Sometimes our club gets involved with community services that are fun and educational.  This time its the Science Fair presented by the San Jacinto Hyatt Elementary School, held on the 20th of February, 2003.

The object of this event which features projects completed by elementary shool age children (K-5th grade) is one of science.

In addition to the projects from the children themselves, there are other displays presented along the same lines of science.

The banner is UP, and the long table is being readed.  Ed and Donnie Kingman presented this setup last year and inticed Ron Baker to go with them and assist.  Ron and Ed manned telegraph keys tied to a code practice oscillator at each end of the two tables.  Those interested learned the difference between "dots" and "dashes" and sometimes with a "little help" were able to send the first name to the "receiver" at the opposite end of the table.  Both Ed and Ron are pretty good with the code (CW) which seemed to facinate some of the young lads.  Top speed was about 4 words a minute, well within the receiving speed of these two hams.

Ed is stringing out the cable from one key (right side on table) to the other end of the table. Ed fabricated the units.  Donnie is in the center and when a "student" or visitor correctly sends his or her name to the opposite end of the table, AND its received correctly, then Donnie fills out a special certificate for just this event.  There's a picture of it later.

While setting up Ron took some photos of the area. On the right is the food court with some eating tables on the left.

These are displays of some of the may projects these young children have worked on.  It was pretty amazing that K thru 5th graders were doing this kind of thing.  Below is a close up of the above area so you can see at least a portion of it.

This is one of the most impressive displays of science I have seen in a long time, especially for this age group.

Looking left from our table towards the stage, where at one time that display of "sound" was so overwhelming we had to stop our code session.  We simply could not hear ourselves even talk. 

Donnie showing a happy smile, and she really enjoyed being here tonight.  Donnie has taught and toutered at this school so she is an "old hand" at this, and many of the teachers know her. 

The group is growing now, parents and their kids, and I do believe Ed is trying to entice someone there to "give it a try".

The next best thing to a PL tonight are the "Encode" and "Decode" sheets used to help the "senders".  Last year Ed had one "sender" and a different "receiver" but this year it was a little different.  Several adults (parents) were impressed "seeing" the morse code.  One asked "Is THAT what they used in the olden days?".  It sure was.

On completion, each "student" received a special certificate for the event.  Donnie used a special pen to "engrave" the students name for them.

This young man was raring to get started, so I took the pix then got my pencil ready to copy.  He did really good.  Its interesting how many of these young people quickly picked up the knack of sending the morse code.  Very well formed dots and dahses.  .......err, thats "di's and "dah's"

Towards the end of the evening, it was calming down and that was good as we needed a small break. 

A close up of one of two stations we used. This one has the oscillator on it along with the battery.  The scratch paper Ed and Ron used to keep track of the youngsters names, both for sending and receiving.

Just a simple 555 timer circuit that Ed put together. 

Right next to our table was this science exhibit and demo. He put on a very interesting show for everyone, and then surprised both Ed and Ron when he "took over" Ed's key and started "talking" to Ron in CW.  He was very good.  Then we found out he is a Ham.  Small world, eh?

The next table down featured an interesting "optical" demo using eye charts and special glasses.  There were a lot of "oh's " and "awhh's" here.

In the "live" department, was a good sized Boa snake that kept tickling this young lady.  The lady on her left had a very large scorpion sitting on her arm.  For me, this was close enough.

Near the stage was a clown (see him in there?) who did all the fancy work with ballons, twisting and turning them into all kinds of "creatures".  On stage were a few other exhibits, as well as a band earlier that used a 10 million watt amplifier for their sound.

WELL, IT SOUNDED LIKE THAT MUCH TO US!!!

One final note.  Last year when the "students" sent their name, they were then able to "talk" over a 2 meter simplex station to another ham outside the school area.  This year, using the same 2 meter equipment (in that RACES box you saw earlier) and a mag mount antenna, we had intended to do the same, and had asked Brian, AE6GN to be out outside contact.  Unfortunately, the location in the room this year was different, and we found that the shielding of the room made communications almost impossible, so we did not have that function this year.  Special thanks to Brian for accepting our call to help out.  NEXT year we will be BACK on the other side of the room where it all works.