[vharuck]

I'm a government statistician, and a private researcher I'd worked with asked me to give a talk at a STEM charter school about to start their science fair. She asked me to focus on the reports and data tools the state publishes, so I used them as the "middle step" in some hypothetical science projects (e.g., which has a bigger effect on the rate of heart disease deaths, race or wealth?). I explained that these data couldn't replace a controlled experiment, but they were invaluable for the most important part of the scientific process: genuine attempts to disprove your own idea.

I felt good about the presentation, and then the Q&A started, with the researcher (who was smiling the whole time) joining in more and more. I quickly understood the kids didn't plan, and weren't being encouraged, to do anything like the scientific process. They wanted to pull some of the data from our tools, draw a few chats, add a little commentary, and smack it on poster board. I even attended the science fair event, and saw too many exhibits with screenshots of our website and what amounted to status reports. Reports that can be automated.

That isn't how things should work.