Northern Idaho Science Fair bound for CdA Friday

COEUR d’ALENE — Students from throughout the region will convene at The Coeur d’Alene Resort Conference Center Friday for the fourth annual Northern Idaho Science and Engineering Fair.

Presented by the Idaho STEM Action Center, the science fair features 85 projects by 135 high school students, including 35 individuals and 50 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, Calif., to compete in the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair May 10-15.

The Northern Idaho Science and Engineering Fair is one of three such regional events the STEM Action Center hosts statewide each spring.

The event is open to the public from 3 to 6 p.m. with an awards ceremony and keynote speech by Hecla Mining Co. director of continuous improvement and STEM Action Center board member Jeff Rosser scheduled for 5-6 p.m. Admission is free.

According to STEM Action Center executive director Dr. Angela Hemingway, competitions like this 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,” 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.