It’s Science Fair season! With the state of in-person classrooms up in the air, this year’s Science Fair may look a bit different. To keep things safe and still take part in this timeless tradition, we encourage students and teachers to take part in this year’s Science Fair virtually. This is also a great opportunity for parents to be involved as well. To get started, teachers will have to set up their virtual classroom. Below are several different ways to run a virtual Science Fair.
Pre-Recorded Science Fair
Have parents or guardians help by recording their children presenting their science experiment. Have each student submit their recordings to the teacher, who will then share them with the virtual class. You can choose to use something like Google Classroom to set up the virtual classroom. Have each science experiment as its own class. Share the recordings with the students. Allow them to pose questions about each experiment within their respective classes. Have the students running the experiments respond to each question.
Live Virtual Science Fair
Host an online conference, such as a Zoom meeting. Assign a time slot for each student. When it’s their time, have each student “run” the meeting by presenting their Science Experiment to the virtual class. When done, leave time for a question-and-answer period.
Presentation Science Fair
Have students present their science experiments as a digital version of the traditional tri-panel display boards. You can use any multimedia tool, such as PowerPoint or Google Slides, that will be shared among students in the virtual class. Set up a chat system to allow students to exchange questions and answers in real-time.
If a traditional Science Fair done in the virtual classroom is not in the cards, there are some alternatives. Instead of hosting a Fair, send students home with pandemic-friendly science experiments they can do at home. With help from their parents or guardians, students can conduct their own science experiments and return their findings to their teachers. To get started, visit our May 19, 2020 post for safe an engaging science experiments to do at home.