Here Comes the Judge...

Wednesday, I was one of the Science Fair Judges at an elementary school in Hialeah (grades 1 to 5). It was quite nice to see students of all backgrounds interested in science. Even though many of them are from families of low economic backgrounds and the parents speak little or no English, I was impressed with their efforts. I had to look past the grammar mistakes (though it did count in assigning points) and look at the actual efforts.

Some of the lower level, ESE and younger classes did their projects as class projects. One, about eggs floating, was submitted completely in Spanish.

The experiments ranged from: What type of popcorn pops best? What creates more power: Fruits or Potatoes? What makes an ice cube melt quicker? and Cleaning pennies with juices. My favorite in "The Most Creative Attempt" category was one about singing to plants to make them grow better. The song chosen was "Fergalicious", a solo song by Fergie of the group The Black Eyed Peas. I had to laugh. (By the way, that plant did grow quicker than the one left alone.) Hmm? I wonder what else that song can help grow..........?

The day was long, but the feeling was good after we had chosen the top three projects for each grade level. They will be receiving trophies and ribbons at a ceremony and on the video morning announcements. All participants received Science Fair Participant ribbons. The winners were almost equally divided between boys and girls. I will remain an optimist in the hope for our kids' futures.