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Re: Nature of Science (NOS)



At 14:34 -0400 9/2/02, Edmiston, Mike wrote:

I am not sure I would say it is "cheating" for parents to help their =
children with science fair. The extra involvement that sometimes tak=
es place between parents and children is probably something we wish w=
ould happen more often. Parents ought to be involved in their childr=
en's education. Not doing the math problems, but helping explain the=
m. Not writing the papers, but helping proof-read them and offering =
suggestions.

Of course there's nothing wrong with getting involved, giving
suggestions, and helping where needed. What I saw in far too many
cases, were projects that were conceived and executed by a parent
with little or any participation by the student. I did my best as a
judge not to reward these projects, and to recognize those good
projects that were done by students pretty much alone. But I wasn't
the only judge and sometimes my vote wasn't enough (and sometimes I
was wrong in my assessment). The job of discrimination was sometimes
made more difficult by keeping the students away from their exhibits
during the judging process, so they couldn't be interviewed.

It was also pretty obvious when the child's entry was one done under
duress, and I felt sorry for those children. There is nothing wrong
with requiring some classroom activity or project that the student
really doesn't want to do. Learning often involves doing things we
don't want to do. But I rather object to forcing students who don't
want to, to display their lack of interest in public. We have long
since done away with public punishment like stocks and public
executions. Why do we still feel its OK to subject students to public
humiliation? A child who may be able to do a good science fair
project, but is too shy, or feels too inadequate to undertake one,
often has problems that forced public exposure won't cure.
Self-confidence is like swimming. Neither is properly taught by
throwing the student into a sink-or-swim situation.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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