Science Fairs: in Praise of Successful Failures

If we wanted to design a system to thwart students from becoming good critical thinkers and science enthusiasts, in some ways we could hardly do a better than what we are doing today in our K-12 classrooms. What's the problem? Every test question has a right answer. Every lab has known results. We emphasize facts, rather than the process and joy of science. We praise success but don't sufficiently reward effort. And--although the National Research Council has long advocated "inquiry-based science," we often expect kids, who in their spare time are used to actively controlling their virtual worlds with role-playing games, to be passive absorbers of knowledge in classrooms. Put another way: we don't give our kids enough experience in how to ask questions, develop a hypothesis, try things, gather data, and sometimes fail--and to do so effectively. And we need to teach them it's OK for things to wrong in the short term if they are working hard toward a longer goal and using the evidence-based process of science. Trying and failing is fine. Not trying: not fine. Sometimes you have to fail to succeed. That's another reason why we need Science Fairs such as the one held yesterday at the White House --the fifth one during the Obama administration. We need to recognize the kids who try--and so inspire the rest of us to try as well. "Hello scientists!" greeted the President during his formal remarks, after touring each of the 30-plus exhibits and speaking with the young researche...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news