PAUL SMITHS — On April 6, more than 30 fifth through 12th grade students from Clinton, Essex, Franklin and St. Lawrence counties and Akwesasne will compete at Paul Smith’s College in the Terra Northeast Regional STEM Fair.

Mary Eileen Wood, STEM engagement coordinator at Terra Science and Education, said the regional fair is like the “Olympic trials” of science fairs.

“Close your eyes. Think of the Olympics,” she said. “Now put international science and engineering fairs at the apex, and that’s us.”

The STEM fair is far from the traditional baking soda volcanoes the average adult might imagine science fairs to be. The fair asks students to “try on” different STEM careers, Wood said, ranging from environmental science to behavioral science to computer science.

“What’s exciting about a science fair is, a student takes a step beyond the standard curriculum and explores learning from the point of view of ‘I have a question and I’m going to go find the answer,'” she said.

In Wood’s view, the science fair is a safe space for kids to explore different areas of and careers in STEM and see what feels right for them and their interests. It also helps them develop life skills that’ll help them in adulthood.

“It’s a way to own their knowledge. It’s also a way they realize that, in the classroom, they are filling their tool belts with knowledge and techniques and tools that they’re able to use in their lives,” Wood said. “As adults, every time we make a decision, we have questions, whether it’s the math of ‘Can I do this mortgage?’ or the understanding of ‘If I buy that food instead of this, what’s the cost per pound?’ … Science fair prepares them beautifully for their futures.”

Most of the projects are independently driven and executed by the students, with teachers acting as a partner and helper.

After the project itself is completed, the student’s job is not over. They still have to present their project at the fair to the judges, who will interview them as a part of their assessment. At the high school level, people with degrees or skilled tradespeople do the judging for various disciplines and subject matters. At the middle school level, judging is done by college students, which Wood said is exciting for the middle schoolers.

The judging process is meant to encourage the kids to celebrate their accomplishments, Wood said.

“It’s not a doctoral dissertation where everyone’s egos are involved,” she said. “It’s an adult coming up to a child and asking three questions: What did you do? What did you learn? And what would you like to do next?”

The students will also participate in a public fair session at 2:15 p.m., which will be held in the Saunders Sports Complex at PSC, though some kids are now attending the fair virtually, as it had to be rescheduled due to last weekend’s snowstorm. During this public session, members of the Tri-Lakes public are invited to come to PSC and explore the students’ projects, asking them questions about their work.

“Everyone gains by seeing and meeting the kids in the fair,” Wood said. “By putting their feet in front of those kids and saying ‘Tell me what you did’ and listening, every time a kid has an adult come and say that, you can see them grow in their own estimation. It’s not vanity; it’s a discovery that they’ve made a really good choice.”

A variety of awards await the prize-winning students.

“The awards are cool,” Wood said. “We have things from NASA, the Navy and Marine Corps, the Air Force, NOAA. We have Society of American Engineers. We have people that want to make sure you know how to use the metric system, so they give you an award if you do that well.”

Some of the top prizes include entry into higher levels of competition — hence the “Olympic trials.” Terra pays for all of the students’ trips, so if they win the prize, they do not have to worry about the financial strain of travel.

The fair will send one student to the annual Symposium on Energy in the 21st Century in Syracuse as a guest of the symposium’s founder. It’ll send three projects from St. Lawrence County to the New York state Science Congress in Syracuse. One student will be asked to submit a proposal to the Junior Stockholm Water Prize, an international competition. One project will be sent forward to the Genius Olympiad, an international competition focused on environmental issues. One project will be sent to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles, and one student will be selected for a pilot exchange program in Zimbabwe.

Wood said the Zimbabwe program is “huge.” She connected with the organizer of the Zimbabwe Science Fair a few years ago and they began thinking about a STEM exchange program.

“We want to find ways that we can make lives better for kids. If a child comes from the U.S. and goes to Zimbabwe, we’ve exploded their world,” she said. “If we bring the kids over from Zimbabwe (to the U.S.), they go home having gotten international visibility for their intellect. … It’s a game-changer on the Zimbabwe side.”

Wood said that the opportunities students can earn as a result of their work at next week’s science fair are invaluable.

“(There’s) everything to be gained and nothing to be lost,” she said. “We get to go on these adventures with the kids.”

The public is invited to attend the Terra Northeast Regional STEM Fair at 2:15 p.m. on April 6 in the Saunders Sports Complex at PSC. Wood is still recruiting local volunteers and volunteer judges, too. For more information, email her at mewood@terraed.org.