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Friday, May 13, 2005
Science Fair Cheating
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was going to post a much shorter topic about integrated math, but this turned up in my inbox and is more compelling. It’s a long post, but it’s worth reading. We can talk math next week, can’t we?
Note: These ran in the school newspaper at Peachtree Ridge High School in Gwinnett County.
Science Fair: Excessive Expectations Lead to False Results
Sarah Pelham
Staff Writer
The end of last semester signaled the end of another Science Fair nightmare for students venturing into Honors, Gifted, or AP Science classes. They released months of stress, idle experimentation, and a successfully completed project onto the lap of an often unforgiving teacher. But about 60% of these Science Fair alumni couldn’t release the guilty conscience.
That is, of course, assuming they can feel guilt.
According to a survey that went out to 173 students in first semester Honors, Gifted, and AP Science classes, 13% of students make up all of their Science Fair data, 49% some of it, and 38% none.
Students are fabricating data, lying to their teachers and themselves, and dishonestly taking a grade it took others months of painstaking work to earn. After receiving a soaring grade from a trusting teacher, the cheaters then brag about it once they’re out of the science department, confessing their brilliant escape from hard work.
In some respects, though, it’s hard to blame the cheaters. Science Fair creates a package of problems: a toxic mix of unreasonable teacher expectations, amoral student ambition, and a flawed college application process.
Only two weeks after school starts from summer break science teachers expect students to submit an amazingly innovative project idea that will leave the judges wowing. Then, when that idea is shot down because earthworms aren’t allowed to be electrocuted or $300 is too much to spend on Science Fair, the students are stuck with some last minute project, researching and experimenting with the not-so-amazing effects of solar panels, or chlorophyll, or toothpaste.
The deadlines for Science Fair are so close together that there’s no time for ingenuity; there’s only time for the mountains of homework from each participant’s other life as a student, not a scientist.
The resources necessary to carry out many projects are also difficult for a high school student to acquire. The equipment may be too expensive or there may not be a willing mentor, as not everyone’s dad works for NASA. Finally, when facing a high school student talking about Science Fair, most sane potential human subjects will turn away. It’s easy to research a professional science experiment, where scientists have the resources to find committed and willing subjects, but it’s another thing for a high school student to be able to perform one, doubly so if the student plans to control the experiment to a location, age group, or time period.
By signing up for an advanced class, students are supposedly asking for a challenge, accepting a heavier course load, and expressing a willingness to learn and experiment with science. While this statement may be true for some, often students are only in the class to look good for colleges.
Most students have been drilled since freshmen year to only take the most challenging classes in order to excel in the competetive college application process. Not all students taking advanced science classes are looking to be scientists or doctors, but many would like to get rich somehow, so getting into a top-level college is a must. So while science teachers are expecting sincere, overachieving dorks in all of their Honors, Gifted, and AP classes, the reality is that many students are just in it for their resume.
Colleges see that piece of paper at the end, but the story of how one cheated on Science Fair, got away with it, and made a dishonorable grade is not included. On a college application it’s the ends, not the means – the grade, not the learning in between - that confirms success in a high school career.
And if students are smart enough to survive an advanced class, they’re smart enough to accomplish the ends by whatever means necessary. Science Fair is effectively teaching students how to cheat, survive, and get into college, where they can cheat, survive and possibly become America’s doctors and scientists.
Regardless of the bluffing teens in their classrooms, science teachers do have the consolation of knowing that there is still some learning going on. Students still have to go through the steps of researching, analyzing data, and writing a research paper in spite of their Science Fair fabrications. Even if those signatures on the Human Subjects Forms aren’t from actual tested human subjects, kids are still processing information and becoming familiar with the steps of the scientific method.
AP classes are special: those students are obligating themselves to a much heavier course load, and they’re stating their willingness to do over-the-summer work. Therefore, it could be mandatory for AP students to begin Science Fair over the summer, allowing more time to commit to the project, thoroughly research, and complete the project credibly. In Honors and Gifted classes, Science Fair should be voluntary. The students in those classes who really want to be scientists, or raise their GPA, could earn extra credit for the project. The rest of the students in these classes can become acquainted wit h researching, experimenting, and analyzing in some other way.
If the goal of Science Fair is to promote student growth academically, scientifically, and morally, then something about the current Science Fair system needs to change. The Science Department may be proudly sending an abundance of projects to the School Science Fair or further, but what is it worth is over half of them are fabrications? Under the right conditions, Science Fair is undoubtedly beneficial to student progress and learning. The set up of Science Fair now, with so much made up data and inconsequential results, is only teaching students how to take lying lightly.
There are those model students who are honest, studious, and still meet the one hundred data points mark: the ones who sacrifice the pleasure of a social life for school. These virtuous students go on to represent Peachtree Ridge at the Regional Science Fair, the Science Symposium, and then State.
Some 60% stay behind with second place, knowing Science Fair effectively prepared them for college, where cheating is on the rise.
The Roar thanks the members of the PRHS Science Department for their cooperation in the completion of this column.
Editorial Reply: Science Fair Cheaters Show a Lack of Character
Rosemarie Placek PRHS Science Teacher
What if the ref put the wrong time on the clock because he had bet on the other team and you lost by one point when the buzzer went off just before you took your shot?
And your shot had gone in?
What if you found out that the heartbreaking 2nd place medal you won in that neck-to-neck finish at state actually belonged to the athlete who got crowned state champion?
And in fact, you had won, but someone switched the results?
What if you found out the 79% you earned in your math class was really an 80, but your teacher decided to change it – “just because she wanted to?�
We surely want people to deal with us honestly and fairly, but it seems not everyone is willing to behave honestly and fairly.
Sarah Pelham has written a thoughtful and disturbing article which raises some important questions. It is important, though, to look first at her population sampling. 173 of the 630 students enrolled in Honors, Gifted and A.P. science here at Peachtree Ridge participated in the survey. That’s only 27.5%. Some broad conclusions have been drawn from the voice of only * of the students involved.
Our science department has made a thoughtful and considered decision that we value the science fair process. Colleges expect that science majors will be proficient in that process. By allowing our students multiple opportunities to engage in the process, we are filling their toolbox with truly useful skills. By allowing our students the freedom to self-select their science fair topic, we encourage investigations which are personally meaningful. The summer science cohort is available to ALL science students who want to get a head start on their science projects. It is completely free of charge and flexible in terms of attendance. So why should only A.P. students have the opportunity to develop their ability to be proactive instead of reactive to the challenges they know are ahead?
And what of those students who do not intend to pursue science as a major? Intellectual curiosity is not the exclusive realm of science and math. Language arts and social studies majors are equally committed to delving and sorting and analyzing in pursuit of truth.
In fact, the science fair process – the scientific method – is a map to take with you when you leave this place. Problem solving is a necessary life skill, regardless of where you’re headed. Life poses problems; you’ve got to look at the situation and determine a solution. Car mechanics, heating and air conditioning technicians, parents of tantrum-throwing two-year olds, all are daily faced with unique situations they have not exactly encountered before. They’ve got to look back on what they’ve already learned to be true (collect data), make a decision (hypothesize) and lat er evaluate that decision (analyze).
One last point to ponder, a question which Sarah doesn’t ask. Ultimately, who is hurt when students cheat? Is it the teacher? The parents? The school?
I think it is the cheater.
You see, the teacher, the parents and the school valued the student, took him at his word, respected her and treated her as trustworthy. The cheater lives with the knowledge that his or her word is really just breath, just air. And cheaters can’t even hide behind “everybody’s doing it� because everybody ISN’T cheating. 40% of the students polled had in fact said what they meant and meant what they said. And I have to ask this question: do you really want to create a world in which everyone is a cheater? Do you want your banker or your stockbroker to cheat you out of your money? When you’re sick, do you want to be treated by a doctor who cheated his or her way through med school?
So, if you think it is important that people are honest with you, then you’ve got to be honest with them. And you don’t just wake up one morning and decide you’re going to be honest. Like everything else, you get good at what you practice. Practice honesty, you’ll be honest. Practice lying and you’ll be a liar.
Yes, the science fair is hard work. Yes, it is difficult to balance school and sports and a social life. Yes, the temptation to take the easy way out is always right in front of you.
Those higher-level colleges value our rigorous courses precisely because it is understood that the expectations are higher there. It is understood that our students have been challenged and “stretched� intellectually.
Not everything in life is easy. Sometimes you work as hard as you can, and you still don’t get what you want. The world doesn’t end. You learn. You grow. And deep down you know the value of what you accomplished. It isn’t a letter grade or a ribbon. It’s the satisfaction of having given your best effort. It is meaningful to YOU because YOU earned it.
There’s a sign in my classroom which reads “Character is how you live life when nobody is looking.�
When nobody is looking, can you look yourself in the eye?
