In response to Carl Zimmer’s comments to STAT News that science fairs were flawed and an exercise in privilege, I wrote about my experience with these fairs growing up.

My first science fair opened doors for me to do real scientific research. The international fair did much more. It gave me a new goal to shoot for each year. It taught me to ask questions. It showed me that failing is not only OK but is a necessary part of science. Because you have to explain your project to everyone from science teachers and Nobel laureates to the general public, science fairs taught me how to communicate science. One of my favorite parts of science is being able to talk to someone and get them excited about science. Competing in science fairs also helped me get to the college I attend today, both in getting accepted and in paying for it with some of the awards I won. It’s impossible to say where I’d be now without science fairs, but those experiences gave me a platform to do research about the environment and introduced me to a new world of questions.

Source: STAT News interview