The annual 40th Permian Basin Science and Engineering Fair is coming up Feb. 2-3 in the University of Texas Permian Basin gym. This year, Diamondback Energy is the sponsor.
“That’s a huge thing,” said Doug Young, UTPB senior lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Physics.
Public viewing of projects is tentatively scheduled from noon to 1:00 p.m. Feb. 3 at the UTPB gym. Awards are expected to be presented at 2 p.m.
Students from grades three through 12 can enter and they can come from throughout the Permian Basin, Young said.
“We have a good number of projects, particularly in the elementary division from ECISD. The STEM Academy is now part of ECISD, so they’re actually going to be contributing a few (projects). They’re really spread out pretty evenly. The Young Women’s Leadership Academy, for example, is another one from Midland that’s sending some students to us,” Young said.
There are three divisions in the competition — elementary, which is for students from third through fifth grade; the junior division, which is for students in grades six through eight; and the senior division, which is for students in grades nine through 12, he added.
“The junior and senior division groups, if they win first or second place, will be eligible to go to the state fair in College Station,” Young said. That will be in March.
They sponsor one project to participate in the International Science and Engineering Fair, which is in Los Angeles this year.
Last year, one of the projects was a self-navigating submarine that would navigate around obstacles and another was a solar heat updraft tower with wind augmentation.
Even if the projects don’t work out, Young said the big thing is that the students learn from it.
“They learn a lot by doing these kinds of things. Even if they fail, they succeed in learning something,” he added.
Young said he is pleased to have Ector County ISD and Midland ISD schools take part in the fair.
“I think we’re seeing a wider range, particularly in the elementary division, of schools from ECISD. Reagan (Elementary), for example, is participating and they have a very strong group. They’re giving Carver (Center, a school for identified gifted and talented students) a run for their money in terms of participation, especially in the elementary divisions. The elementary division has become a lot more competitive than it used to be, which I guess is also a good thing,” he added.
Young said the fair is seeing some growth, but not a lot yet in terms of participation.
“We’re still recovering from COVID, but we’re on a good glide path, I think, for recovering from COVID,” he added.
“Last year … it was small, but it was competitive. This year, I’m hoping to see more projects … than we did last year. That’s always the goal,” Young said.
The fair had about 300 projects last year.
The deadline to enter this year is Jan. 25. “If they send an email to [email protected], we can give them more information. And if they’re interested in volunteering or judging, they should also give us a call or send us an email as well and we’ll get them set up for that,” Young said.
He added that he would encourage more students to try the science fair out.
“There is no better way to prepare for a career in science engineering than to do science fair and I can say that as a scientist. When I was in graduate school and had to do poster presentations, it was just like doing science fair. There’s no difference and I actually won a lot of awards when I was a graduate student for the posters that I did. Again, it all related back to when I was student doing science fair. So again, in my view, there is no better way to prepare for a career than to do science fair. I know robotics is really big here. But (with) robotics, they give you a problem to solve” and it works or it doesn’t work, Young said.
“In science fair, you create your own problem … that you solve or you don’t solve,” he added.
Although it’s a lot of work to organize, he added that it’s a very gratifying experience. Yvonne Drinkard is his co-director.
“Working with the kids, seeing how clever they are is always rewarding and knowing that you’re planting seeds. I did science fair when I was a kid and it was a big thing when I was growing up. It was a big thing for me. … Everybody that is involved in science fair when they’re young, tends to feel the need to try to move it forward as much as we can,” Young said.
The work of organizing the science fair goes on year-round.
“It really starts getting hot and heavy in about August when the the students generally begin working on their projects in August or September. Then in December-January is when we’re doing our thing,” ordering medals and pins that are going to be given away to students this year.
“We did it before COVID and this is the first year we’re able to start doing it again, thanks to Diamondback Energy, once again. They gave us the money so that we could do something like this,” Young said.
