A Follow-up Study on Contestants in the International Science and Engineering Fair from the Chinese Mainland

Abstract

Science competitions are an important part of science education. Research on students participating in science competitions is helpful for strengthening the role of the competitions in selecting and cultivating science and technology talent. The International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) is the world's largest pre-college science competition. This paper is a follow-up study of 70 contestants in the ISEF from the Chinese mainland (2003 to 2013). My research team emailed each of them a questionnaire to collect information on their subsequent learning and careers. The results reveal that most contestants were male; they were good at engineering, computer science and environmental science; they performed well in subsequent academic learning (70% of them won awards during their academic study, and 85% selected a major study field related to science, technology, engineering or mathematics); and the high school years is the best period in which to encourage students to pursue science-related study and careers. Based on my analysis, I offer some suggestions for cultivating young scientists.