Catapult!

[Irving]

I am proud of the fact that his project represents both his actual levels of understanding and effort, and I look forward to seeing it between the projects of the kids who home-sequenced the genome of their dog and the one who built a functional model of the Jarvik heart.

This is me. I tried to get my daughter to do a super awesome project, where I'd come up with the experiment, but make her put everything together, and she was never down. I wanted to do a solar powered aquaponics project. She always picked stuff more realistic and appropriate for her age though, so it was for the best.

[JohnnyEgo]

That is not a real shop, it is WAY to clean.

Love reading these kinds of posts. Yup, in the long run he will look back and smile.

Sadly, it's definitely a garage, not a shop. Everything is on wheels so my wife can park her car back in there in the evenings, and she frowns upon piles of sawdust gently raining down every time the garage door opens, so it is kept clean out of necessity and fear.

This is me. I tried to get my daughter to do a super awesome project, where I'd come up with the experiment, but make her put everything together, and she was never down. I wanted to do a solar powered aquaponics project. She always picked stuff more realistic and appropriate for her age though, so it was for the best.

It's an interesting balance. One of my son's friends is doing a bridge experiment, where you design different bridges and see how much weight they will support. I remember a friend of mine doing something very similar way back when we were in 5th grade. The difference is that my son's friend's bridges were clearly designed in Solidworks and accompanied by finite element analysis prints. Even more impressive to me is that the bridges were 3D printed somehow with a color spool such that they have the FEA color map printed on the surface. I am not sure I could do either of these things, let alone a 10 year old. Coincidentally, his dad's a mechanical engineer, but I am sure that has no bearing. I go back and forth over whether I do too much or not enough on this type of thing, but at the end of the day, I still end up frog-marching him towards active involvement in his own education, even when it would be faster, less stressful, and there would be much fewer obscenities uttered by either of us if I did it myself.

[Irving]

My one redeeming factor in trying to help with science fair was that I would struggle with any project just as much as she would, so I wouldn't feel like I was doing it for her.

[Aloha_Shooter]

Great set of pictures. As a science fair judge, I recommend he keep those pictures in an album or posted on his board to show he did all the work.

[Great-Kazoo]

Sadly, it's definitely a garage, not a shop. Everything is on wheels so my wife can park her car back in there in the evenings, and she frowns upon piles of sawdust gently raining down every time the garage door opens, so it is kept clean out of necessity and fear.



It's an interesting balance. One of my son's friends is doing a bridge experiment, where you design different bridges and see how much weight they will support. I remember a friend of mine doing something very similar way back when we were in 5th grade. The difference is that my son's friend's bridges were clearly designed in Solidworks and accompanied by finite element analysis prints. Even more impressive to me is that the bridges were 3D printed somehow with a color spool such that they have the FEA color map printed on the surface. I am not sure I could do either of these things, let alone a 10 year old. Coincidentally, his dad's a mechanical engineer, but I am sure that has no bearing. I go back and forth over whether I do too much or not enough on this type of thing, but at the end of the day, I still end up frog-marching him towards active involvement in his own education, even when it would be faster, less stressful, and there would be much fewer obscenities uttered by either of us if I did it myself.

As i'm reading your always interesting post. I flash back to one project in 9th? grade. Myself and a friend since kindergarten, did what we thought was not only factual but humorous project.

Titled The Appian Way, 500 years later.

Very detailed and lifelike of how it looked in present times. Many hours spent laying out the details and finally the finished project. 4"w x 12" long row of 1/2" broken tiles stuck on a board, held together with clay. Then a handful of dirt over it.

Clearly the teacher had no imagination, as we barely got past a c+ for effort. Even then, the education system was rigged.

[Mtneer]

Next level. Note the blanket at 13:45 for speed testing.