Carnegie Science & Engineering Fair returns this month
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Among the casualties that resulted from the start of the pandemic one year ago was the Carnegie Science Center’s Pittsburgh Regional Science & Engineering Fair, a tradition that began in 1940.
The start of the covid-19 crisis made holding the fair, usually scheduled for March, impossible to do in person and organizers didn’t have enough days to put together a virtual alternative. So, it was canceled in 2020.
Now the fair is back.
This month, more than 400 students in grades 6-12 will compete for scholarships and cash prizes as they present their science, math and engineering research projects.
Judging will take place via video conferencing on March 24 and the winners will be announced during a virtual awards ceremony on March 25.
“We decided way back in June to do this virtually and back then it felt overly cautious to think that we wouldn’t be able to gather for the science fair in late March,” said Science Fair director Nicki Wood. “And now I’m really glad that we chose that overly cautious route instead of having to scramble at the last minute or cancel this fair as well.”
The Science Fair draws students from a region that stretches from Erie to Deep Creek and out past Johnstown. Wood said doing a virtual fair has created an opportunity to try new things and welcome students from areas further away who might not be able to make the trip to Pittsburgh.
“For some of those students, the long trip is daunting so it’s going to be so much easier for them this year,” Wood said.
Project categories include Behavioral and Social Science, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science and Math, Earth and Environment, Engineering and Robotics, Medicine/Health/Microbiology and Physics and Astronomy. Students have been working on their projects since the fall, according to Wood, and covid-19 is the theme of many of them.
“Kids are testing the effectiveness of masks, they are investigating the impact of the decrease in light pollution and the impact on the environment from all of us staying home,” said Wood. “They’re also looking into impacts of distanced learning on different populations with all of the schools closing down last year.
“More of them have taken the biology route. There’s one project looking at how differences in nutrition impact a person’s experience with covid and their chances of getting it.”
The Pittsburgh Regional Science & Engineering Fair is the third oldest science fair in the U.S. under the affiliation of the Society for Science & the Public, which runs the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair and the Broadcom MASTERS middle school competition.