Young Einsteins set up shop

Andrew Glazer

FAIRGROUNDS -- The solutions to some of the world’s greatest quandaries

were just a few feet away.

But the thousands of children having their faces painted, filling Coke

bottles with colored sand and riding around a dusty ring on miniature

ponies here Friday were just too busy to realize it.

Too busy to find out whether garlic, broccoli or green beans is the

gassiest food. Or how horse shampoo affects bacterial growth. Or even

which model of paper airplane flies farthest.

“Our teacher kind of made us come in here,” said baseball-capped Blaise

Meadows, 11, one of the dozen or so students who did peruse the exhibits

at the Science and Engineering Fair on Friday.

The fair, which included more than 450 displays, was part of the

three-day Youth Expo 2000, an annual educational carnival for Orange

County children.

“She wouldn’t let us go on the rides. She said today should be

‘educational,’ ” Blaise said.

But some students -- the amateur Pasteurs and part-time Einsteins --

meandered through the tabletop displays reading each hypothesis,

objective and procedure.

Roger Billingsley, a lanky, bespectacled 11-year-old scientist, was

joined by his mother, Leigh, and his greatest fan and sister, 7-year-old

Brooke.

Leigh Billingsley shot photos of some exhibits while her son, chin in

hand, pondered the displays.

“We need to start thinking of ideas for next year,” his mother said.

Roger’s exhibit, which examined the effect of magnetic levitation on auto

velocity -- or something like that -- was marked with an orange sticker,

labeling it as a finalist in the competition.

Meanwhile, at another display, Brittany Orand -- flanked by an entourage

of fellow McPherson School sixth-graders -- had a scientific epiphany.

“I think next year I want to study whether girls have a better sense of

smell than guys,” she said, pulling at her golden blond ponytail. “You

know how when guys smell a flower, they just know it’s a flower. But a

girl, she can tell when it’s a rose.”

Brittany paused and looked around at her friends before sheepishly

saying, “I don’t know, it just popped into my head.”