart Fleischer, WBAIS, Dr. Randy Spaid, Mercer University, Mr. David Ratner, WBAIS, Mr. Paul Lane, AS Dubai and Ms. Jan Anderson AIS-Johannesburg have presented over 20 workshops on the NVSF at regional and international conferences for NSTA, ASTE, AISA, EARCOS, JOSTI, NARST, etc in the U.S., Africa, Middle East, Europe, Thailand and the Philippines.
With overwhelming financial and logistical support for the continuance of the NVSF provided from The Office of Overseas Schools, Department of State, the staff at NESA and school heads throughout NESA and AISA, the NESA Virtual Science Fair seems to be on a bright and exciting path. They are going where no science fair has gone before. In the spring of 2007, several schools in the NESA family will begin with a sister model of the NVSF in their fifth grade classes. The shift is happening and with the NVSF concept using today’s technologies available to students, one in depth, positive, collaborative e-experience could change the way we (students, teachers, parents, e-mentors and science education researchers) think about science.
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