Re: science fairs

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

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi,

Without getting into a very loooong story...

I chose on a few occasions simply to walk away from science fairs that were
too restrictive of "fun" projects...  You can always have your OWN
unofficial fair for those that have neat projects that would never get past
the science teachers door...  

Microwave guns, Tesla coils, grass "decimating" lawn mower blades (upsets
tree huggers...) and the kid with 100 feet of rubber tubing and a
Volkswagon for the worlds most powerful water balloon sling shot are the
"right stuff - NOT!" for the weenie local science fair...  These are
projects only for those that really know what they are doing and "really"
are thinking out of the "little box"...

A kid was studying different effects of guns and bullets on trash bags full
of Jello back in the late 70's (my day) that ended up being the most
interesting of all...  Politically incorrect, but he was a genius in that
area of endeavor!!  A girl was doing sleep deprivation studies on her poor
dog that showed it still loved her after, but was ready to kill her during,
the project...  This ain't "see if my bean plant follows light" stuff, this
is important science that is done by those few that don't stop for anybody
or anything because "science" is more important than "fair rules"...

My poor little Tesla coil of that time was a long lost looser against
putting a water balloon through the side of a barn, or putting a 30-06
round through bag of Jello at 5 feet and how that compares to a 45 auto
round (hehe, it don't) ...  but I did learn if the science does not fit the
environment, the environment may be the problem, not the science (these
boots were made for walk'in...)  "My" project was pitiful compared to
theirs...  But "they" rubbed off on me and showed "me" the way :-)))  They
were not trying to do a science fair project, they were trying to learn
something that is not known and did not let rules stand in their way...  

They were "sane" and did not do anything Draconion, but they knew exactly
what they were after and how to get it.  However, if you are playing with
such "out of the box" and potentially dangerous things, you need all the
help and brains you can get to help.  One lone kid can get easily hurt, but
a group of ten will see through the dangers and mitigate them...

I always regret that we never did the laywer's kid's project of finding the
most dangerous and "incorrect" project we could enter that would still be
within the rules...

I don't mean to drift off subject but this one hits a sting.  Enter a "see
if I can grown a bean" in the stupid fair and do the important stuff
yourself...

Cheers,

	Terry


At 05:53 PM 9/29/2001 -0700, you wrote:
>Indeed this would work for display, but if you read the rules carefully, it
>says that the work being done has to meet the requirements, not just the
>display.  If your project was, say, injecting carcinogens into sixth
>graders, it wouldn't matter that you didn't display the carcinogens, the
>problem would be with the use of them in the first place.
>
>The real point is that you'd hate to go to all the trouble of building the
>totally cool coil, doing all the research, writing it up, entering in the
>school fair (usually the first step) (where they don't always check this
>stuff..), winning and getting selected to move up to the next tier (i.e.
>GSDSEF or ISEF), and then getting your application bounced because you
>didn't get the hazmat cert signed at the beginning.
>
>For all you know, there is some well meaning (but inappropriate) rule
>prohibiting the use of spray cans by minors, so when you sprayed the acrylic
>on your secondary, you just shafted yourself.
>
>Been there, had the problems, spent much time getting it straightened out,
>and this was with a fairly benign project (measuring EEGs on kids) in the
>kinder, gentler, less-litigious days in the seventies, and getting caught
>out for not having the necessary "experimentation with human subjects
>review" (or whatever it was, I don't recall 20 years later) before I
>started.  Of course, this IS just part of the learning experience of being
>in a science fair.
>
>Moral of the story: Read the rules BEFORE you start.
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
>Sent: Saturday, September 29, 2001 11:40 AM
>Subject: Re: science fairs
>
>