Mentor and Consultant

Every successful scientist has at least one Mentor. Every successful venture, be it in business or in science, has at least one knowledgeable person, or Consultant, to give advice and answer questions. 

The role of the teacher in a science fair project is to be a Mentor and a Consultant, providing the structural support and guidance necessary for student scientists to complete their science fair projects successfully.  

The teacher needs to know all the ins and outs of the official science fair process.

• Above all else, start early! Give yourself plenty of time to learn about science fair processes and its Rules and Guidelines.

• Give your students plenty of time to come up with a project that interests them (from the UW Server) and is appropriate for science fair.

• The teacher shouldn't be afraid to tell students their project idea is not going to work, doesn't fit the requirements or isn't in the right category (from the UW Server). This might hurt the students’ feelings a little bit, but it is much better to work through these feelings at the beginning rather than later on in the process.

• Monitor the deadlines that need to be met. Set mini-deadlines for students throughout their projects and check in with them frequently to make sure they are meeting those deadlines.

• Monitor the paperwork that needs to be completed and turned in; some of it needs to be done BEFORE the project is started.

  • Each project will require different paperwork, especially ones using human or animal subjects (from the UW Server).  Use the ISEF forms to determine paperwork needed for each project.

  • Be sure to check the Wyoming State Science Fair website for paperwork due dates.

The teacher needs to facilitate a rigorous scientific investigation.

• If you are feeling unsure about the scientific method and the steps in an investigation, give yourself plenty of time to learn about it.

• Be actively involved as students choose their projects and develop their questions (from UW Server).

  • Spend a considerable amount of time with this; it is will pay off later in the process.

  • Most students will need guidance to understand what makes a good science fair project (from the UW Server) and what works as a testable scientific question.

  • Provide them with some good and bad examples of projects and questions and explore with them why the ideas are suitable for science fair or not suitable for science fair. 
Students will also need assistance designing their experiments, analyzing their data and creating their presentations. 

• It is imperative that your students understand the concept of variables (from UW Server) and the importance of a controlled experiment (from UW Server) with a well defined hypothesis (from UW Server). that has just one manipulated variable, controls and replication (from UW Server).

• Help students analyze their data and present it clearly with  graphs and charts. (from UW Server).

The teacher needs to encourage parents to allow the student scientists to do their own work.

Talk to your student or contact parents directly if it seems that the parents are doing more of the work than the student is.  That scenario might result in a great final product, but it will be clear to the judges at the competition that the student does not understand the project in the depth they would have had they conducted the experiment themselves.

The teacher needs to seek help when needed.

No matter how well versed a teacher is in the process of science fair and in the scientific method and designing experiments, questions will arise. There are resources that can help! The Science Posse and/or the State Science Fair Coordinator have resources to help answer those questions. Please contact us when the questions first come up.  We can save you and your students a lot of time and frustration by getting you on the right track early on. 

The best Mentors and Consultants:

• Are aware, from the beginning, of the students’ progress throughout all steps of the research process;

• Know the rules and regulations for science fair projects in their state and beyond;
  

• Have a clear understanding of the scientific method and are able to explain it;

• Make sure all necessary paperwork is turned in on time;

• Contact professional scientists or science fair representatives for help when needed.