Time’s they are a-changin’. I got the notice via Facebook from a friend who put my name to an appeal from someone I didn’t know with the added comment, “Virginia McGee Butler, are you available?”
While the request came in a new manner, I related quickly. Oak Grove Lower Elementary needed judges for their science fair. Remembering days of having to think of likely suspects and make individual phone calls when I needed adult volunteers, I had to admire this new method of notifying one person who could quickly pass on the request to somebody outside their school data base.
Turns out I was available for one of the three days they needed judges, and I still love school things. The science fair itself held little that was different.
- · Like always, it was held in the gym.
- · Kids came waddling in with boards almost as big as they were. (Did I mention I got to judge my favorite second-graders?)
- · Some boards were polished down to the finest detail while others lacked periods at the ends of sentences or held uncorrected editing marks above words.
- · Some children could barely be heard as they forced themselves to answer questions about their work while others could hardly wait to get started explaining every detail and how they accomplished their experiment. Those eager faces lingered until my partner and I said, “Thanks. You can go back to your room now.”
- · Some took the guidelines they were given seriously and had each component labeled so the judges couldn’t miss it, while others seemed to think the instructions were a list of possible options.
Their consistent use of the scientific method was impressive and indicative of good teaching. Some of the hypotheses the kids addressed were quite interesting and reflected an awareness that things are a-changin’ for them. One tested which fruits would be most likely to conduct electricity.
My favorite answer to a question about why the student chose his project of testing electrolytes in various beverages was, “I wanted to see if my soccer coach was right when he was telling us what to drink.” His explanation included the difference between winter and summer, which causes one to lose more electrolytes, and which drinks are better with which season. You might not be surprised that this one needed notice that time to go back to class had come.
I still love school and schoolkids so I had a nice morning with no lessons to plan and no tests to grade. I left my card in case they need me again without having to go through the Facebook chain.