It was like grade 8 all over again. Rows upon rows of display boards; some put together with the artistic prowess of a kindergartener, while others had the scientific precision of a well-published academic. Each student sat well-dressed in front of their projects as onlookers slowly walked by, the more successful ones draped in medals and trying to fend off a scrum of questioners like Crosby after his gold-medal goal, while the less successful sat quietly text messaging or talking with some of their newly-made friends.
In such an atmosphere, the distinction is easily made. But in the real world, each of these kids is at the top of their game. This is after all, the national science fair. Thousands of people are involved, including top level research programs and bigwig multinationals. My science fair was like a pickup game of hockey, but this was the NHL. I was completely blown away by the level of work and intellect put into these projects.
I found it particularly astonishing that roughly half the projects I saw had to do with the environment, be it with a focus on renewable energy, reducing pollution or water issues. I talked to a girl in grade 8 who did a project on water conservation. She knew far more about the global water crisis than many people my age and was able to not only convey her information to me quite clearly, but was also able to have a conversation with me about it. Grade 8!
This focus on the environment was quite indicative of how important this kind of stuff is. Energy, particularly wind and solar energy, garnered a lot of attention. I saw numerous projects looking at how to make more efficient wind turbines, better solar panels and even ways to integrate the two. I talked to one girl who had spent many previous years researching different ways to improve the efficiency of solar panels and this year decided to research how applicable they really are. Her poster was called Solar Fraud, where she told me how financially inefficient they are, how the chemicals used to make them are really dangerous and how some solar contractors are swindlers. This is true. But when I asked her if she had compared any of this to other energy technologies, she hadn't. Because she was so young, I gave her the benefit of the doubt. But what was really impressive was how she responded when I asked her if we should just kick solar technology to the curb. Instead of the expected yes, she said we should instead be investing in more R&D so we don't need to use the dangerous chemicals. Lots of people would simply say solar is stupid.
Several projects focused on assessing how green certain products were, such as the kid who tested the biodegradability of certain soaps with that label in his fishtank. Sadly, none of the fish made it. So much for the biodegradable label.
I should disclose that these were only a handful of projects and the ones that appealed to me. I only had a short time there and wished I could have explored more of them in greater detail. The ones that received high levels of praise were largely incomprehensible to a mere mortal like myself. I also walked in there in a university frame of mind. When I saw projects I thought to myself, "I already know that" or "there's already folks looking at that somewhere else."
It was not until I left that it really sank in how impressive this was. Yes, I already know lots of this. But I'm 22, not 12. And yes, there's already people looking at this stuff. But they are well-educated engineers, not kids. I can only imagine what they will accomplish in the future.
The future is bright.
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