Don’t let the title mislead you, it doesn’t mean that I’m am fair judge of science; it means that I was a judge at science fair. I was such a judge on Thursday, January 18th at the Hopkins High School.

Three people judged each science project: two adults “in the industry” and one senior in an advanced science class. It appeared as though every single freshman had to participate, so the quality of each project varied greatly. I signed up to judge the students’ projects in the astronomy/physics division. The coordinator gave each judge around a dozen sheets of paper. Each sheet had a project number on it, telling us who to go judge, and a ‘checklist’ of about twenty items that we would judge the project on. Some of the items on the checklist were creativity, originality, appearance, clarity and accuracy.

After grabbing some of the free food available, I set off to go judge the projects. Each project was displayed on a cardboard triptych and students waited by their project until a judge came by. When I located the first project I needed to judge, there was a girl waiting for me, sitting on the table. When she saw me coming, she jumped up and shook my hand and introduced herself. Get this: she made a hoverboard. I had absolutely no idea how to make a hoverboard, or even what exactly a hoverboard is, but she was more than willing to explain it to me in a prepared spiel. Turns out, she was trying to find out what surface gave the hoverboard the best lift: grass or concrete. I was very impressed. While reading the info on her board, at one point she said to me: “You’re making me nervous.” When I asked he why, she said it was because I wasn’t saying anything. “I’m busy reading your stuff”, I told her. It’s funny to think that I was intimidating to someone.

I also got to judge a project involving the testing of fishing lines (most lines don’t hold up as well as they say they do), the best room for good guitar acoustics, how fast pop-corn dissolves, the best angle to launch an arrow, and what flooring provides the best basketball bounce.

The only other project that impressed me as much as the hoverboard was one involving paint balls. Although not as original as the hoverboard idea, the kid made up for it in thoroughness. He had attached a paintball gun to a table, and then received permission from the city to fire the gun in a local park. He ran a line straight out from the gun some 200 yards, then fired eight different name brands of paint ball ten times each and measured how far they deviated from the line. The goal was to see which brand strayed the least from the line, and, by dividing the distance skewed by the price per ball; he calculated which brands were the best for one’s money. His charts, graphs and diagrams were very thorough and eye-catching. It was very cool.

Next month I get to judge a regional science fair. It will feature the winners of all the school-level contests from all over the metro area.

So, I’m just gonna take this opportunity to talk about a few odds and ends.
First off, the wife and I are once again participating in the Humane Society for Companion Animal’s annual “Fur Bowl” to help raise money for unwanted animals. So, if you’d like to contribute to the cause, send us some money. Make checks payable to HSCA. And don’t forget to write it off on your taxes next month.
Second, I stated about a year ago that I was going to keep track of two things this year: the number of times I ate at fast food and the number of perfect-weather days that there were here in Minnesota. Click here to see my initial statement on this issue and my criteria for each item. I know it’s not the end of the year yet, but I don’t think either list will be amended in the last 8 days of the year.
On the topic of fast food: I am sorry to report that I gave up keeping track of this around mid-may, so I lack a complete list. But I believe the answer to the question “how much fast food do I eat” is this: TOO MUCH. In my defense, I only once ate at one of the really crappy dives (Taco Bell) and I never ate at Burger King, McDonald’s, Hardee’s, Dairy Queen or those kinds of places. Nevertheless, by May 8th of this year, I had eaten at 24 fast food restaurants, including Pizza Hut (once), LeAnn Chin (3x), Subway (2x) and Panera (4x). So a goal for next year is…not so much with the fast food, James.
On the topic of prefect weather days: Of the 365 days in this year, I spent 348 in the Twin Cities. Of those 348, my opinion is that there were THREE days of perfect weather (again, click above to read the criteria). Those three days were April 28, August 30 and October 1. Since the temperature had to be high enough to not require any coat, this ruled out about 6 months of the year. June, July and August are much too hot, and the other days either had wind or precipitation or were completely overcast. I know it sounds weird to say that October 1 was a perfect weather day, but it was true! I spent that day at an amusement park and wore shorts! I even went on a you-will-get-wet ride and didn’t freeze! The sun was out, there was very little wind and all in all I have nothing to complain about. Goal for 2007: FOUR perfect weather days. Come on Minnesota, you can do it!