So last month, I wrote about Andrew winning First Place for his school science project. Some have asked about the background of the project.

First, here's a picture.



The marketing name was "Making Fluffy Buns Bigger". The engineering name of the project is really more like "The Effect of Baking Soda on Biscuits". Andrew got the idea (with a little help from mom and dad) from an episode of Pinky Dinky Doo. This show happens to be a favorite of both Andrew and Declan. There's an episode where main character Pinky gets help from her family who inadvertently add too much baking soda to a batch of "Fluffy Buns" and makes the batch rise so big, it blows the roof off the house. Andrew's science experiment tried to demonstrate the premise behind that show (no, we didn't blow the roof off the house).

Andrew did do quite a bit of the work himself. He helped mix the biscuits, he typed in all the text into the computer, chose the colors, and helped paste the slides up on the display board. Of course mom and dad helped a lot with the actual baking, formatting the slides, and buying the materials.

Interestingly enough, at the Science Fair, it was kind of obvious where and how much parents had helped their kids. Some projects really were clearly "okay, mom and dad came up with the idea and told the child what to say". Others you could tell had a lot more creative thought from the kids.

The "marketing name" really did help - Zandra and I didn't know but part of the scoring was actually based on the title. From one of the judges, "oh, that was a great title. Everyone went around saying, 'Everyone needs more fluffy buns.'" Apparently, the phrase kind of struck a chord among the judges. Advantage Andrew.

The only disappointment is that only projects from the 3rd grade or higher get to go on to the County Science Fair. The pressure is on for Andrew (and parents) to think of another creative topic for next year. Maybe we need to watch more Pinky Dinky Doo....