A long and crazy day! Sunday - Part 1

The old line from the Peanuts cartoons always started .. "It was a dark and stormy night ...". The IISEF version is "It was a long and crazy day ...."
Yesterday was project set up. It sounds pretty simple .. Go in, set up your project, put out your books. Done. Doesn't always happen that way!

I want to take a step back first for a minute though. First to apologize for the lateness of all of these. We've had some internet connectivity issues here, but have got it figured out now. Secondly, I've used a lot of names, and haven't properly introduced everyone. Many of you know some of us, but not all.

Students here come to represent Canada from three different fairs: YSC - Youth Science Canada holds a "virtual" fair to select 16 students from across Canada. The 16 students chosen that way are Tavian, Christopher, Lia, Claire, Zach, Beth, Mathieu, Emma, Nirusan, Tanielle, Juno, Michael, Ratna, Kent, Xingyu and Jonathan. Chaperones with them are Stef, Spencer, Caitlin and Liane. The second fair is BASEF - Bay Area Science and Engineering Fair. The 4 students from that fair are Andrew, Alex, Romita and Jake. Chaperones with them are Ray and Cathy. The third fair is Montreal. The 4 students from that fair are Sayuri, Stef, Abi and Jen. Chaperones with them are Gus and Susan. But when we get here, we're all one big happy family .. sharing rooms, supporting each other, and all extremely proud to represent the great country of Canada!

So yesterday morning, when we went to check the SRC (Scientific Review Committee) list, we were delighted to see only one name on it from Canada. Usually this simply means that there was a form forgotten, or they have a question of clarification. An appointment is booked, the student and one or two mentors/chaperones accompany them, the question answered, and project set up continues.

So yesterday morning we started out with Stef going to the convention centre with Claire (who had had the violation) and four other students who wanted to make changes to their abstracts.
The rest of us had a more leisurely breakfast, then collected in the lobby to head over with the projects. While on the bus, we had a text from Stef to say that they had had their appointment, and Claire had been disqualified, and that the two of them were going to head back to the hotel.

Rest of us got to the convention centre and started setting up. One of the things we so appreciate about all of these students is how different they all are. Some of them decide to re-do pieces of their projects, some discover missing pieces, etc. So the chaperones set about just walking from student to student, checking in with each, supporting them with what they need then moving on.

When Stef returned, we put our heads together to see if there were any grounds for an appeal for Claire. The issue was an ethical one. She had performed a procedure that is legal for her to do in Canada, but is not in the US. The IISEF rules follow the US rules. So while her paperwork was all complete, and appropriate for a Canadian competition, it was not going to stand up here.

What we needed was a specialist in a very particular area .. single cell neuroscience research on vertebrae animals. Coincidentally, we happen to have one of those on our BASEF SRC committee. He has 7 years of Post-Doc in the US, but obtained his PhD in Canada, so is familiar with the rules on both sides of the border. We called him at home on a Sunday afternoon, and he spent five hours working with us to draft an appeal letter. The appeal interview, however, was not successful. Claire, however, is a remarkable young lady, who took the news with grace and poise, well beyond her years. While disappointed, she understands the issue, and it's a lesson from the school of hard knocks for sure.

We're heading to breakfast now, but I'll post more about the rest of the day a little later.