I am a HUGE science nerd, but I was never really a big fan of the science fair. Probably I am just a little bitter that I was beat two years in a row by Ricardo Pinella, who made a point of rubbing in my face that he didn't actually do the experiments, he just made up data and took pictures so it looked like he spent 2 months on them. jerk.
Here in Honduras, the Association of Bilingual Schools has a biennial science fair, where all of the accredited bilingual schools in the nation gather to out-science each other. This year was one such year. After a school-wide science fair in which all science students participated, the top groups from each grade were selected to go to the national science fair in lovely El Progreso. Because I teach/taught three grades, a lot of my students went, which was pretty exciting.
As you may expect, many students just kind of threw something together at the last minute because they are not fans of the science fair action. Fortunately, there are a couple of nerdlings here who got really excited and did a great job. One group of my 8th grade boys got a superior, which is the highest rating possible (they do not give places at the national level). They were so excited, it was really cute. They are such huge nerds, and I LOVE IT!
I would just like to throw out there, for the record, that I gave them their project idea. They tested how colors affect the aggresive behavior of beta fish. They took 4 beta fish, and surrounded each tank with a different color- one red, one yellow, one black, and one without a surrounding as their control. Then they held a mirror to each fish and timed how long the fish displayed aggresive behavior in the mirror before turning away. They timed their fish everyday for 3 weeks. They worked really hard. They named their fish, and introduced them as team members to the judges (so cute!!). They made a really elaborate and beautiful display for three 8th grade boys. They did a TON of research, and wrote a pretty decent research paper for three 8th grade boys who are ESL students. It may be wrong and slightly (or muchly) immature of me. But I'm not gonna lie, I definitely am living vicariously through their victory. Ricardo...you might have beaten me two years in a row at Vivan Field Junior High through shady means, but my idea just got top honors at a national competition. The fact that my mother reads this blog is all that is keeping me from typing an inappropriate comment telling you creative places to stick things. not that you care...but I feel vindicated.
Another thing that made this the best science fair EVER...the classroom that we camped out at had a motorcycle in it. It was an awesomely random classroom fixture, and I am determined to have one in my classroom someday. Look how useful it can be:
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