Judging a science fair makes an impact
About chickens and rocket science continued

I looked at the poster presentation and was amazed at how thoroughly the students had researched how a chicken grows from a single cell to hatching. Every piece of information was displayed so neatly and orderly that readers could learn everything they ever wanted to know about the hatching process. The poster was so professional it would have been suitable for presentation at a technical conference, yet it was created by a group of kids who are sometimes misjudged by people who consider themselves “normal.”

I was reminded of something Mitch Thrower, the editor of Triathlete Magazine, wrote about physically challenged young athletes: “When I was younger, I would feel pangs of guilt and sorrow when I met or saw someone with a significant physical challenge. However, I quickly learned in life that the only thing different about the physically challenged, is that his or her impediments are on the outside where everyone can see them. The rest of us can hide them from others, and sadly, often from ourselves.”

The final step in the judging process was deciding a fair grade for the students’ terrific work. That wasn’t hard to determine because the project was nearly perfect, so I gave them a 97. (I subtracted 3 points for the little bit of confusion at the beginning of the oral presentation, which, however, resulted only from their excitement and enthusiasm.) The kids and I enjoyed our interaction immensely, and I was impressed by how much I learned (or re-learned from my school days) about the hatching process.

I went on to judge a fourth project about a self-made electrical generator, but all the while I kept thinking about the chickens. After the students had left, I went back several times to check on the birds. I met up with Jason Kirkman, the science fair organizing teacher, and told him I was impressed by the special ed class and in particular with how hard they worked on their presentation. I was delighted to see the potential in these students to become first-class scientists.

A week later I had a voice mail message from Alan saying something about euphoric and happy kids, the impact that my judging had made, and that he had something for me. When I called him back he said the students had made me a thank you card, which he wanted to give to me in person because he had a story to tell me. When we met a few days later, Alan explained to me that the kids had figured out that I had an accent, but they couldn’t tell what my nationality was. Therefore, they wrote “thank you” in several different languages, which was very scientific and increased the likelihood that they would write it in “my” language (in fact, they had four “hits” in my native language). They also remarked on what a good listener I was. My ability to listen would turn out to be the key element of the story Alan had to tell me.

Alan (who’s girlfriend Andria Liesse is a teacher at Carlos Gilbert and works with the mentors of the chicken project students, Bob Stark and Mary Serrano) explained that some special ed kids have difficulty interacting with others.

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