Tweenage Scientists Challenge Conventional Wisdom

anthony KovatCh, mD

“Old man,” she said, “have you lived so long and forgotten so much that you don’t remember anything you ever knew or felt or even heard about love?”----from “Go Down, Moses” by American author William Faulkner

Although I was taking it out of context, I was convinced that the 7th and 8th grade students were secretly addressing that quote to me as I struggled to judge their projects at the annual Science Fair on March 28-29, 2023, sponsored by the Carnegie Science Center. I imagined that the young precocious scientists were reading my mind, which was silently spouting out random rhetorical questions like these:

“Why are these middle school students so avid in their pursuit of scientific inquiry?”

“What motivates these youngsters to dedicate so much arduous effort and time to a project that will be understood and appreciated by so few adults and even fewer of their peers?

“Should not these tweenagers be amusing themselves in the prime of their childhood by frolicking on their cell phones and videogame devices like the rest of us?”

The answer was simple: To a man, they were doing it for LOVE: Love of science and the workings of the universe. Love of collaborating with their young colleagues to inspire their mentors and teachers. Love of fostering pride within their own hearts by accomplishing goals well beyond their years. Love of debunking “old wives tales” and invalidated conventional wisdom. Doing good solely for the sake of good---and for honor. Gratia honoris!

“I’m wild again, beguiled again

A simpering, whimpering child again Bewitched, bothered, and bewildered am I”

In spite of “downgrading” myself to a judge of the middle school research projects rather than the high school projects like last year, I unfortunately was equally overwhelmed, but fortunately was again equally astonished and proud of our youthful scientists! I sensed that this year’s focus was challenging time-honored unjustified fallacies, like the proverbial

5 second rule. For those readers from a cleaner planet than Spaceship Earth, here is the dogma:

The five-second rule states that food dropped on the ground will be safe to eat and not covered in germs as long as it is picked up within 5 seconds of being dropped.

This often-stated belief was proven to be fallacious to the delight of the investigators using bologna—and to this judge who has a neurosis about discarding “good food.”

Appropriately, the heart got a lot of attention---specifically, the negative effects of human emotional states (ironically the primary emotion causing tachycardia was sadness, rather than joy or excitement) and of caffeine (demonstrated in a clever animal model). A 3-5 millimeter long arthropod named Daphnia Magna possessing a translucent thorax allowed visible beating of its myogenic heart under a microscope and assessment of its sensitivity to various concentrations of caffeine!

For those of us wishing to speed up our heart rates with exertion and produce an “athletic heart,” a study focusing on the positive effects of different modes of dance demonstrated that tap is superior to ballet and jazz. There was widespread appreciation of the racial and ethnic diversity of the researchers, as well as of the creativity of the titles of the posters. Similar to their high school counterparts, the middle school scientists were their own most ardent critics.

I left the fair compelled that every student deserved an award, a scholarship, or, at the very least, a certificate. I did discover that I had a “soft spot in my heart” for 3 boys, who claimed that they were united in their project merely by the fact that they were “buddies”! They put on a dazzling presentation with welldefined assignment of the essential components of their project: materials and methods, data presentation, and conclusions. I left the Science Center convinced that I had learned more than I previously knew about collaboration, camaraderie, and even LOVE! The tweens had disproven the old cynical hypothesis attributed to French critic and journalist Alphonse Karr as long ago as1849: “Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.” That is, “The more things change, the more they stay the same!”