Judgement Day

After a long Monday, the South Fraser finalists got their wake up knock at 6:50 this morning. I was pleased to see that many of them were bright eyed ready to go. We met at 7:30 and walked to the dining hall for breakfast. They were all really excited and boy did they look sharp. I was able to get a group photo of them just before they entered the exhibit hall.

The 10 minute trek to the exhibition hall

Devika, Shelby, Soohyun, Nick, Nadine, Wyatt, Sonia, Shivan all looking sharp and ready for the judges

After Nadia and I left the finalists, we had to attend yet another delegates' meeting. A few workshops came afterwards on various aspects of improving local and regional science fair participation, fund raising and the likes. There was some valuable information gained from these workshops.

We met the South Fraser group for lunch and all finalists reported positive experiences with the judges. Sonia did note that a couple of her judges seemed distracted during her interviews, and Wyatt and Shivan found it hard to understand one of their judges so they just went ahead with their practiced routine. All in all, it was and excellent opportunity to display their expertise and scientific inquiry.

During dinner, Nadia and I sought more feedback on the afternoon session. Almost all questions from all judges were answered with confidence. There were a few testers, but none that really derailed our finalists. Nick says he had five extra judges come by that were beyond the scheduled ones totaling to 17. Sonia received an extra six totaling to 12. Shivan and Wyatt had 10 in total. Shelby had her scheduled 12. Soohyun had her 11 with three extras; and Devika and Nadine had their eight scheduled judges come by. We weren't certain why some had extras and other did not, but we believe it's part of the special awards that finalists had self-nominated themselves for.

After dinner and a change back to casual attire, all participants were involved in the Charlottetown Challenge - an "Amazing Race" style scavenger hunt involving facts and knowledge about local trivia and various skills tests. Teams were put together and both delegates and finalists were to seek clues left all over campus and around the surrounding neighbourhoods. The farther the clues were, the more points they were worth. I had Wyatt, Soohyun and Sonia with me as we partnered with the Simcoe team. Most participants were mentally exhausted and were just going through the motions, but there was fun and laughter throughout the two hour event. We'll know the results tomorrow.

Team 35: Simcoe-Fraser

Team 36: ????

Team Simcoe-Fraser discussing the plan

The first challenge

Water challenge

Sonia spilling the water

Returning from the completed task

Wyatt spilling the water

Returning from the completed task

Soohyun in the skipping challenge

Wyatt trying his hand as skipping

A powerful serve for the tennis challenge

There's an athlete in there

The peeling challenge

Chilling towards the end

If I was Queen for a day.

We concluded the challenge with light refreshments and then back to the residences. A few of us strolled over to the pizza parlour for a few slices of pie, and others strolled to Superstore to pick up more snacks. Lights out was ordered for 11PM. Tomorrow, we have a day packed with the PEI Tour and that will start rolling out at 8AM.

Wake up knock at 6:30 for a 7AM trek to breakfast.