Whiz Kids profiles a special group of students who are focused on attaining recognition for their research through Intel's yearly Science Talent Search. We see them try out their data at science fairs in their own regions to hone presentation skills and seek opportunity. Creating their own pressure to succeed based on curiosity that simply cannot be satisfied in their safe environment, we watch three very different students try to provoke their way into a larger scientific community.
Ana is cultivating new ideas for plant growth, seeing how far apart roots have to be from each other so that they won't feel like they have to compete. Kelydra has wired up a solution in her kitchen for separating the polluting C8 chemical from her local drinking water in West Virginia. Harmain is the first to think of finding a time period to crocodile teeth with electricity instead of the more limited carbon dating method.
While all three subjects are worthy of distinction and solid choices of underdogs to cheer for, Kelydra's story is by far the most rewarding and interactive. Not only does it include grass-roots organizing as she campaigns to reinstate the regional science fair, but you also see her path to learning that how she communicates is just as important as what she's communicating. She gets the fullest story of all, and deservedly so, but it also makes you wonder after a while if the camera is focusing on the others simply to fill in space.
Attention may be insufficiently spread, but the overall production quality is pretty sound. To balance out the personal stories are imaginative animation sequences that highlight such details as explaining individual studies in such a way that anyone can understand their significance. These explanatory moments are entertaining for their humor as well as for the break from talking heads.
Considering how little we focus on positive projects that students self-initiate, Whiz Kids shows us not only that youth are often much smarter than we give them credit for, but reminds teens and families alike that if you don't immediately succeed there is still something to be gained in the actual process. Every experience is an education in itself, and you leave this film positively reflecting on how much of a chain reaction life really is.
