Homelss Intel semi-finalist

Dad_of_3
Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:01:46 +0000

Sounds like many of these kids are glorified lab assistants, and that the whole process is very suspect.



For my kids I got them started very early in STEMish projects and activities, where they initially were “glorified lab assistants”. The older two took the bait while #3 wasn’t interested. Over time, the 1 & 2 continued using their own initiative and effort that carried on well into college, while #3 has very little to show in this regard.

What I’m trying to say is that while for a given competition, a student’s output may overstate what the student actually did, if the student is motivated, this experience serves as a foundation and can lead to a lot of good long term in this regard; someone who didn’t have opportunities of this kind may end up never doing any project on their own because they simply didn’t have the experience or background.