SCIENCE FAIR PROGRAM COMPONENTS
The components of the Science Fair Program are:
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Mentor Program: Mentors from local universities and industries work with students in grades PreK-12 on their Science Fair projects. Some mentors assist as classroom mentors, working with elementary teachers and their classes (PreK-4) on projects, while others guide individual students or teams of students from grades 5-12.
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Family Science Nights: Family Science Nights are held at various K-8 schools around New Haven. Students and their families participate in hands-on science demostrations, presented by local STEM students and faculty, and learn more about scientific investigation. These events spark student and family excitement for science as well as for the Science Fair competition in May.
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Teacher Professional Development: We collaborate with our university partners to offer professional development training to local K-12 public school teachers. Recent workshop topics have included the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), integrating engineering/manufacturing topics into science curriculum, using authentic datasets to analyze and present data in class, and teaching science to students with special needs.
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New Haven Science Fair Competition: The Science Fair, which is the culmination of the year's activities, takes place in mid-May. Student projects from grades PreK-12 are judged over the course of two days: on the first day student projects are evaluated independently by judging teams, and on the second day students orally present their projects to the judges.
