split down the middle, and not all squishy on one side

[sergebroom]

I just came back from the nearby science & engineering fair. That was interesting although most of what I did was to stroll down the aisles and glance at the various booths. Let's be honest. I probably wouldn't have understood most of what the kids were doing so why make them waste their time? What was interesting is that the gender distribution was split down the middle between boys and girls - and quite a few of the latter wearing a Middle-Eastern scarf over their hair. And there was no noticeable gender split according to the nature of the disciplines where young ladies would focus on biology and all that squishy stuff, and young men on physical sciences. In fact, one of the most crowded exhibits was by a girl talking about balls of lightning.

I was disappointed in one respect.

Not a single death ray. Not a single giant robot. The closest to that was a robotic fishing rod.

Comments

[kouredios.livejournal.com]

I, for one, welcome our robotic fishing rod overlords.

Sounds cool! Local college?

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

There was also a toaster designed to pop bread out forcefully, following a precise trajectory that landed it in a plate a few feet away. (This all reminds me that I should buy the DVD of Colossus: The Forbin Project.) Anyway, the fair actually is Intel's International Science & Engineering Fair. I don't know if it's held here in Albuquerque every year.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Now, a giant robot wielding a death ray would be interesting.

[ohdawno.livejournal.com]

Science fairs where the kids are really into science are great. I really dislike the ones they force kids to participate in during middle or high school - the heart just isn't in it for so many of them.

Oh, Serge - I wanted to let you know I'm totally loving Girl Genius. I just wish it came out more often! Thanks for suggesting it to me.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

"Ex-ter-mi-nate!"

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

That fair I went to is Intel's International Fair. Quite a prestigious one, as I understand it, and all participants were finalists from all over the world and so the kids(*) were there because they LOVE science and technology. That's what I thought was so neat.

As for smart girl Agatha Heterodyne, I'm glad you're enjoying her adventures. I presume you've been reading the trade paperbacks. You do know that the books reprint the story from the web, which appears for free every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, right? I buy the books anyway because how else are the Foglios going to make any money off of this? Here is the link that takes you to the most recent page:

http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/cgi-bin/ggmain.cgi

(*) Their ages appeared to go from 14 all the way to 18, but they are kids from the point-of-view of this over-50 person.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Greetings, fellow Dalek!

from KathyF

[(Anonymous)]

Some of my friends' sons (LERA buddies) were there with their exhibits. Julie's son was interviewed on the radio. I think they did very well.

Re: from KathyF

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

Good for him. It was really neat, seeing all those kids. When I went to the nearby Starbuck's earlier that week, there was a bunch of them there too, and they loved my sweatshirt's cartoon about Schroedinger's Bad Cat.