Science imitates life.
Posted: April 27, 2006 Filed under: Uncategorized 9 Comments »
Life imitates art? Art imitates life?
Tonight was the elementary school science fair. I distinctly remember that we didn’t have science fairs until junior high. Kids are doing everything younger these days. Sex. Drugs. And now…science fairs.
It was voluntary. Totally extra-curricular. No grades. No extra credit. Nada. But you know what? A lot of kids participated. A lot. More than could fit in the cafeteria. Eight classrooms were filled too. Must have been 200 kids. In a school with 600 kids. Freaky.
Two of those nutty kids were mine. Reed presented graphs and stats to show that if you play more video games, you have better hand/eye coordination. Am I sure that the causality is there? No. But he actually enjoyed doing it. And Max? He grew two cilantro plants. One only heard Will Smith music and one only heard The Rolling Stones. Which grew faster? Will Smith’s. (Two dads suggested to Andrew that a better experiment would have been a “wackier” kind of plant and to test Bob Marley’s music vs. Pink Floyd. But I digress….)
Some of the kids did some really amazing and indepth projects. There was a kid who built tresses that were holding up 20 lb. weights. And lots of chemical reactions. And mold. Lots of mold.
And you could really see the media influences. One girl did an amazing experiment with french fries. She took McDonald’s, Wendy’s, OreIda, homemade and ChickFila fries. And let them mold. The fast food fries didn’t. I mean hardly at all over several weeks. The homemade fries were totally disgusting and green and fuzzy. The conclusion the student made was that the preservatives in fast food fries artificially kept the food from spoiling. I don’t know anything about whether that’s true or not, but viscerally it was just plain gross. And I heard kids talking about Super Size Me.
And do you remember the first time you thought about the efficacy of laundry detergent and spot remover? I do. I was at least 20 years old at the time. More likely, it was last week. But at least two projects compared several major brands of detergent with different kinds of stains. (Tide won, by the way. My brand, Era, wasn’t even in the mix.) And another project compared Shout and its competitors on some really icky stains. They were well done and interesting. But way more commercial than I remember from science fairs of old.
How does temperature affect popcorn (after it’s popped)? How does heat affect electromagnetism, etc., etc. etc…. It was very fun. Everyone got a ticket upon entry and they called numbers all night giving away science books. Fun science books. Reed’s number was called and he agonized between the brain book and the weather book. He took the brain book.
More than anything, I noticed a certain social strata. Sure, there’s the whole popular thing. Boring. That’s just school. But this was different. There were the kids who took this very seriously and worked really hard. There were those who skated through just to be a part of it. There were those who were very competitive about the appearance of the presentation.
As I looked around at all these bright and enthusiastic students, I could picture them as employees. I could see exactly who they were going to be. It was weird, but I just felt I knew. I can’t wait to see how my predictions play out. Some of these children are just amazing.
And not insignificant to mention is that the parents seemed to me to be observers, not participants. In my daydreams leading up to this momentous event, I imagined overbearing parents doing the projects for their kids. I didn’t see that. Not at all. I saw pride. I saw support of each parent’s child and of the other children in the fair.
What a wonderful surprise. I love being wrong this time.
This is a GREAT entry, I wish I could have been there.
I love that cilantro gettin jiggy widdit with Will!
And I’ve recently fallen in love with Tide with Downy, and which IS the better spot remover, because a can of anchovy oil just exploded all over my new light blue sweater…
I’m glad you were wrong too. All is so right with the world!
this was a really nice post. It brought back lots of great exciting nights participating in the middle school science fair.
A guy I worked with in NYC once spilled out some McDonalds fries onto a plate next to his Monitor to do the same experiment.
THREE YEARS later they looked EXACTLY the same.
“I have to dust them occasionally” he said……
vis a vis the moldy fries: once my band was on tour and to save money we took some food along with us, just to make sandwiches and stuff. A loaf of WonderBread disappeared under one of the seats, presumably lost–not so, though, we found it when we were cleaning out the van at the end of the tour. One month later, during the hottest days of summer, and that bread hadn’t gotten the least bit stale or the least bit moldy. It was basically the same cr@p it had been a month earlier. I have to say that scared me; bread’s not supposed to behave that way.
Great post! My daughter did the stain remover one for hers and she really had fun (Tide was her top also). I remember making a solor system out of a fridge box, stryofoam balls with a black light in middle school. They had some really hi-tech ones this year, it was impressive.
I did a plant project once where I wired one to a battery, to see if the electrical impulses would help it grow better. I messed around with the variables too much (so I didn’t get accurate data), but it was a good idea for a sci-project nonetheless.
Re: making a plant “listen” to the Rolling Stones, I think Keith Richards is enough of an indication of what exposure to the Stones will do to you.
Now the Dead, on the other hand…how about “Let it Grow?”
GNG – Thanks! I am glad the Tide with Downy worked, but anchovy oil? Eek!
Steakbellie – 3 years? Yuck! Glad to know there’s someone else who appreciates a good science fair
Tom – That’s just gross. I REFUSE to buy Wonderbread. It’s just so scary.
Jodie – That’s cool! I guess Tide really is the best!
Maven – You made me laugh… yes Keith is worse for the wear, I admit. But have you seen Phil and Bob lately?
Phil looks healthy! Bob’s a little chunky but he still looks great. And I love his beard.
Wendy, it’s surprising to hear that the parents didn’t do the work. When my kids were in middle school, so many of the parents did those projects. Terrible.
By the way, my son did the detergent experiment, and guess what? Tide won!
(so I only use tide now!)
Oh, I dread when Branch and Blossom get to the science fair stage. I’ve always hated science myself!
Re: The cilantro plants. Surprising, the Rolling Stones are too old to be toxic to anyone now.