Community Voices by Susan Hines: Students learn while having fun at Science and Engineering Fair

Students will become judges themselves — as they pick the people’s choice award for the most creative project of the entire fair.

Photo by Marty Cheek
Solorsano 8th-grade student Aryan Ganesh displays his first-place project titled “Study and Comparison of Effects of Different Natural Products that Can Cure or Prevent Cancer Using Drosophila Model.”

By Susan Hines

Susan Hines

When you think of autumn, do the vibrant colors of the fall leaves, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the opening of project registration for the South Valley Science and Engineering Fair (SVSEF) come to mind?

Wait! What was that last one? And why should you be excited about it?

SVSEF is the safe, inclusive, juried science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) competition for all fifth to eighth graders living in and/or going to school in Morgan Hill, San Martin, and Gilroy.

In addition to just being fun, doing a STEM project is one of the most authentic “real world” work that our local students can do. Why is that? Because in choosing a question or problem that interests them, they use their critical thinking skills to analyze the situation, create solutions, meet deadlines, explain their projects to experts in their selected field, and are rewarded for their efforts.

Being an SVSEF participant, either individually or in a team of two, also means getting to see the work done by both friends and students from other local schools.

How does registration work and what are the key deadlines for SVSEF?

Project registration opens Nov. 1. Students can visit www.southvalleyscience.org to find the SVSEF entry form link at the top of our home page. Project registration closes Dec. 15.

All projects need to be approved before work begins. This is both for your safety and to help ensure you have a doable, grade level appropriate game plan for your proposed biology, chemistry, engineering, physics, computer science, or math project. SVSEF’s wonderful SRC (safety and science review committee) team is looking forward to hearing about your creative project ideas and helping you design a safe, fun, meaningful, project.

After you receive your approval email, you can begin your experiments (sciences) or design and build (engineering) — whether at school, at home (the latter only for certain projects — SRC will let you know), or at one of SVSEF’s special December work days at one of our local high-tech companies.

SVSEF work days will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  Dec. 3 and Dec. 17. Materials and equipment will be available for biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering projects, with mentors who are experts in each of these fields present to assist you. Due to limited space, you will need to preregister for this opportunity.

Students and their teachers/mentors will also have the opportunity to get materials for their projects, including display boards, independent of whether they participate in the SVSEF work days or not.

Completed project board drop off will be between 2 and 6:30 p.m. Feb. 8 at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center. SVSEF student interview, project judging, a light dinner for participants, and the award ceremony at the community center will be held Feb 9. SVSEF cordially invites our local community to attend the ceremony to celebrate all of our participants.

An important part of project judging is that the students will meet experts in the STEM professions, share the excitement of these professionals, get positive feedback, and be able to ask them questions, such as what is it like working in their chosen fields, be it biology, chemistry, physics, engineering, math, or computer science. And the students will become judges themselves — as they pick the people’s choice award for the most creative project of the entire fair.

Whether they go home with an award or not, all of our students are winners. They will have all practiced the scientific method, honed their critical thinking and creativity, learned from each other, experienced the camaraderie of discovering science and engineering through hand- and minds-on projects — and, most importantly, have fun learning.

SVSEF, and our parent organization, the South Valley Science anda Engineering Initiative (SVSEI), want to show that doing STEM is enjoyable, collaborative, entertaining, and definitely a living, fascinating area. It’s not a dead, dry subject where everything is known or unchanging. It’s where uncertainty is a positive thing and opportunities exist for all. SVSEF has the support of our fantastic SVSEI committee, SRC, judges, and work day mentors, generous sponsors, and incredible community volunteers. Please join us in encouraging and celebrating our local students at SVSEF as you would their athletic activities.

Susan Hines is the director of the South Valley Science and Engineering Fair.