Science Fairs, Learning Fairs...

Recently read this blog post on Science Fairs: http://wbtforme.blogspot.ca/2013/05/geniushour-and-sciencefair.html

This teacher discovered Genius Hour and decided to try something knew with her grade 6 science class.

http://www.geniushour.com/what-is-genius-hour/

This connected with me because this week at our school board meeting several students presented their science fairs from http://www.gvrsf.ca/ and some of the topics were exceptional. I spoke with the students before the meeting and learned so much about how much fun they had researching their topics.

I remember in Elementary and Jr. High loving science. The Science Fairs were the best part! I missed that when I got to High School and my love of science faded (luckily not entirely!)

Two years ago I was teaching Grade 6/7 and while my teaching partner covered the Socials Studies curriculum, I did Science. We did a number of experiements and labs, however, we did not do Science Fairs and I think if I were to teach that again, I would certainly explore this idea.

This year in my grade 8 class we are doing a Renaissance Fair. All the grade 8 classes do a week of rotational lessons, each station a different area of the Renaissance. Then they choose an area of inquiry to explore further. They then spend several weeks doing PBL on a topic of their choice for a final presentation - the Renaissance Fair.

This is an annual thing at our school. In the past, as a grade 6/7 teacher I have enjoyed attending the fair and bringing my classes to see the displays and projects Grade 8s prepare. I can't wait to see it all come together next month!