Science fair? Science fear

I'm standing one step away from the annual childhood ritual of the science fair and I have to say, it's really a strange rite of passage with (to me) fairly limited educational benefits.

How can I count the ways this thing makes little sense to me? Well, first, there's the wholesale application of the scientific method.  With all due respect to the scientific method, this is not something that is easily learned, certainly not by eight year olds!  The steps of the method, listed below, may seem quite simple, but at 8 or at any age and with any kind of learning disability, some significant effort has to be made to make these principles accessible.  My question is: why make an experiment, requiring the application of all 6 steps of the method a requirement at the second grade, especially when there is little likelihood of the teacher having covered all these concepts? 

As it is, it seems to me that asking an 8 year old, to 'construct a hypothesis' is ridiculous in the extreme.  It is entirely possible that my perspective is informed by the challenges of our second grader.  Her problems with formulating and asking probing questions are a function of her ASD, but I'm fairly certain that she isn't the only child who, in the absence of sufficient teaching, can't figure out what a good scientific question might be.

The way the fair is set up, it seems only to serve two negative purposes: alienating children from science and from their parents who can't help them 'get it'.

My suggestion for any parent wondering how to deal with the dreaded Science Fair is talk. Talk to your child about what he/she is interested in. Talk to the teacher about what makes sense given your child's needs and talk to a librarian in your community library to find the books that can help you design an experiment that is age appropriate for your child.

If you do an experiment on something that already is interesting to your child, you'll have a good experience together AND your child will be interested in coming back for more next year. Since the fair is required, you better get to like it. The way to do that is to make sure your child is interested in the subject. Does he like frogs? Do something about frogs. Does she like rainbows? Study rainbows.

Science can be fun. Your gift to your child is to find the triggers that make it so.

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The 6 steps of the Scientific Method:

• Ask a Question
• Do Background Research
• Construct a Hypothesis
• Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
• Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
• Communicate Your Results