The Science Fair

Note - this blog is automatically imported into facebook, but unfortunately it loses some formatting in the process. Click here to visit the real thing.

So, I bet you're wondering what that picture is all about.

Well, it came about as a result of the science fair my school had yesterday. Let me tell you about said science fair.

But first, I should say that as far as I can remember, I've never been to a science fair. I vaguely remember doing a science fair project in grade 7 or 8, and my topic was optical illusions; you know, the old/young lady, vase/face, straight/diagonal lines, etc. But I barely remember how all these projects were displayed; it might have just been a little in-class fair. And that was the only event I remember attending even coming close to a science fair. In high school, science fairs were an extra-curricular activity that only a few people partook in, and I didn't come across any during teachers college last year.

HAVING SAID THAT, I knew what to expect, since the science fair is a pretty well-known phenomenon. I had even crossed 1 or 2 projects in their preliminary stages, so I was ready.

I arrived at Combarranquilla, the location of the science fair, which is also some sort of cross between a country club and a rec center? That I got a membership to as part of my contract but I don't actually know what the membership does since apparently I still have to pay to go there? Anyway, there were 2 big rooms: one for grade 2-6, the other for grade 7-12. Shortly I was tracked down by Gilberto, the chemistry teacher, who thrust 3 projects into my arms to evaluate, because another teacher had called in sick. This suited me fine, because it would be more interesting than the alternative, being on duty, and would also be considerably less work, since 3 projects really isn't very many. Others were evaluating up to 10 and were busy all day. Oh, and when I went to evaluate the third, for some reason it had already been judged by the specified number of 2 adjudicators, so I really only had to grade 2. On top of that, the remaining 2 were almost the exact same project. And they were about music. I think it's safe to say I got off easy.

So, I totally just used that crazy picture to draw you in so you'd have to read my boring stories. Suckers!

Just kidding, the explanation is coming. Hold on to your horses.

So, naturally, I took advantage of all that free time in a couple of ways. First, a co-worker and I took a leisurely 1.5 hour lunch (who am I, an investment banker?) and walked around the club, checking out their facilities, which included 2 cafés of different fancinesses, a bar, a restaurant, a gym, a pool, a couple of party rooms, and a small cinema, which is currently playing Gone With the Wind, and which I tried to find a schedule for, only to discover the theater opened literally a week ago and they haven't figured out any sort of schedule system yet. (The whole place was only 4 months old, someone told me.)

The other thing I did with all my free time was check out most of my kids' projects. Here are some anecdotes:

• one group of grade 7 boys studied the effect of cell phones on muscles. In order to do this, they had me hold out my arm without my cell phone in it, and then pushed down on it, instructing me to resist. Then they repeated this trial while I was holding my cell phone, attempting to prove that I was weaker while holding my phone, because of the electromagnetism or whatever. Except that they pushed down WAY harder when I was holding my phone. Haha. I don't know if this was their methodology for the whole project, but, um, guys?
• another group of grade 7 boys made things out of banana peels for their project. It was pretty sweet, actually - they made soap, air freshener, and one other thing that I can't remember.

So what about that picture?!?!?!?!!? RELAX YOU WILL FIND OUT SOON.

• A group of grade 8 girls studied contraceptives, asking whether we should use them or not. Their conclusion was that we shouldn't, instead we should use abstinence. Sounds like a sex ed. video. I really have no idea what their methodology was to get to this conclusion, but that's not what I wanted to mention. On their poster, they had a series of 6 pictures of the effects of STDs. While examining the poster, one of them (the girls, not the pictures) asked me if I knew what the second picture was. It was a guy with some sort of rash on his face. I was like "um, I dunno", to which she replied "c'mon Mr., you know what it is." and I was like "um, some kind of rash?" Her response: "No Mr., it's a penis!" to myself: "okay, that is clearly a man's face, not a penis. What?" Then she pointed to the picture, which was a different one from the one I was looking at. It was the 2nd picture in the bottom row (2 rows of 3), so it really could only have been referred to as the 4th or 5th, depending on the order in which you count. I dunno where she got 2nd from. Anyway, regardless of the fact that it was her fault I was looking at the wrong picture, it's definitely embarrassing.
• Speaking of embarrassing situations, I was checking out the project of 2 grade 8s, a boy and a girl. The girl was really enthusiastic to show me the project, and at the end gave the boy a big hug and said something like "I love (name), we're such a good team!" to which I replied "Great! Good luck!" She misinterpreted this strictly science fair-related sentiment and quickly clarified "oh no Mr., we're not dating!" I told her I was talking about the science fair, which in retrospect was a mistake, because she was embarrassed and probably wouldn't have been if I had just been like "oh, okay."

The day wrapped up around 2:30, and I was hanging out in the judges room waiting for some peeps to be ready to go. It was at this point that someone brought in a cage of 4 hamsters, and announced that the kid who had acquired them for their project had decided at the last minute not to use them, and was going to just throw them away! So the grade 9-10 biology teacher humanitarianly decided to adopt them. Naturally, she was showered with compliments about her generosity, and also one warning from the grade 7/8 English teacher: "be careful, you might get rabbis!"