Dallas hosts one of the largest science fairs in the country [1]. Last night, Jodi and I dressed up and headed down to Fair Park to meet the students and peruse the projects. Housed in Centennial Hall, long display tables filled the vast space, students buzzed around all over the place, and a devoted staff tending to all of the final events of the day.
Since it was so late in the day, most of the students were not attending to their projects. One of the Honorable Mention projects was attended by its investigator, a young man from one of the Plano High Schools who had studied Compton Scattering using a UV light source and a Strontium-90 beta emitting source. Many other projects spanned a space of topics, including the best storage conditions for popcorn (a freezer, not a pantry), wind conditions at a local school (for a turbine), a cellular-automata model for H1N1 spread with and without vaccination, the lead content of lipstick, and a hundred other studies.
Jodi and I were impressed with the breadth and quality of these studies. While we both wish we’d been able to meet more students, we were still happy to have time to spend a beautiful evening witnessing the future of science in this country.
[1] http://www.dallassciencefair.org/
