In truth, one may be surprised at the refreshingly honest opinions that are expressed in such an environment! Moreover, whether they are children or teenagers, they are better able to reach out to one another than to adults. Hence, with the present concern over teenage pregnancies, it might be a good idea to utilize science fair projects to impart information regarding this issue.



Movies are a popular medium. So, one science fair project could concentrate on making a movie about a teenager who finds herself pregnant. If it is to be presented as a fictitious situation, hired actors and actresses would be required to act out the various parts. Better still would be to interview actual teenagers who experienced undesired pregnancies, and present the whole thing in a documentary form. Each girl could even relate the option she had considered to face such a situation. Since facts are always better than fiction, the documentary movie would be more effective than the other.

Creating a poster session with the use of different color-coded world maps could be another science fair project. Each map could represent a different set of statistics - pregnancy rates in countries across the globe, abortion rates, and birth rates.

Another map could depict the socio-economic status of various countries; it could then be explained how this was linked to the rate of teenage pregnancies. Had any country actuated sexual education-only programs or abstinence-only programs, or probably a program combining both approaches? The last map could reveal whether the rate of teenage pregnancies had changed during a certain time period or not. If there had been a change, what sort of programs had brought it about? No change - why did the programs fail? Adolescents could deliberate on the issue of certain programs not being capable of bringing about any noticeable change.

Creating a board game similar to the one titled, "The Game of Life" could form another science fair project. Of course, certain modifications would be needed, like maybe presenting an option to become a pregnant teenager. By playing the board game, adolescents would understand the difference between the type of people who got caught in the "teenage pregnancy trap" and those who escaped. Another option offered could be to play as a would-be mother from the beginning itself. It would be interesting to note the tough decisions that young mothers must make and how those decisions affect their way of life.

The ideas presented here barely scratch the surface. You could probably come up with many more science fair projects centering on the issue of teenage pregnancy. To sum it up, the idea is to make sure that adolescents have a better understanding about teenage pregnancy and its consequences after hosting such an event.