Student reactions were worth the wait

“I always wanted to do this.”

For high school science teacher Connor Goncz Walter, that meant bringing a science fair to life at Iowa School for the Deaf. She had thought about it during her first year of teaching in school year 2024-2025, and wanted to be more settled in the classroom first. This year, she made it happen.

Goncz Walter partnered with ISD’s middle school science teacher, Bryan Zigler, to launch the fair, giving students something many had never experienced before.

“They didn’t really know what a science fair looked like,” she said.

The work started in December with examples of experiments and how-to videos. In January, students moved into weekly deadlines, such as labs, or getting their presentation boards ready. Each Friday, something was due.

“Little by little, that’s how we built it,” Goncz Walter said.

Projects grew out of classwork and were submitted from biology, Space Camp, earth science and physical science classes. Earth science students explored environmental problems; biology students focused on research. Others followed their own curiosity. Sometimes, student enthusiasm had to be curbed to fit the fair if the project was too complex or last-minute.

“They wanted to do big experiments,” Goncz Walter said. “I explained they needed to focus on one aspect of the project. Something we could test again and again.”

Three dozen projects were presented at the high school science fair, ranging from biology and space camp to earth science and physical science.

Goncz Walter saw growth among the students in problem-solving, organization and presentation skills. She also saw students being able to work through challenges when the projects became frustrating.

Students practiced for the fair throughout the four months, presenting pieces of their projects and building outside class when needed. By spring, projects came together. At the fair, students presented to judges, explained their process, results and what they learned. Judges scored projects and provided feedback to all participants. The high school had 36 projects entered by 30 students because some students are in more than one science class and needed to submit a project for each class.

Students weren’t the only scientists learning from the fair. Goncz Walter said the biggest takeaway for her was what she learned about her students.

“It showed me what they’re interested in,” she said. “A lot of them love electricity.”

She is already shaping that insight into her teaching, building more lessons around the students’ curiosities shown during the science fair.

As a first-year venture for her, she said there were a lot of moving parts and lessons learned. “It will be smoother next time,” she said. “But I absolutely want to keep doing this.”

2026 ISD High School Science Fair winners
Biology – First and second places: Tim Purifoy and Rifenta Kisichy
Space Camp – First and second places: Aaron Perez and Hunter Stuckey
Earth Science – First, second, third places: Luke Vaca, Kaitlyn Johns, Lani Dirks
Physical Science – First, second, third places: Amiya Wood, Nallely Rivera Alcala, Daniel McWilliams

Honorable mention
Earth Science: Crystian Lubben
Space Camp: Jamae Ladore
Physical Science: Jordan Rablin-Padilla
Earth Science: Kailani Mefy
Physical Science: Owen Gearhart
Physical Science: Aaron Perez
Earth Science: Yohana Alonzo Reynoso
Biology: Oakley Baker Utterback

Questions about curriculum or classes at Iowa School for the Deaf? Contact Principal Flint Fears.