The horrifying sight of science equipment and the idea of repeated trials would scare any student…especially an honors science student. The science fair: An educational project that has been practiced since elementary school and has carried on to selected high school classes.

Even though the assignment can be helpful or educational, it appears that most honors students complain and do not care for the work. Is a science fair even worth students’ time and energy? Are students complaining over nothing? What is the purpose?

If the students truly understood what the head of the Science Department, Jerry Bell, sees, perhaps they would appreciate the science fair more.

“[The science fair] gives [students] practice using the scientific process. It’s about taking an idea and then figuring how to make an experiment to test that idea to come up with answers.”

The science fair allows students the opportunity to apply what they learn from textbooks and actually experiment. However, some students feel that it is too much work.

“I was in honors biology and chemistry freshman and sophomore year. The stress and trouble that science fair put on me was just too much,” Junior Chay Romine said.

“This year I didn’t want to be doing that with junior year having  the hardest classes of high school.”

Honors science classes are for students that can handle the extra work and want to achieve as much as they can from the subject. The science fair is doing just that, it is allowing students to apply what they learn and take on more work. Science fair is for honors students because they chose to take honors and accept the extra work when choosing the class before school starts.  Students that understand the workload  but do not have the time  for it,like Romine, should choose prior before the school year to not take honors.

“Honors is a weighted credit and we have to do extra to get the weighted credit. It’s more rigorous, plus the science fair is required to earn the credit.” Bell stated.

To be honest, the science fair is not actually required. Students had a choice before the school year about what classes they wanted to take. They could have chosen to take an on level science but chose the science fair instead. There are already enough topics to complain about in the world and the science fair does need to be added in that pool of negativity.If students feel like it is too time consuming or difficult, then they should rethink their classes.  

“I ended up switching out the friday before it was due. Science fair is just lengthy and  unnecessary.”junior Shyla Baldwin explained about her experience in switching out of honors science freshman year.

Students cannot complain about it being too soon, they have a solid few months from October to January to think of an idea, conduct experiments, and come up with conclusions.

“I know students get frustrated with the process. We expect that they are able to do projects  at a high school level and not at [an] elementary level at this point. So we try to guide the students through the process as much as possible without doing it for them.” Bell says.

It is up to the students to choose if they want more knowledgeable experience for the honors credit. The science fair seems to be pointless, but it can be helpful for students hoping to achieve more knowledge and understanding of  science. If honors students are complaining about the extra work then are they really honors students?