A Reverse Science Fair that Connects High School Students with University Researchers

Abstract

Many university science outreach programs involve presentations of research projects to high school students. These presentations often focus more on exciting scientific content and less on fostering direct relationships between high school students and scientists. Such interactions are important for sustaining student interest in science throughout high school and into college. The Reverse Science Fair seeks to build relationships between high school students and graduate student researchers by swapping the roles that each play during a traditional science fair. Graduate student researchers are introduced as young scientists devoted to asking their own research questions and finding their own answers. This facilitates discussion not only about the scientific method and the research being presented, but also about researchers' personal experiences in the laboratory. Graduate students from Tufts University (Medford, MA), in October 2015, first exhibit and discuss their own research at poster presentations located at Medford High School. Then, in February 2016 the same graduate students return as judges so that the high school students have the opportunity to discuss their own science fair projects at a school-wide fair. Data from surveys and observer reports show that high school students benefited from discussing science with relatable role models who are enthusiastic about science. The majority of high school students indicated that they had an increased understanding of different applications of the scientific method as well as an increased interest in doing scientific research. Graduate students reported that they gained valuable experience from presenting to a new audience.

Flipped Science Fair: Engaging Middle-School Students in STEM while Training Researchers in Science Communication

“…The Flipped Science Fair shares features of other successful programs such as "Kids Judge!," a science fair where researchers explain their work to fourth-grade student judges (Mervis, 2010), and the "Reverse Science Fair," where graduate students present their work in local high schools (Mernoff et al, 2017). Other outreach programs involve high school students who carry out research projects under the supervision of an undergraduate or graduate student mentor (DeClue et al, 2000;Fink, 2009;Lacalle and Petruso, 2012).…”

High school science fair: Experiences of two groups of undergraduate bioscience students

“…Also, since all of the students that we surveyed were on bioscience education trajectories, our findings cannot be generalized to undergraduate students with other STEM disciplinary interests. Some high school students participate in other kinds of competitions such as science Olympiads [26] and "reverse" science fairs in which high school students learn about college or graduate student research projects first and later present their own projects to the older students including the possibility of having the older students serve as mentors [27,28]. Our findings do not provide any insights into the frequency of student participation or student experiences in these other types of competitions.…”

High school science fair: Experiences of two groups of undergraduate bioscience students

“…Some high school students participate in other kinds of competitions such as science Olympiads [ 26 ] and “reverse” science fairs in which high school students learn about college or graduate student research projects first and later present their own projects to the older students including the possibility of having the older students serve as mentors [ 27 , 28 ]. Our findings do not provide any insights into the frequency of student participation or student experiences in these other types of competitions.…”