Science Fair

The science fair is finally over! Some highlights (and lowlights):

- All my students had arrived and were set up by 8:30. The fair started at 9, so this was quite good. We held the event at Villa de Ada, where we do all our big out-of-school events. It’s a ‘touricentro’; they have pools, hotel rooms, multipurpose rooms, various animals to look at, and a pond with a boardwalk and cabanas built out over it where you can sit and relax or eat. It’s a pleasant place.

- Diego and Julio’s group had been fighting since the first day of science fair groups. I don’t know exactly why they were so awful, they usually get along fine at school. The day of the fair was even worse, they were arguing about where on the table their materials would sit, who stood where, who got to do the experiment, on and on. Diego ran off and had a crying/pouting fit when Nicole continued to boss him around. But he was okay by the time the judges came around. When everything was over, they continued to fight over who would take the poster home. I was so glad to have that group finished.

- The judging took almost 4 hours. The judges spent way too long at each table. There were three judges and maybe 35 experiments. Thankfully, someone had the foresight to judge the primary grades tables first. 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grades were in the same group, competing against each other.

- Santiago, the director’s son, fell apart while waiting for the judges to get to his table, which was the last of the primary grades. He was crumpled in a heap on the floor crying because it was taking them so long. I don’t know how, but he managed to pull it together and explain their experiment when the judges showed up.

- The director REALLY REALLY wanted Santiago’s group to win. I gave them the experiment that had won me the science fair when I was in 3^rd grade (thanks to my dad!) and Santiago is extremely smart and well spoken, so they had a good chance. However, some of the 1^st grade experiments were really interesting, and Julie helped them make beautiful posters, our posters were pretty much crap. I didn’t know if his group could win. I don’t know if it’s really because they deserved it or not, but his group won first place, and I get to keep my job. Somehow I also had the foresight to put my host brother in Santiago’s group, so I also got to come home to a happy house, not a disappointed one.

- Diego’s shoe fell into the lake. Of all my students, the one whose shoe is most likely to fall into a lake would be Diego. The lake (really a pond) was really murky and algae covered, and some guy that works at Villa de Ada was wading around in it, trying to find Diego’s shoe. I never heard if he got it back or not.

- 2^nd grade won 3^rd place, and a 1^st grade experiment won 2^nd place. This made all of us happy, because the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grade teachers are great friends and wanted each other to win, and didn’t want our student’s work to go completely unrecognized. Lindsey in particular, who teaches 2^nd, had a miserable week and we wanted her glass to win something. Science fair was stressful for all of us, they make a huge deal out of it and we really had very little idea of what was expected of us until we did something wrong. I am so relieved it’s over.