In the United States, high school science fairs are an important forum for students to explore what they have learned in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) while competing with their peers and exercising their creativity.
Science fairs help students apply what they have learned in STEM subjects in innovative ways. Students start with their own curiosity and, in some cases, discover how to tackle urgent societal problems, said Harshini Mukundan, who has spent two decades serving as a judge for school science fairs at the elementary and high school levels locally and regionally.
“Every child decides to pick and choose what they are interested in and explore it as they wish,” said Harshini, a microbiologist and deputy group leader in the chemistry division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. “Scientific curiosity starts early, and I think it really needs to be nurtured and encouraged.”
When students study Biology, Chemistry, and Physics in the classroom and think about concepts like trigonometry and calculus, it can be difficult to imagine real-life situations that put these subjects into practice.
Science fairs allow students to apply what they’ve learned in STEM to real life. Beyond that, science fairs represent the culmination of various disciplines coming together to create a solution. Developing good language skills, for example, is important to properly present a project and communicate its findings to judges, Mukundan said.
Science fairs allow students to apply their learning in STEM to real life. Additionally, science fairs represent the culmination of various disciplines coming together to create a solution. Developing good language skills, for example, is important to properly present a project and communicate its findings to the judges, Harshini said.
“We live in little bubbles, but in real life, the bubbles need to come together,” Harshini said.
Harshini researches developing diagnostics for infectious diseases, including emerging ones. Her career is based on an interest sparked in childhood — she had mumps while close relatives contracted measles and chickenpox.
She grew up in India and participated in science fairs there, treating them as a way to think about how she would solve certain problems. Science fairs, she says, encourage students to think unconventionally about issues while applying the lessons they have learned.
Harshini encourages all types of students to consider Science, even those drawn to Arts and Humanities. “Science is an art; it involves a lot of creativity,” she said. “It involves a lot of imagination, innovation, ingenuity, and new ideas.”
Source: share.america.gov