I haven't participated in a science fair since grade school. In truth, I haven't thought about those days of growing hydroponic plants and crystal gardens in years. That is, until last week. Tim received an invite to serve as a judge for the Marsden School (all girls private prep school) Science Fair and forwarded it on to me to see if I was interested if they needed more judges. They did and so we agreed to judge along with two other students from Victoria.
We arrived at Marsden early this morning to a flurry of activity, received some brief instruction and were set loose to peruse the projects developed by the girls in year 9 (around 13~ years old). Shortly thereafter the girls came in to present their projects and we had the opportunity to ask them questions and assign marks. As we started to work our way through the aisles I was struck by how nervous the girls were around the four of us. My first thought was, "This is silly, why would anyone be nervous around me?". But as I thought about it more I realized that, if I were in their position, I would be shaking in my boots at the thought of being judged by a real scientist. I'm still not used to thinking of myself in that way because, even at this stage of my education, I feel as though I'm just beginning my career in science.
After reviewing all the projects we spent time considering which of the 45 would move on to the next round. In the end we sent 10 on and recommended another 7 for consideration. Before we left they gave us a lovely parting gift, Guylian chocolates! Yes!
All in all it we had a good time chatting with the students and working as a team to decide which were the best projects. We'd both like to do this again.....nerds! :)
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