I spent my Saturday doing my part to help science-motivated kids while refueling my own scientific interests. More specifically, I served as a judge for elementary division (3rd to 5th graders) the 25th annual NC Science and Engineering Fair, the state-wide competition to find the best science and engineering projects from kids in grades 3-12. The post title derives from a project by a student who participates in competitive archery who wondered whether silk underwear could work like an arrow-proof vest (the short answer is yes).
After seeing all this exciting science done by 8-11 year-olds, I came home gushing like a one of the 5th graders that I spoke with during the event. The experience reminds me of the joy I felt when I did science fair projects, ranging from the my first project in 3rd grade to try to correlate weather patterns to my cat's food preferences (data were very inconclusive) to my award-winning 7th grade project on the stain-resistant carpets (which held up rather well against food stains but not so well against dirty motor oil and other substances).
The more poignant projects were the ones with a strong personal connection for the student, like the girl who studied peripheral vision in "Subject D" (her Dad) who had a detached retina that had been surgically repaired; the boy who studied the caffeine level of drinks because of his father's recently diagnosed Meniere's disease; the girl who studied salinity changes in estuaries because she wants to be a marine biologist; the girl who came up with a clever experiment to measure moon impact craters because she wants to be an astrophysicist. Speaking with these kids, especially the last one mentioned, helps me remember my passion for science and my desire to understand the world around me that drive my science and engineering explorations to this day.
Some of the more interesting things I learned (or re-learned) from the fair:
-Rap music is bad for studying.
-Sourwood is the best hardwood for building a fire-resistant house.
-Bacteria are everywhere.
-Beta fish are more disturbed by opera than jazz.
-No soda is good soda (more specifically, caffeine is bad for your heart).
-Decaffeinated does not mean no caffeine. Neither does caffeine free.
-The Roomba algorithm is more efficient in rooms with furniture than empty rooms.
-Cashews make for energy-dense trail mix.
-A scarp is a sharp drop-off on a beach.
-Neal DeGrasse Tyson, a well-known African American astrophysicist, is an inspiration for at least one elementary school girl (and this writer).
-Random pop-up ads in video games can include information on windmills.
-Adults really are smarter than a 5th grader--at least when it comes to the Stroop effect (processing conflicting information, like the word red presented in blue text).
-Genghis Khan wore silk underwear.
-Disproving a hypothesis is as important (if not more so) than proving one.
Our scientific establishment would be well-served to take that last lesson to heart. The supporters of science, from the organizations and government agencies and corporations that fund it to the universities that tenure professors on it to the journals that publish it, need to understand how crucial is it is that negative or inconclusive results get published and shared in the literature as widely as the exciting breakthroughs. The more transparent we all are in what we share, the less time and money and effort are wasted on avenues of research that have already been investigated without success.
