Science fairs: The opportunity to showcase one’s interests, talents, and dedication through a project brought before an entire school’s faculty, students, and families.
Or, another chance for parents to force their kids to endure building something they have little motivation towards or interest in doing.
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My dad had a passion for gardening and would spend hours each winter planning his plot, ordering seeds, and starting seedlings under fluorescent lights in the basement, ready to transplant outside after the spring thaw.
I was passionate about poring over the entire encyclopedia collection my parents had ordered and placed onto two entire bookshelves in the family den.
An exciting entry in the letter “P” volume introduced me to the phenomena of plant tropisms. In particular, phototropism had the visual intrigue of plant stems or tree branches bending in the extreme towards a light source. The entry was supported with images of planter boxes with glass sides to show root growth towards a water source as well.
When the science fair was announced, I knew what my winter project would be: Demonstrate phototropism by bending bean plants by repositioning a light source every few days after the seedlings broke through the soil surface.
After a few weeks, I had plants several centimeters tall but with all sorts of angles and bends to their stems.
I logged the position of the light source, how many centimeters the plants grew daily, and graphed the growth and shape of each plant — in addition to regular watering, of course.
Posterboards detailed the steps taken and photographs supported the progress and demonstrated the gradual bending of the stems as the light source moved.
In front of the trifold poster board display, were planter boxes with one glass side and the tall, twisty, and leafy bean plants, labeled to match the photos on the board and charts of data.
It was beautiful. And it lost to the kid who built a volcano of paper mache on a chicken-wire frame and erupted when baking soda was poured into its crater – eliciting oohs & ahhs and earning the 1st place ribbon.
Phototropism – I learned a bunch, it was cool and we had beans on the dinner table later that spring.