Science Fair

Tristan's school held it's annual Science Fair last night. It was open to the 4th and 5th graders, and a few 3rd grade teams, and there must have been over a hundred displays. The theme this year was "Going Green," and so the majority of the projects were about recycling, oil spill clean up, water purification, ect. Tristan did his project on using animal waste to make methane gas. His idea was original, not one other kid had the same project as him. He and Cahl started this project 2 months ago, building the methane digester, monitoring it, collecting and recording data, building a display board, all of that. And the last weekend was spent painting the display board, putting the board all together, and writing his report. All together, Tristan put many hours into this project. So anyway, at the fair there was a panel of judges, (5 maybe) who went around and looked at all the displays before everyone got there. Then after all the kids came, they went around again asking the kids questions about their projects. All the kids stood by their displays while other kids and parent also went around and visited with them, while they awaited the judges decision. So after about an hour, the winners were announced. They awarded 1st-3rd place in each grade. And the 1st place winner for 4th grade goes to... TRISTAN GOUKER!!! Yes, our son is the 4th grade Grand Champion winner at the science fair! His display will now go on the the school district science fair to be held at UNLV. He was so excited when the announced his name, he jumped up laughing and clapping! And he just beamed the rest of the night. He honestly did 95% of the work on his project by himself, and Cahl only helped him when he needed it, or asked for it. Cahl and I are so incredibly proud of him! Of course, his big win called for an ice cream outing! It was a great night, and I couldn't be more happy for him!

the completed project

happy camper

with his project at the science fair


first place ribbons

VERY happy camper!