I think you're spot on with all of this. The only way to do good molecular/cell biological benchwork is with access to a bona-fide lab. I have a suspicion that

I think you're spot on with all of this. The only way to do good molecular/cell biological benchwork is with access to a bona-fide lab. I have a suspicion that I could ferret out most of the kids who didn't do the bio work, but I suppose there could be a few who know the nuances of the work really well (or they can make up plausible lies and state them with confidence). It might be better to restrict these competitions to "engineering". You can do some pretty good engineering/programming even as a youngster.