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by Elizabeth Pandosh

While judging a science fair I was saw how much pride and excitement the students exhibited. My only concern was that these students were comparing their projects and striving only to win a prize. Next month we will have our own Science Fair at SRV where there will be no judging, just positive input from the community. Students are in the process of exploring, questioning and observing a subject which they are interested in without the anxiety and pressure of trying to win something. They are working alone or in groups exploring a subject of their choice. Our Science Fair is designed to help them gain self-esteem in their abilities, and increase their inner pride.

I believe it is important for the students to be able to share their ideas and hard work with families and friends; it instills a sense of accomplishment. For one week next month all projects will be displayed in Grace to be shared with the SRV community! A pad of paper for family, staff, and friends to leave positive feedback will accompany each project.

My hope is that students will become excited, explore, learn to take on a task, and self reflect using their positive feedback and conclusions to the projects' hypothesis. The only rewards given will be the award of knowledge!

(Any living things used in projects will need to be approved and taken care of for the week of display. Photos, drawings, charts and notes are a good way to present work done with items that really can't be displayed such as dogs, cats, or experiments which only last a short time.)

I hope you all have a phenomenal time exploring these projects!