The Rewards of Science Fairs

Science fair directors and judges like to remember, also, the instances when losing showed that an exhibitor had what it took, stimulating him to develop really excellent work habits and attitudes and the drive to do better the next time. Teachers and parents say that in planning and putting to¬gether a project a student discovers ways of finding answers —through books, magazines, scientific papers and his own experiments—that can enrich all the rest of his life, whatever his eventual career.

Boys and girls discover, too, that being part of a fair brings them into contact with other searching minds, both in their own generation and among educators and working scientists. Many a teen-ager who had felt “different” and lonely has confessed that such contacts with like minds was an unex¬pected and immensely gratifying experience. Many exhibitors say that continued science fair activity has helped them to find ways of communicating facts and hunches, and the way they feel about both, to other people. Educators agree that such ability is rather sadly rare among scientists and thinkers of all kinds, and even among teachers.

Success Stories

The announcement of the 1958 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology revealed a particularly inspiring success story of a scientist who started out in a high school science club and science fair. Co-winner Joshua Lederberg was an active member of the Stuyvesant High School Science Club in New York City some twenty years ago. The Nobelist says that he feels greatly indebted to the unusual opportunities given to him as a high school student and believes that such early encouragement is highly important and valuable. Science Clubs of America has kept a file on each of the Science Talent Search winners and National Science Fair-International finalists. These files and follow-up studies are yielding impressive statistics on the progress of promising students toward professional success.

For example, 100% of the Science Talent Search winners have attended or now are attending college, with all but a handful majoring in some branch of science. Of those old enough, nearly half have received or soon will receive doc¬toral degrees. Winners are on the faculties of colleges and universities here and abroad (one is a college president), conducting research, teaching or both; on the staffs of industrial research laboratories and organizations; on research staffs of government institutions or endowed research organizations; and so on. Careers in the physical sciences have attracted the largest number so far, with physics ranking somewhat ahead of chemistry and mathematics.

The second largest number are working in the biological sciences and medicine. Engineering has claimed the third largest number of winners.

Although as a group the National Science Fair-International finalists are considerably younger than the Science Talent Search winners, they also are demonstrating the validity of the recognition they were given, and in many cases the results of their science club and science fair opportunities. Of those who have reported having received their bachelor’s degrees, ninety-five percent majored in science or education. Better than ninety percent of the undergraduates reporting have chosen majors in science or education.