STORMY SCIENCE
------------
John Pazmino
NYSkies Astronomy Inc
www.nyskies.org
nyskies@nyskies.org
2019 May 19
Introduction
----------
The annual New York City Science and engineering Fair convened on
2019 March 3 at City College of New York. Steve Kaye and his
students and I went to the Fair, with him and me as judges. Steve now
works only at the yeshiva, after retiring from Madison HS a few years
ago. All of his students in the Fair are from this yeshiva.
Steve and I discussed plans for the Fair at the NYSkies Seminar on
March 1st. We arranged the normal procedure of meeting up at the
Kings Highway station on the Brighton line at 7{30AM on the 3rd. From
there we ride to City College, muster in the kids, and go to the
judges breakfast and briefing.
City College is in Hamilton Heights, Manhattan. It sits on the
'hill', a spine of bedrock that overlooks the valley of Harlem. The
cliff of this hill is St Nicholas Park, which contains Alexander
Hamilton's house. The house was moved into the park many years ago to
give it a more campestrian context in place of its former urban street
setting.
The Fair is run by the City University, within which City College
operates, with support from the NYC Department of Education. The round
at City College is the 'preliminary' round. Its winners enter the
'final' round later in March at the American Museum of Natural
History. The winners there go into the national science competition.
This contest circulates around the country from year to year.
Steve and I judge only the preliminary round. Steve sometimes
attends the final round as a spectator.
Going to City College
-------------------
It was a mild clear day on March 3rd, a Sunday. In recent years
the Fair was held on the first Sunday of March. In getting ready to
leave for the Fair I downed a cup of coffee and did up a peanut butter
sandwich to eat along the way. The Fair gives breakfast to the judges,
altho its quality varies erraticly each year.
I left home at 6:30AM EST and rode a bus to the Brighton line. I
then rode the train to Kings Highway station. I arrived there at about
7:15AM. The longish time came from the annoying wait for the bus,
coming in early Sunday at about 15 minute intervals. Both rides were
uneventful. I was alone at street level in the station, the students
and Steve not yet arrived.
Close to 7:30aM Steve and three kids showed up individually. a
fourth came along a few minutes later. steve made sure that the
students had a valid MetroCard. Their school-issued cards are dead on
weekends. Steve and I pointed to the dispensing stands in the station
lobby to buy MetroCards.
The train came quickly, with the short headways on Sunday. While
the train was lightly filled when we got on, it loaded up as we passed
thru Downtown and Manhattan. The high frequency of train in outer
Brooklyn gets trains into the dense traffic regions of the line. It
takes some time for the trains to reach these regions after departure
from their depot in Coney Island.
The Brighton line does not work City College. We changed trains at
Herald Square to a Concourse train. It whisked us to the 145th St
station, close to the College. For a couple kids this was the first
time ever to ride this line.
At the College
------------
At 145th St we walked the few blocks to the College. The students
stayed together, relieving Steve and me of herding them. When we
passed the former site of Hamilton's house Mr Kaye explained about the
man and noted that the house is now around the corner in St Nicholas
Park. We could stop to see it after the Fair.
We steered the kids into Shepard Hall, where thru mustered in at
reception tables. The first of several glitches was here. Several
tables were not crewed.
The missing crew was most likely due to dire forecasts of massive
rain to come later in the day. In the City region such rain can flood
coastal areas, impeding travel to the Fair. A dialog about t this
broke out at the judges breakfast/briefing.
We nudged crews at other tables to help sign in the students. This
crew was hounded by many other students, parents, escorts with their
own inquiries and contestants.
left out contestant
-----------------
One of Steve's kids was missing from the Fair's roster! He was a
victim to a computer mishap. He had, from prior admonitions from
Steve, printed out the online application screens and brang them with
him. The Fair's computers somehow ate his, and probably many other,
applications.
We found a senior staffer who examined the kid's paperwork and
assigned him a place in the exhibit hall. He couldn't promise a
judging because his work was not included in the package made up for
judges. At worse, the student can explain his project to any one
passing by and close it up when the judging session was finished.
Steve stayed with the staffer and student and let me go ahead to
the breakfast. He can catch up to me later.
I did link up with Mr Steve during the breakfast, He by chance was
assigned to a table near me for social 'sciences'.
Where's my table?
---------------
I went across the street to the Faculty Dining Room,. often called
the '/FDR'. I mustered up to get my judges package. The agent noted I
was assigned to 'Earth and environmental sciences', a best fit for the
several categories I offered when i signed up as a judge. The category
names wander from year to year and the Fair makes a best match for the
ones the judge signed up for.
I scooped up hot and cold items from the serving bins, then
looked for the 'Earth and environmental sciences' table. As much as i
wandered round and round, there just was no such table in sight. Even
Fair ushers I asked didn't know where it was.
The MC for the briefing gave us a short welcome speech. When she
stepped away from the podium. I buttonholed her for my table. She
pointed to a small area behind columns next to the podium. There they
were, three tables virtually hidden from view.
There were at first only a couple other judges at the table. other
came a bit later, muttering about the trouble to find the table.
While I was taking in my breakfast at my table the introductory
speeches began. I looked around hoping to find Steve, and noticed
there were many empty places at all of the tables. One speaker said
she got calls/emails from judges bailing out from fear of the coming
storm. It was forecast to hit the City by noon.
Steve was by goof chance sitting a table away in the 'social
sciences' section. We saw each other almost together. He, too,
assigned to a category outside of his expertise. His student left out
of judging was set up in the hall but the Fair had no way to get his
abstract and scoring sheet prepared to let a judge visit him. stayed
together for the rest of the Fair with bypasses during judging.
There were now too few judges!
The speaker assured that all projects will be inspected. The Fair
will allocate projects from the absent judges to the present judges.
Each judge may have some extra projects to judge.
Breakfast
-------
In a word or two: good and plenty. The hot items were the usual
ones for a breakfast at conventions: scrambled eggs, home fires,
sausage, bacon, french toast. Cold items were assorted sweets, bagels,
rolls, muffins. Drinks were coffee, tea, juices, water.
Judges were wolfing their meal, then cycling back for seconds. OK,
i did the same. Maybe the worry of foul weather boosted appetite?
Even with a lesser number of judges, the serving clerks had to
refill the bins.
I looked for wrapped muffins or rolls, for noshing during the
judging. There were no wrapped ones. All were in the open, ready to
mess up my pocket or shoulder bag. No, I didn't take any.
Blank judges stickers
-------------------
I and others at my table looked in our packages. Some judges were
newcomers, asking me and other veterans to coach them.
We found that several of us had blank judges stickers! The sticker
should bear the judge's name. These are placed on a card clipped on
the project backboard to show that it was inspected. Each project must
be inspected by three judges before it can be closed down for the
lunch break. Without names it would be impossible to correlate the
judges scoring sheets with an actual visit to the project. A lazy or
tired judge could just makes up scores without inspecting the project!
The MC knew about this glitch from assembling the packages for the
judges. She instructed us to write our last name on the sticker card
for each project we inspect. Please print neatly!
Instructions
----------
The instructions for judging were the same as in previous years.
We visit each project in our package alone, not in a group. We score
according to a list of criteria, then fill out the project's scoring
sheet. These sheets were distributed to each table separately from
the judges package.
At the briefing, when we got the scoring sheets, we place a
sticker on each sheet. When we finish visiting a project we place an
other one on judging card attached to the backboard.
This sticker shows that the judge in fact did visit the project.
Judges with nameless stickers, like me, should print our last name on
the card.
All project judging ends at noon. We then turn in our scoring
sheets to a Fair office, collect our certificate and thank-you gift.
Most judges would then go home. Mr Kaye and I had to stay with the
Fair to escort Steve's students back to Brooklyn. Steve is responsible
for them for the entire duration of their participation in the Fair.
This meant we were on duty beyond noon, thru 4PM. This span
covered lunch from noon to 2PM and public viewing of the projects from
2 to 4.
More projects
-----------
When breakfast was winding down, ushers cruised the hall to hand
out project folders. We got the judges package at signin and now we
get the particular projects to visit.
Each project had three copies of its project abstract and scoring
sheet. We divided the projects to give four or five to each of us,
with no duplicates. On each scoring sheet we placed a judges sticker,
Those of us with nameless stickers, we wrote our name under the blank
sticker..
With the shortfall of judges from fear of foul weather, there were
many extra project folders. The Fair crews broke these apart and asked
if any one can take a couple more projects, even if not in the dame
category. At my table we all had enough projects to handle.
From past experience it takes twenty minutes to inspect and rate
one project. The maximum number of projects I can handle is six,
filling two hours and allowing extra time for the more interesting
projects.
This distribution of the leftover projects frittered about a half
hour more, during which many judges hurried to the food bins for
seconds or thirds.
The tables were released to the exhibits by category slowly to
alleviate congestion in the corridors.
Because there were many no-show judges and a haphazard
distribution of leftover project packs, i saw that near the end of the
judging period some projects did not get the three assessments. The
student lingered, waiting for that last judge so he can go off for
lunch and rest.
Fair ushers spoke with some students and apparently let them go
without their three inspections.
In some prior Fairs ushers near the hall entrance asked exiting
fudges if they can do a few more projects. This happened when there
was a small shortfall of judges. This year the loss of judges to
weather fear was probably too severe. No ushers asked exiting judges
to inspect more projects.
The exhibits
----------
The exhibits were set up in Great Hall, the cathedral central
chamber of Shepard Hall. it's the auditorium of the original campus of
City College and also an exhibit and performance space.
Lunch tables were lined up front to back in long aisles, lettered
A to, J think, I. Within each aisle the tables were marked into
numbered spots for the projects. A project had to stay within the
meter-wide spot, typicly bounded by the backboard, with an open space
at the front for litterature and props.
This year the displays were more uniform than previously, all
having backboard about a meter tall with no crowns or bridges or
extensions. Each display had a squarish backboard with two lateral
narrow panels. These panels angle forward to stabilize the backboard .
All three parts are open for flat static elements. Virtually all
elements were made by computer methods, there being just about no
manually built ones.
I don't know if the rules were tighter to maintain this format, but
the exhibit hall did have a neater cleaner appearance.
Like always, no actual specimina or apparatus were allowed in the
display. All work was presented on the boards with text, pictures,
graphs, and other static visuals.
I always being with me a pocket torch to illuminate dark parts of
an exhibit. Lighting in Great Hall is commonly spotty, with pockets of
shadow here and there, Today the lighting was surprisingly bright all
over the hall. I didn't need the torch at all. It seemed that the
clouds homogenized the daylight all over the sky, maybe a precursor to
the storm coming later in the day.
The projects
----------
I had six projects to judge, the most I can handle within the
judging period of two hours. This allows twenty minutes per project,
including filling out the scoring sheet. Some projects were completed
in less time, leaving extra time for the more interesting ones.
I enrolled to judge physical sciences, planetary science,
engineering projects. This year there was an excess number of
environmental projects. Judges are enrolled separately from the
projects with apparently little correlation between the two. It
happens that some categories end up with too few judges qualified for
them.
None of my projects had anything to do with my specialties, all
being environmental. I can at least assess the student on softer
factors like aptitude, answers to questions, knowledge of the topic,
evaluation of results.
The titles of my projects were
EVALUATING THE PHENOTYPICAL VARIATION OF BOTTLEOSE DOLPHIN SIGHTINGS
(TURSIOPS TUNCAUS)
HEAVY METAL PRESENCE IN BLUS MUSSEL SHELLSAT HUDSON RIVER PARK, NYC
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DIFFERENT NATURAL REPELLENT EXTRACTS ON THE
HATCH RATE OF AEDES AEGYPTIII EGGS
THE EFFECT OF VARIOUS METHODS OF DISTRIBUTION ONTHE RATE OF
ABSORPTIOON OF OIL BY COCNUT COIR
SPATIAL AND MORPHOLOGICALANALYSIS OF .+CUROCONITE HOLESIN
KANGERUSSUAQ, GREENLAND, USING AERIAL UNMANNED VEHICLE IMAGING AND
automaTED SOFTWARE
II did not fully appreciate the content of these projects. They
were just too far off of my background. On the other hand, all the
students seemed to know what they did and the intended purpose. They
apparently collected the displayed data fair and square and did work
up graphs and statistics from them.
I gave all of them favorable scores, none overly bad are good.
No more laptops?
--------------
Until this year the normal way to supplement the static display
was to show images or videos on a laptop computer. The Fair laid out
electric power bars for the laptops.
We admonished Mr Kaye's kids in past years to always keep the
laptop on person when ever being away from the exhibit. Never leave
the laptop untended on the table, or stowed under the table. I never
for Steve's students heard of any theft or damage. I did learn
occasionally that else where on the floor a laptop went missing.
This year there were only a few laptops among the exhibits!
With the ever more powerful tablets and phones, the students store
their animations, videos, pictures on these devices. They are lighter,
small, handy, easily kept on person. The devices with larger screens
are preferred over the tiny ones on pocket phones.
I learned later that in some cases the student didn't actually
have the presentation loaded on the device. He connected to exhibit
material stored on a web via wireless service.
Outsider participation
--------------------
One story I heard later was that a student filmed his mentor
discussing the exhibit and played it for the judge. I can huge
argument about this technique.Tge fair requires that only th project's
contestants may present the project. Outside persons, like mentors or
teachers, may not participate in the Fair. Mr Kaye, as example,
mentors his students and may not stand with them to assist in their
presentation before a judge.
The Fair already bars persons from the exhibit floor who are not
the very contestants or judges. These must wear their fair badges,
which are checked at the hall entrance. Parents, escorts,
mentors, and all others, are barred.
Would a recorded discussion from a mentor, other outsider, be a
'participant'? How about showing via wireless connection webpages the
mentor or an email from him? May the student, between judge visits,
confer, by email or phone, with the mentor about the project, getting
new data and suggestions?
I do hope the Fair is watching out for these possibilities of
outsider collaboration during the judging period.
The concern applies to the judge, who must make his assessment
solely on the display on the table and dialog with the student. Can he
by phone call the student's mentor and check up on items in the
presentation? Can he engage web/ info to compare with those of the
student? Is he allowed to call a colleague judge to discuss the
instant project?
New category
----------
The NYC Science and Engineering Fair is open for high school
students doing work typicly during the previous summer. This made just
about all contestants restricted to 10th and higher grades, with at
least one year school attendance before the Fair. 9th graders were
left out for not yet engaging in a science project.
In 2018 a new category of exhibit was opened, 'Research project',
for 9th grade students. Because these students could not have any work
on a project yet, they may mount a display of prospective work.
These displays were in a separate aisle and were not 'judged'.
Judges were to inspect the projects and offer suggestions and comments
for developing them into full projects in the future..
In the judges briefing we were advised to look at the Research
Projects during spare time and encourage their contestants to continue
their work, maybe build a formal project for next year's fair.
I last year and this year didn't have time to visit these
projects. I did walk thru their aisle and saw the students discussing
the projects with judges. The displays apparently were assembled by
the same rules as the judged projects.
An irritated judge
----------------
I suppose that some judges came later in the morning when they
sensed the storm wasn't coming so soon as forecast. They hurried to
Great Hall late morning and began their rounds of projects. I'm sure
they felt rushed to finish in time and could not give full attention
to the projects for a fair assessment.
One judge stormed into Great Hall as I was crossing near the
entrance doors. He was still weariing his jacket/coat and gripped his
judges kit. I suspect he was dressed down by his boss when he tried to
opt out of the Fair due to impending storm.
He rushed into the exhibits , where I lost sight of him. I heard
him a few minutes later. He was yelling at some contestant, out of
sightline from me, He ragged out the student for using fudged data,
not doing substantial work for the project. He carried on for a minute
or two, then fell quiet.
I did find the aisle he was in but he was already gone to his next
project. He berated an other contestant in a similar irritated tone,
this time farther off from me. Then after I tuned him out as he
continued his rounds and rants.
He seemed to stop at each project for only a couple minutes, not
the fifteen or so I spent for my projects. I bet he marked depressed
grades on his score sheet.
No-shows
------
While crossing from one project to the next I noticed many empty
places on the exhibit tables. These were no-shows, likely out of
concern for the dire weather predictions. None of my projects were
no-shows but I did see one judge stop at a nearby empty place and
leave in a huff.
No-show exhibits can't be inspected and are disqualified from the
Fair. They get no second chance for the Final round two weeks later.
According as the individual circumstance for the absence, a no-show
student could suffer adverse action from his school.
Judges cards
----------
A more serious glitch was the judges card on the exhibit board.
The student attached one, part of the signup package, to the
backboard. When a judge finished with his visit at the project he
attaches a judges sticker to the card to show that the project was in
fact judged.
Students didn't know that many judges, like me, had stickers with
no name printed on them. The student simply reminded the judge to put
a sticker on the card, and many just did that without calling
attention to the missing name. I told the student for my projects that
my sticker didn't have my name and that I'll print my name in a blank
line on the card. I doubt if any student computed that more judges had
nameless stickers.
Missing judges cards
------------------
In previous years the students were instructed to bring the judges
cards, with its stickers affixed, to a Fair office near Great Hall.
When the exhibit reached its three inspections the student removes the
card and pockets it. Then the exhibit can be secured while the student
went for lunch. After lunch and the public viewing the student can
pack up the exhibit to go home.
This year the instruction was to turn in the cards at the sign-in
tables at the end of the Fair, 4PM. These tables were downstairs from
Great Hall and would be staffed at the closing of the Fair.
The trouble came when students, with packed-up exhibits, headed
for home. They flowed past the sign-in tables, most being vacant of
crew. Some contestants remembered to give the judges card to a crewed
table. All of the others forgot about the card, being in a rush to
leave Shepard Hall, meet their parents or teachrers and get going for
home. They went off campus with the cards in their pockets pr still
attached to the backboards all packed up..
When Steve collected his students after the Fair he reminded them
to get the judges cards out, ready to hand in at the tables. With most
tables unstaffed, he camped the kids in a corner and took the cards to
a staffed table.
I have no idea what contestants did with the cards which were
taken home in pockets or packed displays.
Off to home
--------
At 4PM the Fair let out with streams of students, family, mentors
pouring out of Shepard Hall. Steve and I herded his kids to the street
and the subway. Along the way we forgot all about visiting Hamilton's
house, Only thirty or so meters off of the street inside St Nicholas
Park.
The ride was pleasant and quick. Along the way the conductor
advised that our Concourse train will stop at DeKalb Av. Normally it
bypasses DeKalb Av.
At Dekalb Av the train stopped at the same platform as the Brighton
train for a convenient transfer. The diverted route was due to some
construction work farther downstream.
In the banter and chatting during the ride we missed getting off
at DsKalb Av! We bailed out at Barclays Center, also a transfer
station but with long stairs and corridors to navigate thru.
We got to the Brighton platform and boarded that train. The rest
of the ride home was smooth. One kid got off along the way. close to
his home.
I got off at my own stop, There I got my bus to continue home. Mr
Kaye and the rest of his kids continued to Kings Highway station. I
got into my house pretty much at 6:30PM, making my day a full 12 hours
long.
Conclusion
--------
One final glitch, this one a good one. In morning weather
prediction was for massive rain in late morning. At the Fair we heard
it was delayed to early afternoon. Then news was for a regular rain,
not a storm, in late afternoon.
It just did not rain at all during the Fair! It was partly cloudy
but no precipitation.
Rain, a regular one, came in evening, when every one from the fair
was home.
This is something like my twelfth year as a judge for the NYC
Science and Engineering Fair. Each year is just as exciting and
thrilling as the last. In no way can I get bored with this duty,,
altho a couple Fairs suffered assorted mishaps