It May Be a Sputnik Moment, but Science Fairs Are Lagging

President Obama is urging greater participation in science fairs, “this is our Sputnik moment “he said during his state of the union address. Mr. Obama suggested the science fair winners should be treated more like the super bowl winners.  However, some teachers suggest it’s not the celebration that is lacking but the administration’s own education policy. Teachers have little time left over for inspiring creativity and questioning possibility after focusing on the higher priority of meeting minimum math and reading scores. Many teachers give up their lunch breaks or spend extra time after school helping students prepare for a science project.   Depreciated interest in science has led to a decline in Science fair attendance.  In Indiana, high school science fair participation has dropped 15% over the last 3 yrs. “One obvious reason for flagging interest in science fairs is competing demands for high school students’ extracurricular attention.” As it stands the teachers have to focus more on meeting criteria to prevent sanctions than to work on building scientific interest. Some teachers have reached out to universities for assistance in getting guidance for the science fair participants but have had limited success.

I think this is an interesting article as it reinforces the idea that  we as a country are falling behind other countries in scientific education. Also and even more importantly it shows that creativity is stifled in pursuit of academic minimum standards.