Canada-Wide Science Fair Recap (a.k.a. Jessi's Big Adventure)

Warning: very long post

Adventure is the best word to describe Jessi's week in Ottawa. Prior to this trip, she had only been on one sleepover at a friend's house and otherwise had never been away from us. Her trip was 8 days long, with four other students from our area and two adult delegates, all staying in the residences at Carleton University. Her schedule was jam-packed with activities, including a tour of Ottawa, a museum visit, a dance, a talent show, and social and academic events. Not to mention the Science Fair itself!  

Off she goes

Steve, Emily, and I each received lots of updates from Jessi throughout the week. Jessi had a great time and rated her trip 8/10. Her only struggle was with food/hunger, which she told us all about in her texts. She managed though! Maybe sometimes she imagined herself as a (starving) contestant on Survivor. 

Sending Jessi a thumbs up pic

On that first morning Jessi sent us pictures of her residence room, which was fun to see. Then a few days later we received pictures from the delegates to see what the kids were up to. Jessi was the youngest in their group (grade 7), with the others being in grades 8, 9, and 12. 

Jessi's side of the room

Project setup ♥

It was hard not being able to help Jessi with the food issues. The best we could do was lend an ear, send her a few funny pictures to cheer her up, and hope that it gets better. And thankfully those texts were peppered with positive ones about all the fun they were having.

Trying to cheer Jessi up with pictures

Getting texts from Jessi be like:

The Science Fair part was pretty neat. It was a huge room filled with 400 students from all over Canada, 330 projects, and a few STEM Experience booths. There was judging on two days, and public viewing on two other days. Jessi said the judges and public seemed to really like her project. She was even interviewed on CBC radio! (All in a Day with Alan Neal -- May 31st: Canada Wide Science Fair Comes to Ottawa; she's in the intro part and at 7:20) 

On Thursday night the students got all dressed up for the Awards Ceremony. The best part is that the ceremony was streamed live on YouTube, so we got to watch it too. Jessi didn't win any awards, but three students from her group did. Congrats to all the winners!

Watching from home

We were so excited to see Jessi appear in the intro video!

Her friends getting awards

On her last full day in Ottawa, Jessi had a surprise: we drove up to see her during public viewing hours! She had no idea we planned the trip.

I literally couldn't wait ;)

Almost there...

The funniest moment was when we arrived at her booth and she wasn't there! Turns out she was at a Meet the Winners event. We surprised her at her booth about 30 minutes later.

Where's Jessi?

Kids enjoying reading about Jessi's project ♥

Surprise! We're here!

We spent plenty of time together, chatting, viewing projects, visiting science booths, and feeding her some food from home (ha!). While Jessi had lunch with her group, we had a picnic lunch and walked around the campus.

It was a pleasure to visit Jessi and see what the CWSF was all about -- totally worth the 1.5-hour drive there and back. The next day was quick and easy for Jessi and she was back home at noon. 

What an amazing adventure! Way to go Jessi.