Whiz Kids

There is no such thing as a simple science project anymore.

At the Intel Science and Engineering Fair, 1,200 of the finest young minds in the country are competing for top prizes of $50,000 each. What they bring to the fair is incredibly sophisticated. So sophisticated, in fact, you may not know what you're looking at.

There are the requisite robots, the gravity-defying gizmos and, of course, lots of really big words.

Today's science fair is a far cry from the clay volcanoes and Styrofoam planets of yesteryear, says The Early Show National correspondent Tracy Smith reports.

"We had 30 projects in 1950 and we have almost 1,300 this year," says Don Harless, Science Service president. "They've become very, very sophisticated."

Sophisticated indeed.

"After I completed biothematics, I ended up with a DNA sequence that has gaps in it," says one whiz kid. "By that method, my PCR product can be separated by size."

With that sophistication comes ever-intensifying competition. So these kids come prepared.

"You've got to have confidence," says one contestant. "You have to dress the part, too. "You can't just walk in with a pair of jeans and stuff."

The students had a lot of poise and most seem focused says observers.

In the science fair, projects have to be worthy of a Ph.D or at least have some practical application, such as the bike that powers a blender. Or the study of how skull size relates to intelligence.

But the projects aren't the only things that have changed. Science fairs used to be the domain of slide rule wielding boys, but today the female of the species is giving the guys some tough competition.

A lot of that has to do with the one to one ratio of boys to girls. Compare that to 50 years ago, when only about 10 percent of the contestants were girls.

In fact, when this year's judging was over, three girls won the three top prizes.