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Monday, April 28, 2008

Science Fairs Getting Left Behind

By Zsombor Peter
Copyright © 2008 Albuquerque Journal; Journal Staff Writer
    For the past several years, Rio Rancho High School has had a steady 800 students take part in its annual science fair.
    But under pressure from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, it's making schedule changes that Daniel Barbour, head of the school's "scimatics academy," says will force him to make science fair projects optional next year. He expects participation to drop to about 350.
    Does that bother Barbour?
    "Is that a rhetorical question?" he asked in reply. "Of course, it bothers me."
    Barbour isn't alone. Participation in the Central New Mexico Science and Engineering Research Challenge, better known simply as Albuquerque's regional science fair, has declined steadily since hitting a high of more than 800 projects in 2005, fair director Karen Kinsman said. Last month, a few more than 600 were entered.
    As Kinsman put it, science fairs are becoming "the roadkill of No Child Left Behind."
    Signed into law by President Bush in 2002, the federal education law aims to hold public schools accountable by setting performance benchmarks in math and reading.
    The act calls for science benchmarks, too, but those are long-term goals and aren't in effect yet.
    With progressively severe consequences for failing to meet math and reading benchmarks, many schools are cutting back on everything else, including science.
    "The impact NCLB is having ... on everything that is not reading and math is really devastating," said Loretta Shiver, technology coordinator at Susie Rayos Marmon Elementary School on Albuquerque's West Side.
   
Getting cut
    A recent study by the Center on Education Policy, an independent institute, found that 28 percent of U.S. school districts have cut the time devoted to elementary school science by a third since NCLB came along. It found English and math instruction on the rise in 58 percent and 45 percent of districts, respectively.
    As goes science instruction, so goes the science fair.
    "The mantra we hear from a fair number of teachers every year is, 'I don't have time for science fair because our school didn't make (adequate yearly progress), so we are having to focus on getting kids ready for the (NCLB) test,' '' Kinsman said.
    Some schools are more blunt about it than others.
    "Once in a while," she said, "we even hear from a teacher that their principal has flat out said, 'No more science fair.' ''
    Barbour's case was nothing so dramatic. After Rio Rancho High missed reading and math benchmarks for three straight years, the school decided to move from a four-by-four schedule— in which students take four classes one day and four others the next— to the more traditional seven periods a day.
    That means shorter classes, and Barbour said logistically, he can't have every student doing a science fair project.
    Patricia Wagner, science coordinator for Albuquerque Public Schools, agreed that support for science is slipping. While APS' math and reading departments get hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for teacher training, Wagner said her department gets $5,000 to $7,000.
    Shiver said Susie Rayos Marmon has had regular science fairs "simply because we have a group of people that are very intent on keeping it going."
    APS still provides substitutes for teachers off judging fairs or accompanying students, she said, but it's a far cry from the 1990s when it used to organize a districtwide fair. Now, schools that still hold fairs send winners straight to the regionals.
   
What students lose
    What are students losing by missing out on science fairs?
    "The main thing that it does is that it personalizes science for them, because they choose their topic," Shiver said. "The kids are actively engaged in their learning."
    Also, a science fair is much more than designing and conducting an experiment.
    "Part of the fair is, (students) have to be able to explain their project," Shiver said, "and when a child does that, it causes all kinds of wonderful connections in their brains."
    Despite the declining numbers at the Research Challenge, some teachers insist that science fairs and NCLB need not be at odds, that the required math and reading skills can be woven seamlessly into long-term projects on interplanetary orbits or fluid dynamics. But it does take extra work.
    Wagner believes there's hope. The U.S. Education Department has yet to set a date for adding science to the list of subjects states must test, but when it does, science education will "see a tremendous amount of more resources," she said.