For many schools, the science fair is a long-held tradition in which students are required to participate. For these children, and their families, this means 3 months of added stress to already rigorous academic demands. This article explores the methods in which students can take part in the science fair without having to sacrifice their creative…

STEM education is argued as an essential ingredient in preparing our children for careers of the future. This study describes a university festival that includes the promotion of STEM-related career interests in young people among its goals. A total of 203 participants between the age of 7 and 17 completed both pre-event and post-event surveys. In…

Hosting an engineering competition can bring great success to a technology department. Development and planning of an event can prove frustrating at times, but it pays off in the end. The author describes the first-ever engineering competition held at Maple Avenue Middle School in Saratoga Springs, New York, which provided an evening of creative…

At the 1939-1940 New York World's Fair, several thousand boys and girls, all members of a growing national network of high school science and engineering clubs, displayed their science fair projects and conducted live experiments to more than 10 million visitors. Housed in the building sponsored by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing…

Educators in the U.S. and Japan have developed an international program to promote creative thinking in science. Their program includes a science fair component. This paper (which has been presented in both the U.S. and Japan) discusses creativity and describes a science fair activity, that the authors recently carried out in Japan. The special…

This article describes the Cornell Science Challenge, an annual science fair held at Olin Hall at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. This science fair features seventh graders from East Middle School in New York who have been mentored for three months by actual scientists (graduate students, faculty members, laboratory technicians, and…