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November 29, 2011
Experiments Outside the Science Laboratory
Megan Yeiter, The Park Record

Science fairs are making a comeback in the Park City School District, according to Park City High School Scholarship Advisor Nancy Michalko, who said Science Night at the high school will give parents an opportunity to learn about the importance of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) through science fairs. 

Science Night will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. in the Park City High School lecture hall. Parents of students in 4th- through 9th-grade are invited to attend. The event is open to the public. "The science fair is mandatory in 5th-grade, then participation drops off in 6th-grade and then it picks up again in the 7th and 8th-grade," Michalko said. "There are so many opportunities for students in high school to get scholarships if the student has excelled and continued to be in science fairs. Students can write an essay about that and submit it to those schools to distinguish them."

 According to Michalko, each elementary and middle school will nominate top performing students to bring their projects to the district-wide science fair on Feb. 28 at the Park City High School. The fair is a part of the Salt Lake Science and Engineering Fair at the University of Utah. Students will then be chosen from each category to participate at the university fair.

 According to Park City High School Director of Career and Technical Education Janice Jones, the school district is getting the ball rolling by offering the science fair in February. She said last year the Park City Education Foundation donated $5,000 to cover the cost of students participating at the fair at the University of Utah.

 "The opportunity to have students involved in an extra curricular activity is great at the elementary and middle school levels," Jones said. "The scientific method is introduced and used to show the scientific process. My goal is to see this happen with mentors and students who show a love for it can to get into it with their parents' help."

 According to Park City School District parent Tania Knauer, this is the second year Treasure Mountain Middle School will participate in the science fair and Ecker Hill Middle School's third year.

 "It's been a slow build," She said. "The importance of science fairs and the best way to teach students the scientific method is not doing a work sheet. It's using the method to set up an experiment and set up a hypothesis and analyze the data. The way you learn about science is getting your fingers dirty."

 Knauer said parents want to push their students to explore science outside of the classroom and research things they are interested in. The goal is to get teachers on board and slowly incorporate science fairs into the curriculum.

 "There are a lot of kids who check out of science in middle school, but you can use science to test things that you are interested in," she said. "It doesn't have to be something really complicated."

 Information regarding science fair deadlines will be uploaded onto the school district website as it is readily available. Visit www.pcschools.us .


(c) 2011 Park Record. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.