Re: science fears

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Jim Lux by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <jimlux-at-earthlink-dot-net>

>
> What I am reading in this current thread is worrisome.  I even infer from
> some of the postings that learning the skills of prevarication (lying,
> actually), obfuscation, and general sucking up have now become desirable
> skills. If true, we are in a very bad way.
> IMHO, Ed and Terry most accurately describe the real world of the
> school science fairs. Just my $0.0175.

I think that, like most things, there is a lot of variability.  Definitely,
the higher up the "food chain" you go, the higher the general quality.  I'd
say, off hand, that there were very few bogus projects at the ISEF or
Greater San Diego Fair. On the other hand, they also spend a huge amount of
time, effort, and money to screen entrants, get quality judges, etc.  By the
time you get to that level, you've gone through a certain amount of
selection.  I will say that science fairs at elementary schools are
generally the worst, although, there is a fair amount of variability there.

Now that we have diverged greatly from the topic of Tesla coiling, I'll
finish by saying that my original intention was: If you plan on doing a TC
in a science fair, make sure you read all the rules first, so you don't get
hammered by some administrivia.