Fair Science

It was 1959 when Joie Jones won the National Science Fair with a rocket project right out of “October Sky.” His homemade rocket rose 52 miles to measure radiation in the upper atmosphere and set an amateur rocketry record for altitude that still stands.

Jones got a gold watch, handed to him by pioneer rocketeer Wernher von Braun, and grew up to be a professor of radiological science at UCI--and a science fair judge.

Looking back, he marvels that he survived his experiments and concedes they must have been a nightmare for his parents.

And while some things about science fair projects have changed--there’s not as much fanfare or as many rocket projects today--one thing remains the same: For many parents and students, the very phrase “science fair project” is scary.

For today’s self-help publishers, that has created a big niche.

In the midst of science fair project season, bookseller Barnes & Noble has set up tables full of such titles as “The Parent’s Guide to Science Fairs,” “100 First-Prize Make-it-Yourself Science Fair Projects, and “A+ Projects in Biology, Winning Experiments for Science Fairs and Extra Credit.”

And sales, publishers say, have never been better.

“We’ve seen an incredible increase in the last couple of years,” said Laura Cusack, marketing manager for John Wiley & Sons, Inc., publisher of Janice VanCleave’s series of how-to science books, which is nearing the 2 million mark.

Several factors drive the boom:

* U.S. students’ poor standings in science testing have put science education in the spotlight, teachers and publishers say.

* Competitive parents want their children to have an edge.

* Many students are required to do science fair projects as class assignments these days, unlike Jones’ school days when participation was mostly voluntary.

But do the books really help? And is it cheating to pick up a book, follow a project step-by-step and turn it in?

Some experts, like Chris Gould, former chair of the California State Science Fair, say it would be outrageous to use an experiment found in a science “cookbook” as a science fair project.

“If you can pick up a book and see an experiment that tells you how to do it and you do it, you’ve learned nothing. It’s a waste of money and a miserable experience compared to what it could be,” said Gould, a professor of physics and astronomy at USC.

Others, like science tutor Denise Floryan say the how-to books are good for those who have never done projects before or are lost in their science classes. Because science fair projects often become parent projects, she said, the books can help parents guide their students.

Linda Bartrom, who teaches advanced placement chemistry and honors chemistry at Villa Park High and runs the school science fair, agrees that the books are good for ideas. “But everyone needs to be careful that it doesn’t become a recipe that replaces the scientific method,” she cautions.

That method requires students to do research, identify a problem, state a hypothesis, conduct experiments and reach a conclusion.

The best projects start with a student knowing a little about a general subject and having a question about it, said Gould. The project answers the question.

Gould admits, though, that those are rare cases. Most students want to do a particular type of experiment because they think it’s neat, he said.

In author VanCleave’s experience, most students don’t know where to begin. A former chemistry and physics teacher, VanCleave has written 43 “how-to” books on science, mostly aimed at elementary and middle-school students. As the science fair expert for the Discovery Channel’s Web site, she personally has answered thousands of questions from students.

“The main question is, ‘I’m lost, where do I start?’ followed by, ‘I’ve done my experiments, how do I do my research?’ ” she said.

Her science fair guides are not intended to give students projects to clone but to explain science fair procedures and provide exploratory experiments that lead to their own projects, she said.

Not all the ideas in self-help books are suitable for students competing in science fairs, said Janet Yamaguchi, vice president of education at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana and a frequent science fair judge.

And judges screen entries and usually recognize the experiments that came straight from books, she and others said.

Yamaguchi recently reviewed books for a teacher-training program at the center and found that some included projects that clearly aren’t science: leaf and bug collections and demonstrations like the ever-popular clay and vinegar volcano.

Students at Santa Ana’s Valley High School, winner of the Orange County Science and Engineering Fair’s outstanding senior division award last year, get ideas from science journals and even the news, said chemistry teacher Cheryl Estes. Valley students have used classroom computers to e-mail queries to scientists doing research in the same areas, she said.

One scientist was especially helpful last year, sending the school chemicals and other materials needed for a student’s genetic experiment involving hundreds of specially bred cockroaches. The student won third place in biochemistry at the state science fair.

“We were so excited!” said Estes. “But I was glad he worked on that particular project at home.”