Sci Tech Fair
So, like, because I am lame the most important thing that has happened to me for the past month is my sci-tech fair. It was very last minute, and definitely wouldn't have happened without the help of several people (Sean, Greben, my family, and most of all Filip since he was my partner and all), but we definitely put in a lot of effort this year.
This project was interesting. Before this project, and my biotech class I suppose, science was really about understanding things and a combination of math and memorization as far as skills went. It was about sitting in a class and occasionally being fascinated, and sometimes yelling at myself for not studying for a hard test. It was working all night on projects, most of which I somewhat resented, a minority of which I got myself passionately invested into.
As a kid, I remember being fascinated with all science- not just biology as I have been lately, but chemistry and physics and all other "disciplines" as well. Back then it was about learning how things worked, cutting up earth worms and watching them regenerate, reading as many books as there were in my school's library about dinosaurs and black holes, about listening attentively to my sister when she was telling me about pluripotent stem cells in treating diabetes, struggling to understand her explanations about the structure of DNA. And it was all so cool to me. I also remember wanting to be a doctor, not because it paid a lot or anything, but because I liked science and I liked the feeling of being helpful. I feel like sometime between grade 7 and 11, there has been so much work and srs bsns in my science classes that I've really forgotten to enjoy it.
But this sci-tech experiment really allowed me, along with Filip, to experiment with our own original idea and carry out a number of trials to see how it worked, if it worked. It was really a problem solving challenge in some ways, in others an exasperatingly time-consuming issue, but overall the type of exploration of science that I had largely forgotten about. While I was doing it, and during this year in general due to biotech, I realized that I had largely forgotten the nature of what science is supposed to be.
The fair in itself was really good as well. I think the defining part of it was presenting to the public. Last year I didn't talk about it to many people, but this year there was a lot of interest-- sometimes there would be a small crowd around our project, I noticed. Fil and I presented to adults and children, and sometimes I would have to oversimplify the material. At first that was awkward for me, but I really got into it and I loved talking about it. The kids seemed a little spacey while Filip and I were talking, hahah, but some of the adults' reactions were lovely.
I remember as I was explaining to one pair of young siblings the principle of our project-- stopping the antibiotic resistance in bacteria by cleaving their resistance genes-- and why it was significant. And their mother bent down to them and explained how their grandmother was plagued by this problem, how she always got infections and how it was difficult because she kept on having to switch antibiotics. I don't think she had a background in science, but she was very interested in our project. Later on, when I was thinking about the day a little sulkily, I thought about that moment and startlingly realized why science ever became important to me in the first place.
We didn't win a gold-- although we got a nice silver and a biotech award from Amgen-- but I think this was a very worthwhile experience for me. Do any other science-focused people kind of get what I'm rambling about?
Wow, that was way too serious and sentimental. Compensation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtDjM6QqULU&feature=channel Cat video!