Little Known Fact #542432: I love science fairs. I actually participated most of the years I was in school and even went to the state science fair in high school. (I probably know wayyyy more about sound waves than any one person should).
Which is why I’m ridiculously excited over the 2013 Google Science Fair in partnership with CERN (the nuclear research facility that achieved the mysterious Higgs boson particle), National Geographic (the mag I’ve been reading since I was 8), and Lego (hello childhood building).
The GSF is like the Olympics only better because, while competitive, it’s comprised solely of young people (aged 13-18) with nothing but brilliant ideas.
These kids (I consider anyone younger than me a kid…) are todays great thinkers. Google made a great little video of some of the greatest inventors and their ages when they started:
But more importantly, these kids don’t just have more potential then kids of yesterday, they have the means to achieve. They have modern schools, laboratories, and an information superhighway to express themselves on.
It’s easy to become jealous of people your age or younger who are achieving more than you did or have at a certain age but it literally blows my mind when I think of these young people who are changing the world and the way we think. You honestly can’t do anything except applaud them and their brilliant, fearless, minds. (And then pat them on the back for applying themselves and not going the extreme opposite way some teenagers of today go which involves guns and drugs and all that).
I’ll definitely be following the GSF just like I followed CES and SXSW earlier this year. Even if science in the traditional connotation of the word really isn’t your thing, I urge you to consider keeping an eye on the GSF because it encompasses ALL sciences including modern sciences (like social science, technology, etc. etc.)
And really, who couldn’t use the inspiration?