05.19.08

At the end of the Apollo space program, the US contributed about 75 percent of technological breakthroughs to the world. That figure is now less than 25 percent, says Rick Chappell, director of the Dyer Observatory in Nashville, Tenn. What's more, 22 percent of technical and scientific jobs in the US today are held by foreign-born workers who could repatriate if opportunities arise in their home countries, warns the 2005 "Innovation and a Competitive US Economy" report issued by the Information Technology Association of America.

Indeed, the lack of a unifying national scientific mission like going to the moon is one reason why not enough US-born kids are digging harder into their math and science texts, experts say. The outsourcing of technical jobs to developing nations is another.

"We're not getting the layer below the cream," says John Clark, a former ISEF contestant and judge, whose son, James, built the small-well pump. "The fact is we've got Bill Gates 2.0 floating around here somewhere. We've just got to find him."

The US has spent $600 million since 2002 through the National Science Foundation on 52 national projects that attempt to reform the way science and math are taught at the elementary and secondary level. Some of that money has gone to seed local science bowls and math bees, fueling what appears to be a growing interest among kids and parents in math and science smackdowns.