Despite having the opportunity to participate in the school science fair, no students signed up. Science department teacher Claude Gonzalez credits this to stress and other activities students participate in. “The kids who are the best and brightest in my (Advanced Placement) classes — the kids you figure would be doing science fair — they already have so much stuff on their plate that it’s fallen off,” Gonzalez said. Graphic by Aneesa Conine-Nakano.
By AMY GOANA – Staff Writer
Clarke Central High School students had the option to participate in this year’s science fair, which was scheduled to take place no later than Dec. 9, however, there were no participants this year.
Students at Clarke Central High School had the opportunity to participate in a school-wide science fair since Oct. 26. The deadline for CCHS to hold a school-wide science fair was Dec. 9, and there were no participants in this year’s science fair.
Science department teacher Dr. Michael Gatlin, who was in charge of the science fair along with science department teacher Marius Sava, feels students had enough time to find out about the meeting and that lack of student awareness was not the reason for the lack of participation.
“If a kid’s absent a day, or two days, or even a week, they would still have two weeks of this announcement,” Gatlin said.
Student participation in the science fair has been declining over the years due to students overscheduling themselves and having prior commitments. The school started to see the participation decline the same time the science fair became non-mandatory.
“The kids who are the best and brightest in my (Advanced Placement) classes — the kids you figure would be doing science fair — they already have so much stuff on their plate that it’s fallen off,” science department teacher Claude Gonzalez said. “They’re panicking about making sure they’re juggling all their balls and not dropping any. Here at the high school level, kids are busy and the kids we would normally draw from they’re doing sports and they’re doing this group and they’re doing that group.”
Junior Neha Mohanty, who participated in the science fair in both the 2014-15 and 2015-16 school years, feels that there is a lack of student participation in the science fair because of a lack of student awareness and the amount of time and dedication a science fair project takes.
“I really like researching a topic that means something to me and being able to present my findings with the hope that I can help the general public,” Mohanty said. ”I honestly don’t have the time. I guess if something isn’t mandatory, a lot of kids won’t want to do it.”
According to Gatlin, the school doesn’t have many ideas as to how to increase participation besides making the science fair mandatory again, something Gatlin is opposed to.
“I don’t think making it mandatory is the way to go. I think you’ll get better projects and that sort of thing if people actually want to do it,” Gatlin said.
Teachers like Gatlin believe the science fair can help students learn new things and have new experiences. They believe if you have a passion for science or just have a simple question about something that you should experiment with it and join.
“If the kid got something (he or she) is interested in and applies themselves to it and doesn’t feel like it’s a chore, then it would be an amazing thing for them to do,” Gatlin said. “If they have the resources for them to answer the questions they wanna ask, then I think it would be both beneficial and of great interest to the kid.”
