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VALERIE TAYLORSpringstead teacher Craig Gates said he is gratified by the successes of Science and Engineering Fair and by the students he has seen go on to science careers.
After 20 years of coordinating the Hernando County Regional Science and Engineering Fair - a 40 hour a week task on top of a full teaching schedule - Springstead High science teacher Craig Gates is stepping down.
He's confident the fair will go on.
"Someone will step forward to do it, and maybe even make it better," Gates said.
Since he arrived at Springstead in 1984, Gates has been the driving force behind the event, which has produced state and international winners and is among the best in Florida.
He has been promoting the importance of the Science Fair to businesses and the community the old-fashioned way, by knocking on doors. By his estimates, students have received about $2-million in awards, including scholarships, savings bonds and equipment.
"If we don't have incentives, some students won't get involved," said Gates.
Gates has made science projects mandatory is some of his classes - not always a pleasing prospect to some students. But then he also uses his connections to pair up students with a professional in the community.
"If a student was interested in working with animals, I'd line them up with a veterinarian," he said. That kind of mentoring has turned some students on to careers. "Then they come back to school the next year and say when can we start, when can we start (our science projects)?' "
Springstead senior Megan Bartlett credits the Science Fair with giving her a solid knowledge of how research works. She spent part of the summer at the University of California, Davis doing research on wine grapes and investigating how different growing conditions affect the grapes' maturity. The research could help growers control sugar content and flavor.
Another Springstead senior, Nick Duncan, spent seven weeks at the University of Florida working in food science. His research focuses on how packaging affects food quality.
And while both lament their teacher's retirement from the science fair, the students are happy that they will still be able to draw on Gates guidance for day-to-day help with their projects. Although Gates looks forward to a few extra hours in the week to work on or oversee construction of his new home, and spending more time with his five grandchildren, his enthusiasm for science - and the science fair - has not waned.
"Science is important because it teaches thinking and discipline. And the Regional Science Fair gives students the experience of how they'll be judged like the state would," he said.
From the regional, which is usually in early February, 24 students go to the state finals. Then a maximum of four are selected for the internationals, where competition from all over the world is fierce.
"We've always finished at the top 25 percent in the internationals, and usually in the top four slots," said Gates, whose own beginnings in science were unremarkable, he recalls.
"I was not a science nerd," he said. He did participate in science fairs, but "I was terrible at it."
Growing up in the country near Battle Creek, Mich., the science seeds might have been planted when Gates' high school biology teacher did the kind of things that might happen only in a small, rural school, such as taking the class for the day to a nearby river, where they collected bloodsuckers and algae. And if a farmer's calf died, he might bring it to the school where there was an immediate biology and anatomy class.
"That's when dissection was legal," he adds.
Students today have more guidance, Gates said, and science has been made a priority in schools since the Russians beat the United States into space in 1957 by launching Sputnik, the first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth.
That emphasis on science, and the community support for science in Hernando schools is outstanding, Gates said.
"We are doing more than many larger counties," he said.
That's evident in some of the success stories. Gates said one student received a "full ride" to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology after catching someone's eye at MIT with her science projects and her summer work there.
Nick Duncan's older brother, Chris, who now works in research at the University of Florida just took first place in competition in Las Vegas from the Institute of Food Technologists. He presented the winning abstract for an ongoing research project on compounds in peanuts, a project he started in his freshman year at Springstead.
"Without science fair experience, I would have been totally out of place," said Duncan.
Gates said the science fair and the summer work give students an enormous advantage over other college kids. And seeing them succeed is gratifying. "I know I'll miss the enthusiasm of the students," he said. "I don't know what to expect (when I'm no longer doing the fair). Since 1969, when I first started teaching science, I've never not done a science fair."