Today's 58th High Plains Regional Science and Engineering Fair in Rapid City, Black Hills

Creativity, Science, and Public Speaking

About 450 students in middle and high school came to Rapid City to display their projects and give a stand-up presentation of their findings to nearly 100 judges.  Topics included physical science, biology, engineering and social science.

Hopefully the Rapid City Journal newspaper and local TV stations such as KOTA and KEVN were able to stop by and feature some of the students' entries.  
 

Cattle, Cheating, Music Therapy, Microbiology and Potato Gun

I had the genuine privilege to serve as one of the judges.  But the most important part of my role, I discovered, was simply to listen as each student went through their one-on-one presentation to me about their project, and to react with true interest and respect.  These fine young folks put down their wii's, iPads, smartphones, and TV remotes to actually study something special outside of class, conduct an experiment, write up a report, prepare a public poster and get ready to give an oral presentation to someone like me, a total stranger.  We need to foster much more of this kind of activity.

And I would be better off, too, by learning from them.  I learned about microbology, whether background music can improve (or diminish) analytic performance, that a PVC-pipe potato gun can shoot 532 feet, that younger children might more likely fudge ("cheat") on a paperwork task, and that hot water is the best way to thaw bull semen prior to AI.

It is truly fascinating to roam the hall, stopping to ask students "Tell me about your project!" and prepare to walk away a smarter person.

Next Year More Judges Needed

But I have a complaint.  Our community did not provide a large enough pool of "judges."  We got the job done, but more judges would have paid off greatly for the kids.  And, truly, our greatest role was not to judge, but to simply listen.  As I patrolled the aisles, it was obvious that every single one of the hundreds of kids was eager for a judge, in fact any adult, to just stop and show an interest.  

Today we sent some kids home pleased, proud, and enthusiastic about their experience.  I hope we didn't send a single one of them home thinking, "Why bother?"  

If you know of anyone, anyone, who can listen respectfully to a smart young person explain an experiement they performed, have them submit their name now, for next year's judging team, to Dr. Donna Kliche, Donna.Kliche@sdsmt.edu.  Dr. Kliche will be glad, you will have fun, and a student's life may be changed forever.