Giving Compass' Take:

• Science fairs are intended to spark interest in science in young students, but inequitable access to resources makes them unfair to less privileged students. 

• How can science fair rules ensure all participants have equal footing for the event? Can philanthropy subsidize science fairs to increase access among less-privileged student? 

• Learn how businesses can address inequality and poverty.

Springtime is science fair season. Thousands of kids across the country, from elementary through high school, spend weeks or months coaxing seedlings to grow, building devices to harness solar energy and carefully mixing acids and bases.

As educational opportunities, science fairs let students tackle the scientific method hands on. Classically that process begins with identifying a question, developing a hypothesis to answer it and then devising an experiment to test that hunch. In principle, kids who participate will not only learn about science but may also be inspired to join the next generation of scientists and engineers. But the fairs also have problems.

For starters, there’s a growing sense among some scientists and educators that many science fairs aren’t actually very good at teaching kids about, well, science. The field of science is ever changing and advancing, but the fair sticks to fairly rigid, traditional rules.

And too often the fair is a burden on families and teachers. Jackie DeLisi, a research scientist at the Education Development Center, a Massachusetts nonprofit, has found that schools and families invest a lot of time and money in these fairs; teachers may spend as much as six weeks of class time preparing for them. Furthermore, if the fair becomes a contest between kids with financial resources and plenty of parental help, and students without access to fancy supplies or a grown-up’s guidance, it’s worth asking whether science fairs are fair.

Read more about science fairs by Daisy Yuhas at The Hechinger Report