Flipped Science Fair Invites Children to Judge Graduate Student Posters Through a University-Community Partnership

Flipped Science Fairs put power directly into children’s hands, inviting them to judge graduate student science fair posters. At the fair, graduate students practice communicating their research to a young audience, while children have the opportunity to see themselves as valued contributors in science. Here, we present a model for a walk-in Flipped Science Fair, designed in partnership between nine Virginia Tech graduate students and the Roanoke City Public Libraries (RPL; Roanoke, VA, USA). At our event, 27 graduate students presented posters about their research, with an audience of over 250 community members. We found that hosting the Flipped Science Fair at a public library lowered barriers to entry for participants and allowed us to reach an audience further from the university. While judging posters, children learned about a wide range of leading-edge research and had meaningful interactions with diverse scientists in small-group settings. Conversely, for graduate students, this event and associated training workshops provided an opportunity to practice communicating their research to a new audience. Throughout this article, we share our experience as graduate students collaboratively conceptualizing and organizing this community-oriented Flipped Science Fair with public library partners.