Young Scientist

Spoiler alert: this is more informational than funny.

There was a Science Fair at Gwen's school tonight. We had to overcome some obstacles to get there, specifically because we did not get the information packet to prepare for it until Monday night, but this is something Gwen really wanted to do, so we worked hard Tuesday and Wednesday to whip our concept into something viable.

I won't spend too much time on the project itself (except to say that it involved something we found in our holly bush, and that after theories, research, revised theories, and so on, we came to the conclusion that it was a Praying Mantis Egg Case.) We documented the process and put it on posterboard, and that (along with the egg case, which took a brief trip out of its home in the garage) was all we had, going into the Science Fair.

Judging was done based on grade level. There was probably a total of ten kindergarteners participating. One of the kindergarteners was set up across from us, and her project -- quite frankly -- daunted me. She had all kinds of numeric statistics and graphing, she had a nice presentation display (much fancier than our posterboard, which Gwen tore when unloading it from the van), and I thought, oh boy. Luckily, the numbers and graphing were beyond Gwen, or she would have been way too intimidated to talk to anyone. But after some initial shyness, Gwen told anyone who would listen about her experiment, why our original theories were wrong, and why she is pretty confident that our mystery object is a Praying Mantis egg case.

In the end, Gwen was a winner! The judges told her that of all the kindergarteners, she had the best oral presentation, and she got a prize. She may not have been the only kindergartener who got a prize (a science pin), though she may have been; I do know that not all of the kindergarteners got pins, so she did well. She was so happy, that when I took her picture with her pin and ribbon, she looked like she was going to cry. I'm surprised she fell asleep tonight, she was so excited when she got home.

Xavier also had an incredible time at the Science Fair, although Adam (the one delegated to watch "the boy") was exhausted by the end. I stayed with Gwen most of the time, but I am fairly confident that the sound of breaking glass I heard was not caused by him. However, as Adam pointed out later, "While Gwen was receiving her award for best oral presentation, Xavier was eating ice cream with his fingers. I guess that tells us a lot about the differences between our kids."