BackgroundBackground Research Design/Procedure Science fairs provide an excellent opportunity for students to receive hands-on experience with the subjects they learn about in the classroom setting. This study looks at one interesting question that has never been studied before. Do students who participate in a science fair become interested in pursuing a STEM related career? Or are students who are pursuing a STEM career already have prior interest before participating and their participation was due to a requirement? If students who are interested in a STEM career did indeed became interested as a result of participating in a science fair then perhaps it would be advisable for schools to require science fair participation as part of their curriculum. Research Question Do science fairs influence a students decision to pursue a STEM career? Does grade level play a role in a students decision? A total of 407 science fair students responded to a survey questions asking what category there project was in, their top 5 career choices, and why they chose their top career. The answers to these surveys were compiled into an Excel spread sheet. Once compiled, the students’ top career choices were given a code based on whether it related to their science fair project or not. A 0 means that their career had nothing to do with their project category, a 1 means they had a STEM career, but not related to their project, and a 2 means their career is an exact match to their project category. Afterwards, a Chi- Square Test of Independence test was conducted for both gender and grade level to determine whether the relationships were due to chance or if the students’ participation in the science fair likely influenced their career choice. ResultsResults DiscussionDiscussion Grade levels were divided into three groups: 6-8, 9&10, and 11&12. Out of the 64 students in grades 6-8, it was expected that approximately 17 students would choose a non-STEM career and 46 would choose a STEM related career. Likewise, it was expected that 58 students in grades 9&10 and 36 students in grades 11&12 would choose a non-STEM career while 152 students in grades 9&10 and 95 students in grades 11&12 would choose a STEM related career. Out of the three divisions, the observed results were close to the expected only for students in grades 6-8. The remaining grade levels had relatively large gaps between the expected and the observed results. The male vs female test shows a much greater difference. Out of the 46 males and 66 females who were expected to choose a non-STEM career, 106 males and only 7 females chose such careers. 169 males and 238 females out of the 122 expected males and 171 expected females chose a STEM related career. Both tests show a significant difference between the students’ expected choice and their actual observed responses. This data suggests, that the observed difference is likely due to the science fair’s influence on their decision and not because of random chance. Vlad Derun, Penn State Abington Advisor: Dr. K. Fadigan None Category MatchSTEM Category Female Male Female Male Female Male Behavioral/Social Sciences Biochemistry Botany Chemistry Computer Science Consumer Science Earth/Space Science Engineering Environmental Sciences Mathematics Medicine & Health Microbiology Physics Zoology Team Projects Table 1: Gender Distribution of STEM Careers by Project Category Table 2: Chi-Square Test for STEM Career Match by Grade Level Table 3: Chi-Square Test for STEM Career Match by Gender Image from Microsoft Word ClipArt Collection