--- title: White House Science Fair Puts Whiz Kids in the Spotlight description: The White House uses the science fair to highlight the administration's support of STEM canonical: https://time.com/3753897/white-house-science-fair-obama-2/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-23T11:27:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T05:21:06.921Z article:section: Science og:title: White House Science Fair Puts Whiz Kids in the Spotlight og:description: The White House uses the science fair to highlight the administration's support of STEM og:url: https://time.com/3753897/white-house-science-fair-obama-2/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Science Fair Puts Whiz Kids in the Spotlight twitter:description: The White House uses the science fair to highlight the administration's support of STEM twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # White House Science Fair Puts Whiz Kids in the Spotlight by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Mar 23, 2015 11:27 AM UTC by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Mar 23, 2015 11:27 AM UTC Whether he’s [shooting off a marshmallow cannon](http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/%5Fnews/2012/02/07/10344925-harmless-missile-fire-in-white-house?lite) or [pedaling a bike-powered water sanitation system](http://science.nbcnews.com/%5Fnews/2013/04/22/17866700-this-stuff-is-cool-obama-goes-into-high-gear-at-white-house-science-fair?lite), President Barack Obama looks forward to the [White House Science Fair](https://www.whitehouse.gov/science-fair) as a day to be shocked and awed by school-age whiz kids. “I love this event,” [Obama told reporters at last year’s fair](http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/obama-unleashes-his-inner-geek-again-white-house-science-fair-n115451), where he caught a basketball that was fired off by a mechanical catapult. “This is one of my favorite things all year long.” But the science fair, which takes place for the fifth time on Monday, isn’t just fun and games: Each year’s lineup includes serious innovations — and you can’t get much more serious than the Safe & Sound smartphone app … [_Read the rest of this article from our partners at NBC News_](http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/white-house-science-fair-puts-whiz-kids-serious-spotlight-n327701?cid=par-time-article%5F20150323) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3753897/white-house-science-fair-obama-2/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3753897/white-house-science-fair-obama-2/"},"headline":"White House Science Fair Puts Whiz Kids in the Spotlight","datePublished":"2015-03-23T11:27:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T05:21:06.921Z","description":"The White House uses the science fair to highlight the administration's support of STEM","url":"https://time.com/3753897/white-house-science-fair-obama-2/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3753897/white-house-science-fair-obama-2/","name":"White House Science Fair Puts Whiz Kids in the Spotlight"}}]}] ```