Discovery

Fair Science

Science fairs in New Zealand date back at least 30 years. From relatively small events in the main centres, with a very few entrants from regional and rural schools, they have become an organised hierarchy starting with local fairs within schools, leading to regional fairs, from which entrants are chosen for a national fair, from which two exhibits are selected to represent New Zealand overseas.

In spite of being progressively ever more captured as a part of school science education, there remains a strong element of student direction and commitment required for at least those exhibits that progress to the regional fairs. Given that the students have a free choice of exhibits they prepare, and that the exhibit should not merely replicate the science that forms part of the formal curriculum, it seems reasonable to assume that the choice of an exhibit type (whether experimental or display) and its broad subject matter (whether biological sciences, physical sciences, or physical technology) should reflect the students' preference. With this in mind, the programmes for the Waikato science fair over the last four years reveal some interesting trends.

These vignettes suggest that science fairs are a fertile ground for research into the sociology of those people who are most likely to enter science-related occupations, their enthusiasm for science and technology having been already indicated by their participation in the science fair. Further consideration of science fairs' role in both formal and informal science education may help to suggest potential strategies for increasing the attractiveness of science both as a school subject and as a career; or, it may just be interesting...

Output Classes and the Popularity Stakes

The topics presented for the exhibits are here classified according to the Public Good Science Fund output classes. For younger participants the most often presented exhibits are those related to "environment, exploration and assessment of the earth", but there is a systematic decrease in the proportion of these exhibits over the survey period. For older participants "materials, engineering, and telecommunications" were the most popular form of exhibit at the start of the period, but this too has declined.

The waning of these areas has to some extent been compensated by increases in exhibits related to primary production and processes derived from them.

Such variations in the popularity of topic areas may be purely random or may be a consequence of the increased use of environmental, ecological, and technological contexts in school science teaching, making these areas less attractive for the informal science learning that characterises science fairs.

The plots of exhibit proportions with time are here recalculated to show the relative "popularity" of exhibit topics in the science fairs in comparison to the extent to which research in those output classes is funded by the Public Good Science Fund. It is clear that the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology's research priorities are having no influence on the aspects of science that tomorrow's scientists find of interest.

Senior Exhibits Drop

Participation in science fairs by intermediate schools has increased dramatically, more than doubling over the survey period. By contrast, the number of exhibits presented from secondary school students is declining, particularly in the senior classes. The proportion of girls presenting exhibits is about 50% in the intermediate and junior secondary, but rises significantly in the senior classes. This increase is largely due to a dramatic increase in the exhibits from all-girls' schools, particularly at the upper levels.

Over the period, there has been a relative increase in the proportion of exhibits that involve undertaking some investigative or experimental work at the expense of exhibits that merely display some scientific principle or activity. Interest in technology as a subject for exhibit development remains consistently low.

Gender Differences

The often reported gender bias of girls towards biological sciences and boys to the physical sciences is present in the junior secondary school exhibits, and this gender stereotyping seems actively encouraged by single-gender schools. At the senior levels, physical science becomes at least as popular an exhibit class as biological sciences, a trend actively promoted in all-girls' schools.

Student preferences for science fair exhibits bear no relation to likely employment destinations (compiled from 1991 statistics). It can be argued whether any such relationship is desirable, implying, as it would, government intervention in promoting employment-related education. However, does the trend mean that our future scientists and technologists will be disillusioned: since their view of the relative excitement of various science areas differs so much from their likely employment?

Teamwork

The rules of science fairs permit students to present exhibits individually or in groups. In 1994, the proportion of exhibits prepared by groups of boys is highest in the technology area in the junior secondary school. Collaboration is more common among girls, and common in all exhibit types in the junior school; it is more common in biological sciences in the senior school, as indeed it is for boys as well (although the absolute numbers are very small). It seems that in the upper secondary school preparation of an exhibit in physical science or technology is a lonely activity, bolstered by parents and teachers rather than peers. Why the biological sciences should be seen as more collaborative is unclear.

Peter Hodder is in Waikato University's Department of Earth Sciences and has a strong interest in science education at all levels.

Peter Hodder is a senior lecturer in earth science at Waikato.