After the wait, we finally had the science expo eliminations for the first batch of presenters yesterday. For some of the high school students, it was a single night’s wait. For most of the high school students, however, it was a 5-week long period of waiting and manual labor. Unfortunately, for some, it was more.

For us science teachers, on the other hand, it was a year-long dread. You see, plans for the science expo were thought of and mapped out completely way before the expo was launched. The science teachers, I’m sure, have researched and found various feasible topics that they could give out to the students in case when the students would find it difficult to come up with topics on their own. Not to mention, we’ve struggled the whole year to give the students as much concepts as we can for them to use in this particular time of the year, in this particular event.

That’s why it was a little disappointing to see things start out chaotically for the eliminations. Since the rooms were used for the exams in the morning, the teachers and students had to manually extricate all equipments in the classrooms where the eliminations were to be conducted.  It was a good thing though that judges were a little late because this gave each group ample time to set up properly.

When judging commenced, however, everything gradually became in order. The participants, although they were anxious and restless, seemed to quiet down perhaps because of anticipation. They were glued to their seats for a good portion of the time. It took 5 hours for the judges to run through all the projects and grill each student. At the end, some were disappointed with themselves for not being able to answer adequately. Some were just simply delighted that it was over, while others showed no feelings at all - no remorse, no reliefs, nothing!

Anyway, whatever the case is, it’s done. That’s what’s important for me right now. It’s the end finally… at least for the high school department.