After district qualifying, Jonathon and Christian switched up a few things and created a new prototype that was better than the previous one. It had better battery life and a better design. Unfortunately, that meant that the poster that we had made was now out of date. We re-did the entire thing to make it more clear and to add in the newest prototype. We also wanted to make it more exciting, so we added fabric and ribbon. I was a bit annoyed with all the extra effort it took, but Jonathon reminded me that this was Christian's "sport"-- meaning that instead of us spending time and money on soccer, basketball, etc. like most kids, Christian excels in Science, and this requires the same amount of time and dedication from him and us. That perspective helped me have a better attitude. The poster turned out really great, and was much better than our previous one, so it was well worth the effort.
"Triple M" in action measuring the moisture in our plant
We set up his project on Monday night and had to get it approved by the judges. Then on Tuesday, I took him and dropped him off for the competition. During the two hour competition, he gave his report to three different judges, and then BYU fed them all pizza. I picked him up around 2:00, and we had to wait to see if he won any awards. Later that evening, the results were posted online. They posted the project numbers that won awards, but didn't tell you what the award was. I guess they wanted to keep a little bit of suspense so that people would come to the Awards Ceremony. After all was said and done, about 25% of the participants won some kind of award, so we had the feeling that there were a lot of participation awards or something of the kind. The awards ceremony wasn't until Friday, so we had to wait a while longer.
Friday was a very busy day. Jonathon had a mission reunion that night, so we weren't sure if we should attend the awards ceremony or if we should just wait and pick up his certificate later. CUSF had said that either option was fine, but Christian really wanted to go. All five boys from Christian's class that had competed in Districts had made it to Regionals and had won an award, so Christian was excited to see how they all did. I ended up taking him while Jonathon stayed with the other boys.
When we got into the auditorium, there were tons of people there and a table full of trophies. They started with 4th place winners in each of the categories. There were several winners in each category, and they got to go up, get their trophy, and receive their cash prize. Next, third place winners and 2nd place winners were announced. All four other boys from Christian's class had gotten second place in various categories, so that was really exciting! Christian's name still had not been called in the Engineering category though, so we were quite antsy. Poor Christian was so nervous. His legs were shaking and he was pretty jittery all over. When they got ready to announce the First place winner in Engineering, I had my camera ready and was filming so that I could get a movie of it.... but his name wasn't called.
Suddenly, I got a sick feeling in my stomach. Oh no, what if we read the number wrong, and Christian really hadn't won anything. How sad would that be. We were both confused, and I leaned over to the lady next to me and said, "Is there something after First?" She didn't know, but mentioned that there were still a few trophies remaining on the table. Hmmm...
Finally, they started announcing "GRAND PRIZE" winners, and sure enough, when it came to the Engineering category, Christian's name was called. We were shocked! He and one other contestant won the Grand Prize in Engineering. He was thrilled and walked to the stage to receive his huge trophy. The announcer even read the name of Christian's project to the audience. It was definitely a proud mom moment. Christian was the only 5th grade Grand Champion, which meant that he could not continue on to Nationals because that was only for 6th grade and up. I was kind of relieved that it was all over because it had been a really long, busy few months with all the competitions. His cash prize was $60, which he had already decided would go toward his next engineering project later this summer. {Jonathon and Christian are designing and making their own Gameboy, and Christian needed to come up with money to buy the screen. I thought it was quite amusing that the money from one project went toward another.}
1 comment:
That is amazing! My question is, can he market his product?! Maybe you'll have a little millionaire on your hands. :) you always wonder how you'll top the previous project but somehow you guys always manage to. Christian is lucky to have such supportive (and ingenious) parents behind him. That's great the other boys in his class placed too! Way to go Christian!
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