Weekly links February 13: fast cash after disasters, uh oh they answered on a mobile phone, rethinking the high school/undergrad research experience, and more… David McKenzie February 13, 2026 This page in: English

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/impactevaluations/weekly-links-february-13--fast-cash-after-disasters--uh-oh-they- These questions in Asterisk about whether Science fairs have outlived their usefulness also has parallels with the undergraduate econ research experience in some places. “Science fairs should be about formation to think as a scientist, not about students attaching themselves, remora-like, to prestigious labs….While the earliest science fairs directed the students to attempt to illuminate something about the world, modern competitive fairs direct the student to use science as a form of self-promotion. Students entering STS and other nationally competitive science fairs have learned that the critical hypothesis they must prove is “I’m better than my classmates.”…. Planning out a research project and then realizing you don’t have the funds to reach the sample size you need for a sufficiently powered study is a valuable education in itself. Seeing how complex, unwieldy, and expensive the scientific process is can help clarify questions like “Why has no one checked this?” or “Why don’t scientists always agree?””