For Parents
Being An Interviewer (One required per project)
NOTE: EVERY PROJECT, WHETHER INDIVIDUAL OR TEAM, MUST PROVIDE ONE INTERVIEWER ON THE NIGHT OF THE SCIENCE FAIR. EACH INTERVIEWER WILL BE ASSIGNED TO A DIFFERENT PROJECT (I.E., NOT THEIR OWN CHILD'S PROJECT).
Interviewers are what make this feel like a "real" event for the students. It's also a great chance to meet some of your child's schoolmates and talk science with them. You may find you learn something interesting!
To be an interviewer, all you need to do is show up with your child at 6:30pm sharp on the day of his or her science fair. No background or experience is necessary! You will meet a different project scientist or team and ask them to explain their project and tell you what they did and learned. You can ask whatever questions come to mind. You will write some short, encouraging feedback. You don't need to be a scientist, just a curious and engaging parent (which we all are, now, aren't we?).
All interviewer tasks (listening to the presentation, asking questions, and writing and delivering feedback) should take no more than 15-20 min on the night of the Science Fair.
If you are unable to be an interviewer, for instance due to language difficulties and/or travel conflicts, please email us at oakknollsciencefair@gmail.com so that we can make appropriate accommodations.
Participating with Your Child
Our goal with the Oak Knoll Science Fair is to allow our students to follow their natural curiosity, develop a passion for science, and learn the power of the scientific method in a supportive and non-competitive environment. At the simplest level, we hope that every child who participates in the science fair has a positive experience and wants to do it again next year.
Given that this will be the first project of this nature for many of the children, please guide them, but assist us in adhering to the objective that this program is for the students to apply themselves and potentially bud into scientists themselves. So no parent-done projects, please. That being said, your assistance in discussing and planning the process your children will go through is critical to their fun and success. Ask them questions that will help them to clarify their own thinking, but feel free to let them make their own decisions and their own mistakes.
Here are a few ideas for how you can be involved:Build on their ideas. Finding an idea can be difficult, but the idea should come from the children, if at all possible. Guide them by asking questions about their genuine interests. Show enthusiasm for the things that interest them.
Be a sanity check. Ask them to think about actually performing the experiment. Is it feasible? Challenge is great, but consider guiding them away from projects that might be too complicated or impractical for them to complete.
Remember the scientific method. Once they've chosen a general question, help them think about framing the question and hypothesis so that the scientific method can be used. Is the hypothesis testable? What variable will they change and how will they measure the result?
Help (or don't) set a schedule. This can be a large project, and anything involving growing (e.g., plants or mold) will require time. It's a great opportunity for your child to learn time management skills (or, alternatively, the consequences of procrastination). You may want to help them think through milestones or have them ask themselves how much time they will realistically need to complete different parts of the project.
Be available, as needed. Think of yourself as a resource, rather than a project manager.
Talk with them about their conclusions. Here's where your probing and questioning may be most helpful -- in stretching their thinking and in understanding the implications of their experiment. If they fail to prove their hypothesis, please remind them that important things can still be learned from the results and important questions can still be raised. Every experiment adds to our body of knowledge!
We understand that each set of parents may have slightly different goals for their children, and different ages (and projects) will require different degrees of parental involvement. We recognize the importance of allowing children to fail on their own, in a safe, low-risk setting. At the same time, this is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with your child in a fun and educational activity. So please feel free to vary your involvement accordingly.
Thank you for your participation, and we welcome your feedback.