"Scientifically Speaking... "

I saw online recently, a post about Science Fairs - those necessary evils that all school kids have to endure.

That particular post was a humorous one about a girl who used the actual science fair as her topic.  Her "materials" were "a kid", "parents", "procrastination", and "a half-baked idea".  Her results were "75% of kids cried", "90% of parents yelled" and "15 hours of family time were sacrificed".  Her "findings" were that "everyone hates the science fair".    

In addition to my getting a kick out of that girl's project, it also brought back memories of the Wright Place during the science fair days.  I truly think that you either have the Science gene or you don't.  Hubby and I do not.  And it must be generational, because our boys seemed to have missed out on that, too.

The first Science Fair project I oversaw, as a young Mom, was the effects of cigarette smoke on plant life.  That one consisted of me blowing smoke on a plant that we bought... (These projects really are a joint effort, aren't they?) and what did we think would happen?  The plant looked awful after 30 days, so mission accomplished!  I felt evil for smoking, as a young Mom, and our son had a "finding" for his Science Fair project.  "Smoking's bad for you."  I think the surgeon general was onto that before my son was but he (and I) got a decent grade anyway.

The other projects that the boys did, after that one, aren't as memorable, although I'm sure there was wailing and gnashing of teeth over them (by me) as well.  The ideas were harder to come by, the deadlines, more daunting.   And by the time son #3 had a Science Fair in his future, my tolerance and patience, I'm sure,   were really waning!   We got thru all of the science fairs, unscathed, our relationships still intact, but failed to produce a scientist out of the whole lot.

I really enjoyed the aforementioned girl's Science Fair project, and although,  saying "everyone hates the Science Fair" may be unfair, I certainly hope she got a blue ribbon for her efforts...because, in my judgement, she's a genius!