Testimonials

"It was really fun getting to know the kids that you worked with and interact with them."

"It’s able to build your character in terms of patience and care for others as most of the time I don’t have time for mentoring people especially not elementary schoolers and this activity was really was able to expand this “human” side that I was never able to explore because I was so focused with my own work. I almost felt like I had a bigger responsibility than my schoolwork, like a parent. I personally enjoyed it. "

"I loved meeting the student that I coached! He was really sweet and very knowledgeable for his age."

"SFA provided a great opportunity where we could help the community and students around us by spending a few extra hours which honestly felt like minutes with all of the amazingly smart kids who were full of ideas. It was a great learning experience to work with those ideas and help them shape it into something even better. I wasn’t able to go much, but I really enjoyed it and the ability that we could go as a group made it much more comfortable."

"Loved connecting with my mentee and help him reach "aha" moments in his experiment"

"My experience with SFA last year was great. I was able to help several elementary school students with their Science Fair projects, and it felt good to know that I was able to make a difference in their learning. Participating in SFA was very rewarding, especially knowing that many of the students we are mentoring are young and just getting started with science, and that their experience with Science Fair could play a large role in helping them understand how enjoyable science can be. I believe that Science Fair Academy is a great way to encourage elementary school students and help them learn about scientific ideas and concepts and perform experiments that they would not otherwise have gotten the chance to learn or do. "

"Was great working with kids to help them learn more about science "

The organization was well-structured, managed to get in contact with multiple schools and establish credibility, and greatly helped many elementary school students take their first steps in the science fair, fostering an overall interest in science in general. "

I wish I could have started earlier.

The only thing I wish I could change about last year is my participating. I wish I was able to go more, and hopefully I will this year!

I wish I could consistently stay with my Science Fair mentee as I had to change multiple times therefore leaving lots of confusion of guidance making me believe the projects may have performed worse because of this inconsistency

"I learned about Science Fair on the Elementary level, specifically the engineering type projects."

"Something I learned while participating in SFA is how much elementary and middle school students can benefit from our help. Many of them are just getting started with science and may not be confident in their abilities, so our help and influence could play a major role in not only their success but also in their interest in science moving forward."

"I learned that kids no matter the age are inquisitive and will work hard given the opportunity."

"Not everything will go exactly as planned therefore I should expect to have bumps in the road and increase my patience"

I learned that it is much harder than I thought to help keep elementary school students focused and on track. This forced me to re-assess my methods of mentoring them as I couldn't help them in the same way that I could help one of my peers with an assignment.

During my first meeting with the kids, I was genuinely surprised by their thoughtful and interesting ideas. I had never before considered the elementary school students competing and I had nothing to compare them to, but I was all the same surprised by their ideas.

I thought that because I wasn't "great" at science, I could not help with experiments.

Kids actually like science sometimes

I assumed that those that went to schools that were of worse reputation would be harder to work with but, if anything, they were actually easier and more fun to work with.

"The Science Fair meeting last year"

8

• (We only had a few students that were interested in doing a science fair project, so we only had one meeting as a group to go over ideas. It was helpful for the students to talk through ideas)

"yes, it was helpful to weed out ideas that would be difficult to test"

"yes, hoping to pair students up more this year"

"NA"

100% of teachers responded "yes"