Sahuaro’s science teacher Mrs. Wexler, is trying to promote a SARSEF-based class for our students to join. SARSEF is a science fair that happens every year in southern Arizona and it invites kids who are very interested in science to pick a problem in this world and try to solve that problem. You will be interviewed and asked about your project for the chance to win.  The process of getting this class as a choice for our school is just barely getting started, and if you are interested, you should speak out and make sure more students know about this so administration is aware of student interest. Ayissa Vizuet who is also a member of the Science Club and a former SARSEF winner says, “This SARSEF class would be something that could really give kids a chance to show how smart they are.  We could get a lot of support here at Sahuaro by winning more SARSEF awards and getting recognition.”

Students who do SARSEF are required to do it after school on their own time, and this can be challenging for students with after school sports, activities, or jobs. SARSEF is very time consuming and can take up from 6 month to 4 years to do a project. This SARSEF class will help kids with these time issues to have the opportunity every day to work on this project. Mrs. Wexler says, “I really hope that we get this class, so we can encourage more students who want to do this class but don’t have the time to.” If we can solve this time issue and actually put the students to work, we could possibly start going to Nationals, which would benefit our school a whole lot more.

It hasn’t been figured out yet, but the class could also be offered as a science or elective credit. If it did count as a science credit that could mean that you would only need to take two other sciences. Your grade in this class will depend on deadlines and when you get your work done. Students will be doing research on an issue, and they will have to collect data and plot it in ways like bar graphs, pie charts, line graphs, etc. Kids also get to work on their interviewing skills that they will need for this fair when the judges ask questions. This could also help students when they are planning to get jobs and have to go to job interviews in the future.

Sahuaro has 20 winners from the past 2 years with two 1st place winners and a student who won a $1,000 top prize.  If we had this SARSEF class we would possibly be able to multiply those wins and give more credit to our school. Only two schools in TUSD offer a SARSEF class, Tucson High and UHS. Administration determined that it was too late to offer the class for next year but will be looking into it as a possibility for the following year.  If you would like to support this class you could always talk to Mrs. Wexler or the school board and get your word out. If you also want to join the Science Club you can go to room 107 after school on Fridays from 3:15 to 4:15.