Re: science fair petition?

[paul o johnson <pojhome@FLASH.NET>]

William Beaty wrote:

> perhaps a petition signed by a large number of educators and researchers
> could have some sort of impact.  Below is my attempt at a possible petition:
>
> By requiring that our children distort their science projects to follow a
> stereotyped charicature of science, we convince them that science is
> excruciating, straight-jacketed stuff.  We hide from them the entire reason
> why scientists do Science in the first place: it is a joyful exploration of
> totally fascinating topics.  It is playing with cool equipment.  It is
> dancing with the universe and learning to see in new ways.  Yes, sometimes
> scientists propose and test
> hypotheses, but usually only AFTER they have explored nature and made
> interesting discoveries.

> Please end the "Hypothesis/Experiment/Results" requirement in science fairs.
> While numerous methods exist for doing science, there is no single
> "Scientific Method."
>
> Comments?

William,   I discovered during a long career as a systems engineer that to sell
your  idea to the decision makers you have to go beyond telling your audience
what's wrong with the existing idea. You also have to describe your new idea.
How should the projects be structured and how will they be graded?

poj