A Stimulating Experience

The purpose of this study was to examine the views of internationalScience Olympiad participants on the benefits of the competition and the factors thataffected their career aspirations. We also investigated how students’ choice ofcompetition category varied with respect to gender. The sample included 273International Sustainable World Energy, Engineering, and Environment Project (I-SWEEEP)participants from 39 countries. Mixed-methods were used to analyze the data. Descriptivestatistics and t-statistics were provided to answer the first question. As a means ofaddressing the second question, a chi-square test was utilized to examine howparticipants’ category selection differed by gender. Qualitative analysis was used toreveal the types of benefits students reaped from participation in the I-SWEEEP. Resultsindicated that students were most affected by their teachers, parents, and personalinterests. Although the relationship between gender and competition category was notstatistically significant, there nevertheless emerged a pattern showing that girlspreferred environmental science projects (45.5%) to engineering projects (24.4%).Qualitative analyses revealed six themes as benefits that students gained fromparticipation in the I-SWEEEP. The relationship among the fundamental themes was alsoexamined and revealed important findings. The results have educational implications forhelping students accomplish to be science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM) professionals in the future