A Biologist, an Electrician and a Metallurgist

Each year our children look forward to three major social events at their elementary school. The highlight of the year is the Halloween Monster Mash, but garnering almost as much excitement is Bingo Night and the science fair. In Jonathan's opinion, these events are looked forward to because you can run around in the halls with your friends and you don't have to walk in straight lines to the cafeteria. Emilie, who has junior high just around the corner, wondered aloud if she could still come to the events even after she graduated from Nixon this spring. I assured her that she could accompany our family for the next 11 years, until the last Ebert has moved on. I pointed out that at 22 she may not be interested in the Monster Mash anymore.

So to Emilie, Jonathan and Annelise's delight, March 18th was the much anticipated science fair. For weeks scientific ideas swirled around our home. Ideas involving mold, explosions and rotting eggs were discussed. Finally three projects were chosen. (My sale techniques regarding the benefits of all doing one project together failed.) 

Emilie got Skyler on the phone and together they planned an experiment creating an electrical current from a battery. The current ran through wires and moved the needle of a compass back and forth. For anyone who yearns for more information on AC vs. DC electricity, Emilie is your go-to girl! These two fifth graders were quite impressive project managers. They choose and researched their project, conducted the experiment, and put together their poster on their own. And all along the way my ideas were politely but assertively not taken into consideration. In fact, upon offering to type the wording for their poster, they agreed to let me do this as long as I promised not to glue a single thing onto their poster while they were away at school. These girls are ready for the big league of junior high!

Weeks ago Reed approached Jonathan on the playground and asked him to be his science partner. Unlike the girls, these third graders needed a bit of direction. It appeared that the project was perhaps secondary to the running in the halls, mentioned above, that was being anticipated. Jonathan and Reed settled on a metal conducting heat experiment. They put five pennies in a bag, holding and rubbing one coin that had the year of their birth on it, before placing it in the bag with the others. They could pull out the 2000 penny by feeling the heat that the penny had absorbed from their fingers. Presented as a magic trick with a scientific explanation, they were quite excited about their project. And as a bonus they were introduced to atoms and electrons!

Annelise told me that she would like to do her experiment with me, just like she did last year. How flattering -- I know my days of being chosen over a friend are limited! Annelise's experiment took us to Honey Pot Orchard to search under the trees for the most rotten apple that we could find. In an attempt to learn the import role that our skin plays in keeping bacteria out of our blood stream and away from our organs, we slit an apple and filled it with the rotting insides from the moldy apple. We spread some rotting insides on the outside of another apple. We placed both apples, along with a control apple in ziplock bags and waited for the rotting to begin. Surely enough, after a week at the top of a warm dark closet, the slit apple was unsightly. Annelise had a quick lesson in gangrene and other bodily infections. We put together her poster and away we went.

The fair was just as the kids had hoped. After the scientists interviewed them and friends and teachers complimented their efforts, the elementary social scene was hopping, with Jonathan and Reed running in the halls in every direction but straight!