Mentors may work with students at school, in a lab, at home or anywhere project work takes place. Mentors have a responsibility to ensure that the project remains the work of the student. The mentor’s role is to help students acquire background information, teach the techniques required to test the purpose or hypothesis and above all to look out for the safety of young scientists. The mentor is encouraged to discuss potential topics with the students. The mentor should not suggest or assign a specific topic to the student (the idea must come from the student), take data for the student (unless the student is willing to give credit to the data taker and does not claim the data as their own) or analyze the data for the student. These actions remove the opportunity for students to learn from doing these activities on their own, and devalue student science project work in general. (Calgary Youth Science Fair 2025; Massachusetts State Science Fair 2006).