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Science and Engineering (S&E) fairs are a valuable educational activity and are believed to increase students’ engagement and learning in science and engineering. However, due to differences in resources, many schools do not implement fairs to achieve these benefits for their students. This study reports the findings of a program intended to increase the participation of students from low-achieving and under-resourced schools in a regional fair program that feeds into the international fair competition. We found that the number of schools and projects participating in our regional fair increased dramatically since the start of the program. Teachers had mostly positive expectations for the project and expressed buy-in for the effort the project would take. They recruited a diverse pool of students to participate in the school fairs. Quasi-experimental methods allowed us to explore the impact of completing S&E fairs on student gains on science self-efficacy, interest and value perceptions. Controlling for pre-existing differences in these attitudes, we found that students not completing projects showed declines in their science attitudes during the year. Students who completed projects maintained similar attitudes, while those whose projects advanced to the regional fair had substantial gains on all three variables. It is unknown whether this gain can be attributed to the experience of engaging with a quality project, from being the kind of student who completes a quality project, or some other factor. Future research with greater experimental control could address these questions.

is an assistant professor in the College of Education and the Department of Curriculum and Teaching with a joint appointment in the College of Engineering. Her current research involves developing and evaluating engineering design-based curriculum units that target key science concepts and environmental issues through the contextual lens of problem-based learning. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in science education at the University of Virginia, Dr. Schnittka was a middle school teacher and administrator for 10 years, and prior to that, worked as a mechanical engineer. She has published her work in journals such as the International Journal of Science Education, the International Journal of Engineering Education, Advances in Engineering Education, The Science Teacher, and Science Scope.

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Prior to her current position, she served as a Science in Motion physics specialist and an Instructor of general biology courses at Auburn University. For the past 15 years, Ms. Ewald has specialized in K-12 educational program development and implementation and currently oversees an outreach staff that delivers over twenty STEM-based student programs annually, including BEST Robotics, Science Olympiad, Greater East Alabama Regional Science and Engineering Fair, Summer Science Institute, Auburn Mathematical Puzzle Challenge, AU Explore, and Science Matters. In recent years, she has focused her K-12 efforts on working with STEM faculty to create teacher professional development opportunities related to project-based learning in middle and high school classrooms. Her academic training includes a B.S. in Physics and an M.S. in Biology, both from Auburn University.