About Southern Tier SciFair

STSciFair was developed through a partnership between Cornell University's SciCentr Outreach program and MST-Connect (a consortium of businesses, educational institutions, and state agencies in the Greater Southern Tier of New York State). It offers a program that makes innovative use of online multi-user virtual worlds for STEM education. STSciFair expands the reach of the SciFair program developed at Cornell to middle school students across the Greater Southern Tier. ST SciFair matches mentors at MST-Connect partner Corning Community College with teachers and teams at eight middle schools affiliated with the Greater Southern Tier BOCES, all supported by master mentors and staff at Cornell and across the partnership.

ST SciFair teams work in a secure online environment from computer labs in their schools. They log into a private universe of online multi-user virtual worlds for education, hosted by the SciCentr program at Cornell. Teacher/coaches, students, mentors and support staff work "inworld" together from computer labs at Corning Community College and all participating school districts.

With the guidance of their teacher/coaches and mentors from Cornell University and Corning Community College, students in grades 5-8 research a scientific topic and present them as knowledge spaces using the virtual platform. Sample topics include Genetics: Engineering the Cure; My World; Conserve & Protect!; Highways of the Human Body; and BioDome- preparing for Life on Other Planets. Participants work together to gain new computing skills as well as to learn about areas of science and technology.

At the conclusion of the program, all teams showcase their work and present the virtual worlds they create, displaying the knowledge they have gained. ST SciFair Showcases are real-world celebrations at the Wings of Eagles Discovery Center, in Horseheads, NY.