[Smaointe]

Two straightforward steps can be taken.

First, ensure that schools have enthusiastic and supportive teachers that are willing to stay back after school to work with kids on their science projects.

Second, remove the barrier to entry. That is, get rid of assessment and acceptance into science fairs being based on verbose entry forms. Have preliminary rounds where all students get the joy and buzz of representing at a science fair.

In Ireland the traditional science fair has been the BT Young Scientist Exhibition. This competition garners the most money and media attention. Every year thousands of applications are submitted. These applications are quickly narrowed down to approximately five hundred which are allowed to represent at the fair. The way I see it, every year this fair is losing more future scientists and technologists than it is creating. What kid will be interested in following and pursuing science after they're discouraged by a rejected application form?

A new science fair in Ireland that we now have is SciFest. This competition is in a much more encouraging format. All students no matter what project they have get the opportunity to present their projects to judges in preliminary rounds before the winners are brought through to the next round. This is a much more inclusive format.