Daily Archives: January 13, 2015

Colorado, Family, GeekWorld

Fair Science

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Winter                                                  Settling Moon

We pulled into the Swigert Elementary School parking lot at around 6:25 pm, parking by coincidence just ahead of Jen, Gabe and Barb. Jen gave me a hug, said she was glad to see me. A bit of a thaw.

The science fair idea seemed tired to me. Some kids obviously put a lot of thought into their entries, others less. One of my favorites in this latter category discovered “how many licks it takes to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop.” After dogged experiment, the conclusion: 360, not the 334 hypothesized.

There were more serious entries. One investigated barriers to wifi reception. Another bacteria in meat purchased at King Sooper. The most were in some organic turkey. One kid created a homemade tornado using dry ice and a small exhaust fan.

Perhaps it’s time for a new way to engage children around science projects. Not sure what it would be, but perhaps one limited to children who really wanted to put some time and thought and effort into their work. It was obvious there were kids at Swigert who could have done something more substantial and even more who couldn’t be bothered. Both strike me as ok. Just different.

Colorado, Family

A Rest More Day

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Winter                                                                   Settling Moon

Snow falls softly here among the pines, falling faster now than around 2, an hour and a half ago. Instead of borne on the west wind snow here tends to fall straight down, like snowglobe snow.

A rhythm of work harder one day, rest more the next seems to be emerging. Today was a rest more day.

My current goal here in the loft is to clear enough space to unfurl the big rug, put my chair on it, sit back and stare at Black Mountain or watch the snow. Maybe another day and I’ll be there.

An hour or so from now we’ll head into Denver, to the Stapleton area, where Ruth will stand beside her poster board explaining glucose levels in various fruits and the guesses her classmates had about them. Eight years old. Being there, present. A gift we can give and keep on giving to both Ruth and Gabe.