Sixth graders can participate

SOUTH POINT — Sixth grade students at South Point Middle School will all have the opportunity to participate in this year’s science fair due to a grant procured by their science teacher Marsha Ellis.

Ellis, who teaches sixth grade science, applied for and received a $1,027.50 grant from the Foundation for Appalachian Ohio. “I asked for the money so I could alleviate the burden on students and parents, so every kid can participate,” Ellis said.

“A lot of children don’t get to participate because they can’t afford the materials. Even as simple as the dollar for the board,” she explained. “So far, I’ve bought a printer and a computer, just so they can print and the backdrops,” she said, adding she’s spent about $600 of the cash so far.

There are 140 sixth graders at South Point, the vast majority of whom have Ellis for science class. Sixth graders learn life science, which begins with studying the cell and ends with the universe, said Ellis, who plans to use some of the grant funds for other in-class experiments.

Debbie York, curriculum and special education supervisor for the Lawrence County Educational Service Center, praised Ellis’ efforts.

“I really think that is an excellent idea. We do have some students with our area being economically depressed, all students do not have equal opportunity to supplies,” said York, who helps to coordinate the Lawrence County science fair. “It makes the playing field a bit more level for those students.”

Ellis has even incorporated the science fair into her weekly classroom lessons, which helps to engage students in learning science and independently applying those skills.

“They work with something they are interested in. They get to go through the scientific method on a topic they are interested in,” Ellis said. Students can pick any topic they want for their project, it just has to be something they can research and create an experiment for.

Science fair projects also integrate other disciplines such as language arts and math, according to Ellis and York. Students are judged not only by the presentation of their display boards but their application of the scientific method, their journal entries and logs, the experiment itself, as well as a research paper they have written and a bibliography.

“It’s really a cross-curricular project, even though we call it a science project,” said York. “They graph their results. They make predictions. It is really inquiry learning, which is a big push in the State of Ohio with their new standards.”

The South Point science fair is set for the end of January. Students who get top ratings at the school level can advance to the county science fair set for Feb. 2 at Dawson-Bryant school district. Top qualifiers there, go onto compete at the district or state levels.

Students can participate in the county science fair beginning in the fifth grade, but those projects are judged separately. Students in sixth through eighth grade are judged together.