Inquiry Learning and the Science Fair

Surveys from 617 high school science fair participants (2004-2008) provide insight into four aspects of their teachers' instruction: inquiry learning, direct instruction, science as real-life, and science as authority. These original scales offer a valuable resource for large-scale observational studies and teacher self-reflection. Higher awards were associated with teachers' use of inquiry-based learning and emphasis on real-life applications, while lower awards correlated with direct instruction and an emphasis on science as an authority. With mostly medium-to-large effect sizes and p-values less than .0005, these findings were consistent across competition levels and analysis methods. Results contribute to the active-versus-passive child debate in developmental psychology and inform science educators on effective project-based learning strategies.