Not Your Average Science Fair

On Friday, our school had its annual science fair. Classes were canceled and instead, the kids displayed and demonstrated their projects from 8am to 12pm. Of course, the first bit of the morning was quite chaotic (as to be expected) - there weren't enough display tables, some of my 4th graders had to relocate their displays up to four time after they had already set them up, and half of them forgot their materials! After some tears, phone calls, and direction from leadership, everything was finally ready to go around 9am. The 1st and 2nd graders did class projects lead by their teachers, then from 3rd to 11th grade the students were on their own to work individually or in groups to develop an experiment. I wasn't really involved with helping the kids, since I only teach Language Arts, but I was pretty impressed with some of their projects. One boy in my class made hair gel (a staple in any man's toiletry kit here) in a variety of scents and colors, then sold it to classmates after the event (business man in the making). Another group made electricity using clorox, salt, water, and vinegar, others showed how and why things flot in salt water, and yet another demonstrated how gravity works. However my 2 personal favorites or maybe I should say, the most shocking experiments that I encountered, were both done by elementary students and they both involved alcohol! The 2nd graders whole project was actually making and an alcoholic beverage - Kahlua! I was pretty much surprised at that alone, but when they started handing out samples of the stuff blended into smoothies and baked into a cake (which I tasted by the way and it was delish!) I couldn't believe my eyes! Let me tell you, it was quite a popular booth amongst visitors! Then, take a short walk to a 4th grade group and find a booth with a bottle of Honduran moonshine sitting on their table! The girls' project actually did teach a good lesson, but still, it involved moonshine - at school! The purpose of their display was to show the negative effects of consuming alcohol on the liver. The girls placed a piece of cow's liver (that they picked up at the local grocery store) in a glad bowl and poured the moonshine on top. As the liver absorbed the liquid and began to filter it, it turned white and became discolored. It was a good message, however, bring alcohol to school - questionable! Wow, chalk it up to cultural differences again - that is what we do when we can't figure out something here. Overall, the science fair was successful and there were many impressive projects. Neighboring schools came and toured the booths and the local news even visited and filmed the event. I didn't see anyone stumbling out of the school at the end of the day, so I will consider the 2008 School Science Fair a winner!