BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh Valley’s brightest, young science minds showed off their best science projects on Saturday at the Lehigh Valley Science and Engineering Research Fair at Lehigh University.
This year, it had its largest number of participants ever.
“The fair brings all 6th-12th graders in the Lehigh Valley together to show off the research they’ve been working on since fall,” said Jill Forrest, Director of Academic Outreach at Lehigh University.
There were more than 200 projects this year.
“We have projects that range from behavior, to zoology, to engineering, computer science, botany, there’s about 13 different categories,” said Forrest.
Each student doing their best to present their hard work to the judges. The judges included professors, doctors, and industry professionals.
Frank Petrocelli is a retired AirProducts engineer and has been a judge for several years.
“I feel this is a really important way to stimulate interest in science among our young people,” said Petrocelli.
The top winners will advance to the Delaware Valley Science Fair in Philadelphia.
“This isn’t really about prizes,” said Petrocelli. “I think for the students here today, it’s experience. It’s about getting an opportunity to do science, hands-on science, to get in front of judges who will evaluate their work and maybe talk a little bit, try not to be too harsh, and then just hopefully stimulate interest.”