One goal of 21st-century education is to develop mature citizens who can identify issues, solve problems, and communicate solutions. What better way for students to learn these skills than by participating in a science and engineering fair? Fair participants face the same challenges as professional scientists and engineers, even Nobel laureates. By identifying intellectually stimulating problems, solving these problems, and communicating the results to others, students learn lessons that are valuable throughout their educational and working lives. But students who are tackling their first science fair projects inevitably have questions and anxieties. The Archimedes Initiative is a free, online archive of videos recorded at county and state science fairs, which show students addressing their peers. This article describes the content of The Archimedes Initiative, a free internet-based self-learning experience, and suggests how students, teachers, and parents can put it to good use. (Contains 3 figures and 5 online resources.)