Calder and the District Science Fair

Calder got a special invitation to attend the District Science Fair this year, because they loved his project so much. He was really excited to be singled out. We even had the gifted counselor calling our house to make sure that he would be attending.

His project was on Color and how it functions in our world.

He learned about primary, secondary and complimentary colors, which colors absorb heat better and tricks that colors can play on our eyes. We had a lot of fun with his project and he won an award for it. This is so good for Calder, who needs a healthy dose of confidence injected into him.

His project:

At the district science fair there were projects from all ages up to high school seniors. OMSI was in attendance and they had all sorts of robots you could manipulate/drive, puzzles, scientific discovery zones, and animal/nature areas. It was huge! He got a bunch of gift certificates for free ice cream from Cold stone and pizza from Howie's, free movies etc. He was very excited about that.
Just he and I went. It was so nice to just spend some one on one time with him. I let him lead, at one point he started holding back and I told him that I would follow where ever he went and to just go explore. I would be right there with him. That was all he needed. He took off, exploring the whole fair. It was so fun to see him experience this and feel proud of his accomplishments. We even peaked at people looking at his experiment, and he grinned ear to ear, when he heard someone say "WOW, this is an awesome project. How cool." The gifted counselor came up when we were at his display and told him how much she loved his project and how glad she was that he came. He smiled shyly and whispered "Thanks". Calder doesn't like to show much emotion, so this was almost like strutting for him. He was so pleased! It made me so happy.

Calder looking at a crawdad exhibit:
He really liked these because they are studying lobsters right now, and crawdads look like lobsters!


He was even brave enough to hold a corn snake.

I think that probably his favorite part was driving the huge robot around. He was so intense the whole time, manipulating the gears and figuring what everything did.
Great time! Good experience for Calder! So glad we went.


Just as a side note. Levi's project was really neat too. He studied crystals and we grew several varieties at home. We have a computer microscope and so were able to examine his crystals up close. Here are two photos we took of his crystals up close:

Alum crystal:

Epsom Crystal:
Science! So cool and so much fun!