Students from around the area will have a chance to show off their curiosity and research prowess at the University of Texas Permian Basin Science and Engineering Fair set for Feb. 11 in the UTPB Gym.
Senior Lecturer Douglas Young, who is the fair co-director with Jessica Raymond, said he estimates there will be 250 projects from youngsters in third through 12th grade. The public will be able to view the projects from 12:30-1:30 p.m. Feb. 11.
It’s just one project per student, but you can have groups of up to three who worked on one project.
If they place first or second in their category, they can advance to the state fair in College Station.
They will open the doors on Feb. 10 for students from the region to bring their projects in early. Then Saturday morning, people that are farther away will bring them in to set up. The projects will be judged and the awards ceremony held.
“We extended the deadline for the junior-senior group because of the weather. It was supposed to be today (Feb. 1), but we extended it until Friday,” Young said.
He added that they have seen a fair amount of growth in entries generally.
“We have a student trying to build a coloring robot, a robot that can color, so I thought that one was kind of cute. We have a project about black hole collision and solar flares and a student did a project about rocketry — the effect of rocket fin shape on distance. Then we’ve got the more exotic (one) using gRNA (guided RNA) for sickle cell disease treatment. … It will be interesting to see what that student does. It’s always a wide variety and this is just in the junior-senior division group,” Young said.
The elementary students’ projects are wide ranging and only limited by their imagination.
Young said it’s important for students to participate in fairs like this if they enjoy science and engineering.
“If students want to go into a career in science and engineering, especially if they want to do research in science and engineering, I don’t think there’s any better preparation for that than the science fair. I participated in science fair when I was a kid. When I went on to graduate school and did poster sessions, it was just like science fair. … The science fair is designed to be like a scientific or engineering conference where students present their results. The only difference is that it’s a competition, too,” Young said.
“I can’t think of any better way for students to get that research experience. A lot of times in the schools we tend to present science and engineering as facts … There’s a lot of trial and error that’s involved when you’re doing research — a lot of trials; a lot of errors. Then after working for a while you eventually start to see some progress, hopefully,” he added.
He pointed out the importance of staying with things.
“I can see in my classes, the students struggle with persistence. If they don’t get the answer really quick, sometimes they tend to give up a little bit easily and with science and engineering you can’t do that. You have to persist and bat it around and play with it. Try to see if you can figure out what’s going on,” Young said.
He added that they make a point of hosting the fair at UTPB every year.
“I hope we never have to move off campus. … We have our students do some judging, especially in the elementary schools division group. That’s one of our best assets is our students. A lot of the university athletes will volunteer to work at the fair. That’s always good to see because they get to see the big kids out and about,” Young said.
Judges and contributions are always needed. Those who are interested can register at tinyurl.com/5hyxkf73
Planning for the fair is a year-long effort.
“Right after our fair is over (we’re) working with the students and teachers to get their students to the state fair. Then once the state fair’s over, we have to start thinking about next year,” Young said.
He added that he wants to push trying to contact schools in the region before the end of spring semester and let them know the fair exists and if they have students that are interested in participating to let them know.
He also wants to thank the community for its support.
