POCATELLO — Students from throughout the region will convene in Pocatello at Idaho State University on Friday for the fourth annual Eastern Idaho Science and Engineering Fair and the first annual Eastern Idaho eCYBERMISSION showcase.
Presented by the Idaho STEM Action Center in partnership with Idaho National Laboratory, the science fair features 110 projects by 150 high school students, including 72 individuals and 38 teams, in six categories: animal, biomedical, and microbiological sciences; behavioral and social sciences; earth, environmental, and plant sciences; physical sciences; engineering; and math, computer science, and embedded systems.
Students will present their projects to a panel of judges, with the Best of Fair winners earning an all-expense-paid trip to Anaheim, California, to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair May 10-15.
The Eastern Idaho Science and Engineering Fair is one of three such regional events the STEM Action Center hosts statewide each spring.
The regional eCYBERMISSION showcase — part of a nationwide, web-based STEM competition for students in grades sixth through ninth — features nine projects by 31 middle school and junior high school students. The teams were challenged to explore how science, technology, engineering and math apply to their world while working as a team to solve problems in their communities.
The STEM Action Center partnered with the U.S. Army Educational Outreach Program to bring the popular competition to Idaho, with regional showcases also planned for Western Idaho and North Idaho. National finalists earn an all-expenses-paid trip to compete at the national judging and education event June 4-19 in Washington, D.C.
The Eastern Idaho science fair and eCYBERMISSION showcase will be held simultaneously in the ballroom at ISU’s Pond Student Union Building at 1065 Cesar Chavez Ave. in Pocatello. The events are open to the public from 3 to 6 p.m. with an awards ceremony and keynote speech by ISU associate professor of mathematics education Dr. Cory Bennett scheduled for 5 to 6 p.m. Admission is free.
According to STEM Action Center Executive Director Dr. Angela Hemingway, competitions like these are important to the state’s future, offering students opportunities to engage in original research projects aligned with their interests and meet and learn with other motivated students in their area.
“The quality of the research presented at Idaho STEM competitions is impressive and the work our students are doing is competitive at the international level,” Dr. Hemingway said. “The technical skills gained from participating in these events, as well as the ability to communicate results, think deeply and critically about issues, and solve real-world problems, will serve our students well as they transition into the workforce.”
In addition to facilitating critical and creative thinking, problem-solving, innovation and collaboration, she said STEM skills are needed for 17 of Idaho’s 20 fastest-growing jobs and that STEM jobs pay more than twice as much as non-STEM jobs.
“The state anticipates 20 percent job growth in STEM careers — including health care, computing, engineering and advanced manufacturing — by 2026,” Dr. Hemingway said. “Currently there are nearly 86,000 STEM workers statewide, and the Idaho Department of Labor predicts we may have 105,000 STEM jobs by 2026 — a 19,000-job increase in just six years from now. It is critical we build the STEM talent pipeline now so Idahoans have the knowledge and skills required to fill these high-demand STEM jobs now and in the future.”
She said these jobs would represent about $7 billion in personal income and about $352 million in tax revenue if Idaho’s workforce is poised to fill them.