RELAXED SCIENCE FAIR
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John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2014 March 15
Introduction
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This year's New York city Science and Engineering Fair was on
2015 March *** at City College of new York. The standard procedure for
me is to accompany Mr Steve Kaye and his contestants to the Fair and
help mind them there and on the way home afterwards.
Steve, a science teacher at James Madison High School in
Brooklyn . He is planning to retire form that post at the end of the
spring semester and is studying the various options available under a
newly enacted teacher union contract.
He is also a special project mentor at the school for robotics and
works with robotics contests. It chanced that one contest he was
working with was held on this very day of the Fair! he knew that weeks
ago and arranged for an other teacher to shepherd his students.
Since these students and other teacher were meeting at some remote
station from my house, he allowed that I did not have to meet them
there for the Fair I should join up with Kaye at the College for the
judges's breakfast and instructions at 10AM.
What a relief!
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Normally Kaye and I meet at the Kings Highway station of the
Brighton line at 7AM to herd his students to the Fair. This early hour
allowed time to muster up the students and get their displays set up
before having to head for the judging meeting.
Since I now didn't have to be at the College until 10AM, for the
meeting, I could -- for once -- sleep late. I woke up at 7AM and left
my house at about 8:15AM. What a relief to still be in bed at 7 and
not lingering in a train station at that hour.
What a bonus@
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A bonus for sleeping later is that by the time I was up and about,
the rest of my household was also going about its business. That made
it easy to have at least a startup meal before running off to the
Fair. With the standard routine I often got on the way with no or a
minimal snack.
Now I had coffee and buttered bagel. and I pocketed a couple
crunchy bars. I didn't need a full breakfast because at the Fair an
abundance of food and drink are set out for the judges.
Sunshine departure
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My later departure from home was also in full daylight, not the
dawn or sunrise lighting of past years. I took my bus from the corner
of my block to the Brighton line, almost as I usually do for the Fair.
This time I boarded a train heading uptown to the City, on the way to
City College.
Trains on this line come every eight or ten minutes in mid morning,
already laden with riders on their way to the City. I found a seat,
one of few empty ones in my coach. Along the route in Brooklyn the
coach filled up with more riders until they were in loose-packed
standing density. There was an exchange of riders in Brooklyn Downtown
and in manhattan, so the crowding stayed about th same until I got off
at Herald Square.
Herald Square is the transfer station for trains continuing to
City College. Brighton line trains on Sundays turn off to Queens in
midtown Manhattan, not getting near the College.
The second train, on the 6th Av line, zipped me to the College's
station in good time Nothing special occurred along the way. I moped
for most of the ride.
At the College
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The day was cool and sunny,quite pleasant for walking. Because
there were no Kaye and students to look after, I went directly to the
North Academic Center. This is a hunk of a Destructionist design
across the street from the core campus. I arrive at around 9:45 to
meet other judges lining up for their project assignments. I took up
my judge's folder.
I was assigned to 'Behavioral sciences'. My specialty is the
physical sciences and engineering, yet the Fair in its wisdom put me
into 'Behavioral sciences'.
I headed for the dining room for breakfast. I ate a 'breakfast at
home but I was still eager to fill up now. The offerings were good,
both hot and cold, with freely taken seconds, and thirds, and ... . I
already had a few chewies with me, letting me pass up stuffing muffins
and croissants into my shoulder bag. Actually, this wasn't possible
because all the items were open, not wrapped or bagged. Loose breads
would have crushed into messy crumbs in my bag.
Instructions
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In the dining room I hunted for my table. The project categories
are deployed all over the floor, even in remote corners, with tent
signs on the tables. As fate had it, a found my table in a far alcove.
It didn't matter because the instructions were voiced by PA and this
table was close to the food counters.
There were six other judges at my table, a bit of a tight fit. All
of us were previous judges with about half from schools and half from
business/industry.
We sat, and ate, thru several pep talks by Fair and College
officials, then a Fair agent walked us thru the judging process.
First task was to inspect the fudge folder we got at sign-in. It
and cover sheet, judge's badge, and ID stickers.
We then waited as Fair agents cruised thru the tables leaving
packs of project papers for each. Each project for our table had
several copies of its papers. We were told to divide up the projects
to ourselfs so that each hd at least four projects with no duplicates.
If there were leftover projects, e should give them to an agent to
offer at other tables i
Each project consisted of an abstract and a scoring sheet. We
attached an judge ID sticker to each of our project scoring sheets
Then we wrote on the cover sheet the project ID numbers, taken from
the abstracts. This procedure tied the set of projects to the judge
and the group of judges to each project.
The scoring sheet was like last year's with several factors to
rate by filling in bubbles. The rating was either 1-5 or 1-10, d, with
1 as poorest or worse and 5/10 the best.
The factors were groups into four or five major sections. I figured
to do as in the past and rate the project once for each section and
jill of its bubbles for that rating. If, say, 'Presentation' was rated
'8', I would fill in all the bubbles in the 'Presentation' section as
'8'.
The instructions finished and so was our food intake, we marched
en bloc across the street to Shepard Hall.
Great Hall
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Shepard Hall looks like a cathedral with two arched wings on each
side. The classrooms and offices are in these wings. The main salon is
a humongous cathedral-like chamber once used for 'assembly day' or
convocation . It, with the rest of the core campus, is almost fully
restored and renovated. The major work to do as I saw it was getting
the flags washed or replaced. Flags from many European universities
hang along the side walls, laden with dirt built up over the century''
life of the campus.
For the Fair the Hall was fitted with rows and rows of folding
lunch tables. The rows and aisles were labeled with large signs
carrying both a letter and the name of category. Projects for
behavioral science were on tables near the left front of Great Hall.
Project displays were mounted on the tables within delineated
spaces about a meter wide and half the depth of the table./ The spot
was given a sequential number along the table.
Finding the project to visit was easy because the scoring sheet
had the project title and its table/spot coordinate.
The back, entrance, of Great Hall was taken up by Fair crew and a
snack counter. It served small bags of assorted munchies, bottled
water, canned soda. The attendants kept barking out that we may take
ONE bag, can, bottle. I saw judges and students picking up two or more
at a time.
The displays
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The displays were more varied than previously, due mostly to the
wide-spread use of computer-generated text and graphics. There few
stencil and paper cut/paste work. One distraction was that some
displays had a textured background with text laid over it. It was
tough to read some of the words where they crossed over similar color
parts of the background.
All displays had to fit within the meter width on the marked off
space on the table. Most were of the three-panel model, a large
backboard and two angled wings. This model allowed for a crown or
headboard to sit on top of the wings. There seemed to e height limit
other than practicality.
Unlike in prior years we as judges did not look for specific
layout or outline on the displays. We relied on the narration of the
students to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the project. I
myself did examine particular graphs and photos and asked the student
to elaborate on them.
Portable computers were common for showing short animations or
videos and to hold the student's reference files. There seemed to be
no constraint on using these devices but we did have to judge the
project from the hard paper display.
As yet there were no animated graphics in the displays but I can
foresee that in a few years there could be thin flat devices to hang
on the board as to turn on for the judge to watch.
The projects
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My specialty for the Fair was engineering and physical science. At
the mustering desk I was given only projects in the behavior sciences.
I didn't mind since as long as a judge was well practiced in one
discipline he could figure out most others, surely as presented by
high school students.
I'm not here giving a review of all of the projects. All relied on
surveys of friends and family and fellow students. The survey results
were tabulated and some conclusions were extracted. In most of the
projects the end result was there were too few returns from the survey
or there were too many extraneous factors. The student presented his
intent and goal, described the method, and then summed up that more
work was needed.
The presentations on the whole were adequate, given the loose data
collection, and I gave passing grades to them.
I had four projects to judge:
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* Bad habits and their fa friends: The effects of adolescent
procrastination and time management and sugar and fat consumption
* The effectiveness of sex education in high school students
* Digital natives, digital newcomers: The effects of Adolescent
perceptions of parental technological intelligence on and perception
of parental authority
* Ukrainian nationalism
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Projects in behavioral sciences tend to be surveys to determine
the effect of one factor on an other among people. The student builds
a set of questions, asks other people the questions, and analyzes
the answers. To do a survey of students in school, some
nasty burocracy is endured. A contestant can not just hand out
questionaries within the school. The subject and actual questions must
be approved by the mentor for the project and then approved by higher
officials in the school and Department of Education.
All the projects
appeared to have duly approved material.For surveys done outside the
school, among neighbors, passers-by on the street, and the like, I
have no clue how the school rules apply.
The Ukraine
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The last project I judged was specially good, earning a
higher score in my judging. The student surveyed Ukrainian residents
in her neighborhood concerning the current rise of national
identity in the Ukraine. There was increasing tensions in the Ukraine
between the native Ukrainians and Russians living there.
The Ukraine, a separate country before World War I, was absorbed
into the Soviet Union in 1919 and became the Ukrainian SSR province.
About 183 of its residents, all in the eastern part of the country,
are Russians. The central and western part has the other 2/3 as native
Ukrainians.
As a new country after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, the
Ukraine wants to ally with Europe, maybe joining the Common Market and
NATO. It was already a UN member state under Soviet rule, probably a
concession to Stalin after World War II, and kept its seat as an
independent nation.
Under Putin, Russia wants to pull the Ukraine into Russian
domination again. He wages a campaign on nationalism for the Russian
eastern part of the Ukraine to break away and merge into Russia. The
effort hasn't succeded, maybe not yet?, and there were already
skirmishes between Russian infiltrators and Ukrainian military units.
The student found that just about all of her Ukrainian neighbors,
natives and Russian, want the uKraine to be its own nation, apart from
Russia. She learned that the Russian people she surveyed left the
Ukrain mainly to get away from Russian subjugation Most of her people favor closer ties with Europe or at least a
neutral status. None think of the Ukraine as a territory belonging to
Russia.
In mid march 2014, as i was composing this article, open
hostilities broke out between Russia-backed armies and Ukrainian
forces. Fighting was telecast in the news media in and near the
Ukraine capital of Kiev.
Russia claims it was protecting its own people from Ukrainian
suppression. It offered to annex the Russian part of the country into
itself! No one knows how or when this conflict will end.
All over
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With judging complete, there was a bit of tidying up on the score
sheets and judge cover sheet. This done, I handed in my score sheets
to the Fair office outside Great Hall. I had to turn in my Judge's
badge but the crew let me keep the abstracts. I got a on-the-spot
printed certificate of appreciation, a thank-you gift, and a lunch
ticket.
The gift was a Rubik cube with faces spelling out words about the
Fair. One corner of the cube had a key holder, which was totally
useless. No one will hang a key on it and then carry the cube in the
pocket. The holder was weakly glued to the corner. I easily extracted
it for discard. This toy may be a conversation piece on my desk?
With no Steve with me this time I took lunch, a chicken sandwich,
large soda, and bag of chips. I was allowed to take an extra bagel to
munch on the way home.
I left the College near 2 PM EDST and headed home. I was home far
earlier than usual because I did not have to help Mr kaye bring his
kids back to Brooklyn after the public viewing.
I was in my house at quite 4OM for a relaxed remainder of the
afternoon