District Science Fair Awards

Last Wednesday, we spent the day at the District Science Fair. As I mentioned in this post, when we went back for the public open house that evening, there were participation certificates on every project, and 3rd place ribbons on a few of the projects. A handful of projects (one or two in each category: microbiology, chemistry, zoology, etc.) had gold balloons tied to them, with invitations to attend an award ceremony and reception Monday night at the district offices. We were told that all projects with invitations would be awarded either 1st or 2nd place. Ryan was one of them!

Monday, February 27, Papa, Ryan & I went to the district offices for the awards ceremony. We were lucky enough to get a spot right on the front row! As we waited for the awards ceremony to begin, we were excited to see not only most of the kids from Ryan’s school, but a cute young woman from our ward, and a family that had formerly lived in our ward, with a girl Ryan’s age. They were all winners!

The administrators announced the winners by category. They had all of the kids come up to the front (side of the room, really) for every category (microbiology, chemistry, zoology, etc.) and then started with second place and worked their way up. As they were announcing the awards for microbiology (combined with medical, so two groups of kids), the other kids left the side of the room, leaving Ryan standing alone. He looked over at me with a look of realization that he had won first place!

They called his name, and he proudly walked over to get his award.
He received a medal, $25 cash, and an invitation to submit his project to the NATIONAL science fair!

He then went down the receiving line, with the district superintendent, other district administrators, and all of the principals that were there supporting their students!


At the end of the ceremony, we chatted with Dr. Bryan Bowles, Superintendent of the district. Papa has known him for many years, so it was fun for him to chat with Ryan about his project and plans for the future. Ryan’s principal, Ms. Rawlins, was one of Dr. Bowles students when he was teaching. So this picture of Ryan, his science teacher, Mrs. Larsen, his principal, Ms. Rawlins, and the district superintendent, Dr. Bowles also represents 4 generations of teachers and students!