Above: You are invited to enjoy the audience favorite from Sundance Film Festival. (official trailer)
St. Mark’s School is inviting the community to join them for a free screening of a National Geographic film. This isn’t one of the company’s vivid nature films. (Well, maybe human nature.)
Based on reviews, you might want to view it just for fun. Based on the subject, parents might want to bring their kids to get them psyched for science.
St. Mark’s School was selected for a screening of the documentary “Science Fair”. The movie is a lauded “front seat” look at:
the victories, defeats and motivations of an incredible group of young men and women who are on a path to change their lives, and the world, through science.
The school asked me to invite the public to join them for the screening this Thursday night. No registration is required to attend the screening.
Nat Geo promotes the film:
Hailed by critics as “immensely likeable,” “brilliant and quirky” and an “ode to the teenage science geeks on who our future depends,” and winner of the audience award at Sundance and SXSW, National Geographic Documentary Films’ Science Fair follows nine high school students from around the globe as they navigate rivalries, setbacks and, of course, hormones, on their journey to compete at The International Science and Engineering Fair. As 1,700 of the smartest, quirkiest teens from 78 different countries face off, only one will be named Best in Fair.
With 98% approval by critics (and 93% by audience), Rotten Tomatoes sums up reviews by calling the film:
further proof that real-life academic competition can make for effortlessly entertaining – and ultimately uplifting – cinema.
The movie will be shown this Thursday, November 29th, at 7:30 pm in the Putnam Family Arts Center, St. Mark’s School, 25 Marlboro Road. (Click here for the campus map.)
Since a school is screening the film, I was curious if their students have any involvement with the fair. The short answer is yes. The longer is below.
Science Department Chair Lindsey Lowater explained:
St. Mark’s has a program called the STEM Fellowship (which I direct) and the students in this program complete one year of independent science research. They then compete every year in the Worcester Regional Science and Engineering Fair held at WPI in March. This is a qualifying event for the Massachusetts State Science and Engineering Fair. They spend over 4 hours with judges who are science professionals during the Fair and they are assessed on the quality of their project design as well as the execution and analysis of data.
Additionally, the top FIVE student projects in our region (Region II) qualify to represent MA at the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) which is held in May each year. We have had three students qualify for ISEF in the last three years (one in 2016 and two in 2018).
