Ideas For A Virtual Science Fair

Long before we really had computers in our classrooms or I became a consultant, I had to teach science to my junior students.  I came up with a program that I called A Science Celebration to replace the traditional science fair idea.  I made up groups of students from all three grades, rather than one grade only, had packages of challenges for each group based upon one concept like gravity, or light, or colour, or magnetism, for a total of almost 40 different themes. Students had certain components that they had to cover, like an experiment, a research element, a display method and so forth.  They met daily to work together and then we had a single display day when parents came in and viewed the results and the work was assessed by judges.  It was a huge success but now with technology and the ability of students to collaborate across distances, this could be translated into a virtual science fair and, o. m. g., what technology makes possible that no school library could accommodate.  Listen to this podcast with some of the basic ingredients to consider.