Our Classical Conversations (CC) Challenge A class and community just finished up the 2023 Science Fair! What an unexpected, pleasant experience! More about that in a moment. First, some background on our family and CC. Our son was a part of the CC Foundations program for 2 years, (1 of those years also included the CC Essentials program) before we had to take a break, and put some extra attention on areas of his schoolwork that were lacking, due to a learning difference he struggles with. So, we came back to CC and jumped back in at Challenge A, with only 2 years of prior CC experience. I was a little nervous, but was reassured over and over that we would be just fine. 🙂 And we have been!
Science Fair was not something I enjoyed as a student in school, so I worried it would be an overall terrible experience for our son, too. Yikes! You know… having a mom helping lead him through it who wasn’t enthused either. haha! But, I mentioned being pleasantly surprised with this recent experience, and that is because it was broken into small, obtainable, weekly goals all laid out for our son in the student guide. As long as he (we) stayed on top of it weekly, by the last week, it all just fell right into place! We also have an amazing Challenge A director who continually encouraged the students, to not fall behind. So that was helpful! By the end, there was no need to stay up late the night before science fair, due to procrastination… something I (and my son) can be prone to, with the overwhelming tendencies of large projects.
But he did it, and we are SO STINKIN’ PROUD!!! There were a few tears, moments of frustration and confusion, shipping delays on materials needed, and day-of nervousness; but, in the end, he claimed, “I would do science fair all over again!” Like, WHAT?!!! How amazing to hear that come out of his mouth! We now feel prepared to tackle any high school or college research requirements, with a process in place that we can always refer back to! And if it’s scientific, the process also leaves us with a lab journal, a research plan, and a final research paper.
The students’ big day consisted of 45 minutes of presenting their project to the CC community, followed by 1-on-1 presentations to three judges. There was a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winner based on the judges’ forms, and a separate ‘community favorite’ winner. We are so proud that our boy charmed the community, winning ‘community favorite’! 😀
Enjoy these photos from the day!
