District Science Fair

We headed out to the District Science Fair bright and early Thursday morning. The roads were so slick and we saw ambulances, fire trucks and even an overturned truck. There was no way I was driving home again, especially after our near car accident the night before. So I hung around the science fair for the day. Turns out I wasn't the only parent - most of them did, since the children came from a 1-2 hour radius around the town we were in.

Cassidy set up his display and I knew from the displays I saw setting up that he was in for some serious competition. Cassidy's display ended up being on the same table as the other boy from the town school. As it turned out, they sent six groups of kids: two from each grade - the gold and silver winners. Cassidy was only one of two groups that didn't go as a two student team.

The itinerary of the day was that the students from that school would walk around the gym for an hour and see and then the kids would have a break. After this, the judging would begin. I had no idea how long the judging would take. I knew that they said they needed 2 hours. When I came back from my lunch break, I found one of the judges with Cassidy.

It turned out that there were nine judges and each display was judged by three judges. Each of these three judges spent 20-30 minutes with the student! Talk about nerve racking! The judge above came over to me when he had finished speaking to Cassidy, and as he walked towards me, I thought something must be wrong from the look on his face because he was staring at me so intently!

As he walked up to me, he began talking. If I seem like I am bragging. Sorry. I was just *so incredibly* overwhelmed at his comment when he walked away that my heart swelled. Cassidy worked *so* hard for 10 days on this display, and then took the last judges suggestions and did what they said for another two days, and so I felt the comment was well earned. So I want to share it with my friends.

"It's *fantastic*! He has *everything*. He hasn't forgotten anything! I haven't seen a display like this for a long, long time! Usually when you see a board that is this complete you know the parents have done the display, but after talking to Cassidy I can see that he has done the lion's share of the work."

When they handed out the awards, Cassidy earned Gold in his catagory of Physical Science, and Bronze for Overall. He was very surprised to get the Overall Bronze!


This means that he will now go on to the Regional competition in three weeks. This is a three day competition a few hours from where we live. The only unfortunate thing is that no matter how well Cassidy does, he cannot go on to the National competition because he is not old enough. They have to be in Grade 7, and Cassidy is in Grade 6. But what is meant to be, is meant to be.

Later on, after the award's ceremony, this same judge that spoke to me earlier, came up to me and told me that Cassidy would do 'very, very well at Regionals'. I have no idea how he will do, but it sure was a vote of confidence.

The judges told Cassidy that they felt he needed to do a third trial. Not something that Cassidy was hoping to hear! But we both knew that given his results, it really made sense to do the third test. So that was what he did for the next three days. Another near 5000 photos and then rewriting his conclusion, results, and graphs!

For those that have emailed or commented asking regarding his conclusion:

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