Oklahoma De-funds Science Fair

Students launch a fundraising campaign to rescue the event, which was a casualty of budget cuts to the state’s education department.

Written byKerry Grens
| 2 min read

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WIKIMEDIA, OKIEFROMOKLAAfter 45 years of judging students’ talent in science and engineering, Oklahoma has canceled its state-sponsored science fair. KFOR reported yesterday (April 11) that budgets cuts wouldn’t allow for the $50,000 annual event to proceed.

“This is one of the sad notes when it comes to what happens when we have a loss of funding or when we see budgets that are smaller than they have been in the past,” Joy Hofmeister, the state superintendent, told KFOR. “Decisions have to be made and unfortunately this is the way cuts came down.”

The most recent science fair showcased kids’ projects at the end of March. Students took home prizes for studies such as screening algae for antimicrobial metabolites and developing biodegradable polymers from plant-derived glucose.

Several students at Cascia Hall Preparatory School in Tulsa are appealing to charity to revive the state science fair. “We decided that we really needed a [student-led] organization to spearhead this project because at the end ...

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  • kerry grens

    Kerry served as The Scientist’s news director until 2021. Before joining The Scientist in 2013, she was a stringer for Reuters Health, the senior health and science reporter at WHYY in Philadelphia, and the health and science reporter at New Hampshire Public Radio. Kerry got her start in journalism as a AAAS Mass Media fellow at KUNC in Colorado. She has a master’s in biological sciences from Stanford University and a biology degree from Loyola University Chicago.

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