[TheForge] Science fair project

[Marc Godbout]

I don't want to start a debate on what should and shouldn't be in science fairs, especially on this list, but why is there no room for demonstrations in a science fair? Is there some governing body that says "Thou shall not demonstrate"?

As an engineer I'm well aware of the value of the experimental process and use it often, although not daily. And it should be taught at all levels in school. But there's also room for investigation and research into other people's experiments.

I remember winning a science fair with a friend of mine back in 4th grade (I think). We had been collecting insects all summer for the fun of it and used this for the science fair. We then researched insect anatomy, behavior, etc. and had quite a large presentation. This fair was held in our church basement and consisted of many displays that the whole school and their families walked through for one night. 

Most project were of the demo type. Maybe all, as I can't remember evey project and no experiments come to mind. But for one night the whole school and their relatives were exposed to many different areas of science. I never knew about hydroponics before that fair, and I'll bet none of my family did either. No experiments in that project, either, but it was science, and pretty interesting at that.

Or is this semantics and maybe there's a different word for a science "demonstration"?

-Marc

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: "Bruce Freeman" <FREEMAB@pt.fdah.com>

>Once again, the catch is to turn this into an EXPERIMENT.  Demonstrations don't (or shouldn't) win science fair competitions.  So hypothesize what will happen to the steel in a billet in a certain forging operation, then test it.
>