The Reluctant Scientist

My daughter is one of those types that has to be pushed in to attempting most things, whether it be food, activities and/or school projects but as is often the case, once she gets started she finds out that "it's not so bad."  This year's Science Fair was one of those things.  She knew she had to do it (it's up to the teachers in 4th grade and mandatory in 5th) but still she complained and procrastinated.  I'm sure having a gung ho scientist for a mom didn't make it any better.  ;-)  But as typically the case, once she got past the research phase and into the fun stuff, she came around rather quickly.

Her elementary school chooses the top 20 projects to advance for county judging.  Her project was in that top 20, number 7 to be exact.  (I know this only because I have inside connections. *wink*)  Her board was on display last week at the mall along with the other elementary school finalists.  I managed to snag a photo of her while I was there judging the middle schoolers.

She was very proud of her accomplishment as were we.  A few days ago she received a certificate and a trophy from her school acknowledging her hard work and if you know my daughter, TROPHIES make everything worthwhile in the end.

Well, along with her local school award she was also one of six at her school to receive an invitation to the Regional Science and Engineering Fair Awards to be held this Thursday.

Apparently her project placed at the county level!  No one yet knows what place she received (not even my inside source) so it will be a surprise.  She is thrilled though and very excited to have made it that far.

Her project (yes, chosen by me) was not anything earth-shatteringly scientific (comparing the amount of fat between ground round, ground chuck and ground sirloin) nor was her board particularly pretty (oh how I wanted to "JulieWorld" it up!) but what it is, is a good example of following the scientific process to the letter.  Yep, that's where Mama came in.  :-)  I made sure that she had all of her T's crossed and her I's dotted because of course, designing, performing and documenting experiments is what I did in "pre-Meg" life.  So while she resented me fiercely during that month, like always, she is so glad now that she took the time to do it all correctly.

We'll find out on Thursday just how well she did but it's truly not important.  I know that she's learned from the experience which is really what Science Fair is all about.  An added bonus for me is that she learned a little bit about her mama along the way.  :-)