12 February 2010
My friend Jeremy and I volunteered as judges at the Twin Cities Regional Science Fair this evening. This was my fourth time serving as such a judge, and the second time that Jeremy has joined me.
A few years ago, I judged projects at a high school science fair and I decided I didn’t want to do that again. The problem with walking into a high school and assessing the merit of the students’ projects is this: since every student has to create a science project as part of their grade for the semester, there is quite a range in quality. Some of the students had obviously not spent more than an hour on their project. Some didn’t even care to discuss their project. One girl even accept a phone call from one of her friends while I was asking her about her project.
So that’s why I like the regional fair better: every student there scored high enough in the first round (at their high school) to make it to the next round. All of them take it seriously.
This evening, I judged a project that merited 100%. I believe this is the first time I’ve ever given a project a perfect score, but he deserved it. He was testing the effect of various beverages on tooth enamel which, admittedly, isn’t stunningly original, but he did the best job of this of any project I’ve seen. Since he had no tooth enamel readily available, he used chicken eggshells. He had to devise a way to submerge eggshells in soft drinks without destroying the shells in the process. He also had to thoroughly dry these shells and then weigh them accurately. He actually brought his tiny little balance with him to show me how he did it. He also had a display case showing the actual eggshells. He repeated each experiment with each drink FIVE TIMES with different eggshells and averaged out the results. The cool thing was, his hypothesis was only partly confirmed – sometimes the shells gained weight (an indication that the soft drink was not eating away at the shell). But even in this, he had ready hypothesis to explain these aberrant results: the sugar from the colas was binding to the shells. Wow.
He also had a thorough bibliography (not just various Wikipedia pages, like some students) including an interview with a dentist. And his poster board was color coded because, as he put it, “In my research I’ve found that people prefer to look at smaller pieces of documentation instead of a big wall of text.” Again: wow.
Did I mention this kid was only 12 years old?
I hope that kid won something for his efforts (my score was averaged in with three other judges’ scores, so it’s tough to know what he ultimately scored).
13 February 2010
I would just like to take this opportunity to complain. This has been the most depressing, difficult, frustrating, obnoxious first two weeks of any college semester.
And it has nothing to do with my class. (Well, maybe a little, we are reading a very boring book of poetry).
Here’s a rambling synopsis of the last two weeks:
Nope, we’re not getting a house. Our baby-sitter canceled on us. Four times. I was sick, and missed a day of work. Then Owen had pink eye so I had to come home from work to watch him. Then Jennifer got sick. Our Jetta wasn’t starting properly, so I had to fix it. Jenifer’s level of homework is as ridiculous as it was last semester. I found out I did our Federal income taxes wrong…after sending them it. Jennifer got so sick that we trekked to urgent care and, for two nights now, I’ve slept in Owen’s room on the floor so that Jennifer’s coughing does not wake up me or Owen. She had to cancel plans to hang out with a friend she hasn’t seen in month. And my computer stopped working (I’m typing this on my wife’s computer).
Today we were going to go to one of Owen’s classmate’s birthday parties. But Jennifer was too sick, so I took Owen, even though he and I are also sick and I am tired from five nights of fitful sleep.
Even though It was exhausting, I’m glad I took Owen there. He wore himself out at the play area. The little boy and his parents were happy that 2/3 of us still made it to the party. Owen, I think, had the best time he’s ever had at any birthday party.