Science Fairs and STS Education: challenges confronted by teachers working with controversial socioscientific themes at school

Abstract

This study investigated contributions made by a Science Fair (SF) on controversial socioscientific themes to the questioning of scientific negationism. The event was held at a public school in the city of Uberaba, Brazil, with a target audience of middle and junior high school students between the ages of 11 and 15. The study investigated three phases of the SF: (I) teacher preparation in terms of planning and organizing the SF, (II) didactic-pedagogic work in preparing students and constructing the SF at the school, and (III) the students’ presentation of the SF. For this article, we took a cross-section of the study discussing the preparations of 21 teachers in terms of conceptualizing and organizing the SF - the first phase - including their concerns and challenges. Using a qualitative methodological approach, of the participant research subtype, data were collected in tandem with the teachers and were analyzed using Content Analysis. The results revealed fear and distress on the part of the teachers when working with controversial socioscientific themes at school, especially with children and preadolescents, supporting the necessity of the preparatory courses in order to overcome insecurity around entering into open debates and polemics, such as those held on the controversial themes in question. These results demonstrated the importance of school-university coordination in the sense of promoting continuous teacher training. In contrast, we also identified a group of teachers who were notably excited and motivated by the possibility of debating controversial themes with the students and holding the SF at their school, due to the contributions of these events to forming more reflective and critical citizens.