EPHRAIM—A Junior Genius Fair was held at Ephraim Elementary School last Friday to give students an opportunity to perform research and become a genius on the topic of their choice.
Students were able to pick between three levels, including specialists, experts and genius, regarding the amount of research they committed to do in preparation of the fair. Specialists read four books, experts read six books, and geniuses read eight books.
After reading their books, students answered questions about their topics, and then got to choose between different activities to advance their research, such as visiting a certain place, interviewing someone relevant to the topic, and making a presentation to their class about what they learned.
For the fair, students made display posters with pictures and information about the things they learned. When fellow students walked by their display at the fair, they would be able to answer people’s questions and exhibit that they were a genius on their topic, said Shauna Wayman, librarian at Ephraim Elementary School.
Wayman said that there were no winners at the fair, that the objective was for the students to reach the level of accomplishment that each individual was working on. The kids also had the choice of participating in the fair, that it wasn’t required unless students had the desire to learn a lot about one a topic.
As an incentive for participating, Wayman gave students monster popsicles as a special treat. At the end of the school year, Wayman will give the participating students a Junior Genius certificate, along with the other awards and certificates students have earned throughout the school year. The program was relaunched after a three-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
