SciFest Ezine Promoting
www.scifest.ie
in STEM Excellence
Volume 4, Number 1
September 2012
Science fairs promote better student performance in science Inside this issue: SciFest 2012 Intel Best Project Award winners
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SciFest@Intel 2012
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SciFest@School
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SciFest contact details
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Events diary
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‘The passion for SciFest in Ireland is evident. The goals were to create a science fair experience that was inclusive and accessible but that would also still inspire excellence. SciFest achieved these goals.’
Catalyzing Student Research Peter Rillero, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Science Education Arizona State University March 2012
Many researchers believe that an essential component of learning through inquiry is for the student to present the results of their research and investigations to others (Jennings and Mills 2009). In an attempt to find out if students were actually more engaged and performed better in science if their school encouraged them to work on science projects, participate in science fairs, belong to a science-related club or go on
SciFest 2012@IT Blanchardstown
Pisa 2006
science-related field trips PISA 2006 asked school principals about what kinds of extracurricular science activities they offered their students. They then linked their responses with students’ performance on the PISA science test. The following conclusions were drawn: ‘In most countries, sciencerelated extracurricular activities at school are related to better student performance, a stronger belief by students in their abilities to handle science-related tasks, and greater enjoyment of learning science. And, in many countries, this is true even after accounting for the socioeconomic background of both students and schools.’
Record number of students participate in SciFest 2012 Exhibitors 4290
Projects 1864
Schools 227
Teachers 367
More than 13 500 students have exhibited at SciFest since 2008