2012 AES Science Fair

Evan and Audrey both came up with some pretty cool projects for the 2012 Mary Kelley Science Fair Projects.  This year the fair had almost 200 participants from the AES elementary school. It's not a mandatory thing, so I'm glad the kids were both excited to participate.
Evan and his best friend, Dylan wanted to try creating a maglev train - not an easy thing to do. They conducted research on magnetism, and the properties of magnets and discovered that many ordinary, everyday tools use magnets to function. With the help of a local carpenter, and design ideas from the Internet, we created a track-base out of wood.

I went on a journey to the huge electronics market in Old Delhi to find a shop that sells magnets.  I discovered three stalls there (market opposite the Red Fort) that sell nothing but magnets -all shapes and sizes! The magnets (small, very powerful ones) were about ten cents each. The boys used these to make our track for the "hover" train.

The boys worked on building their own "car" out of Lego pieces, and put together a fact-filled information display. Great job, boys!
Audrey chose to dive into a lesser known discovery made by Charles Darwin - the properties of Phototropism. For those not in the know - this is how plants grow toward a source of light.

With just a little guidance from mom and dad, Audrey conducted the research in the Internet, and developed her own display board. Both experiments received great comments and reactions from fellow students, teachers and parents. It was fun to work with the kids on their exhibits - I learned more about these two subjects than ever before!
HouseBoy is glad both projects were a success...and are now just more happy memories of our lives here in India.