Just when you think you are ready to write off a generation of millennial kids as sheltered neo-slackers, you see their unique brilliance shine through. Today, I stopped by the local science fair at my town's high school, which was wall-to-wall with table-top booths. There were, of course, the standard baking soda volcano models, and other experiments you would expect at a suburban event like this that was put on by elementary school kids but then there were also some really engaged students.
One girl create a doodle-bot (pictured below) from a small, battery-powered fan and four markers. The wandering of the bot was created by removing a few of the plastic fan blades and taping a penny to one of the remaining blades in order to make it unbalanced.
My favorite showing was by a kid who made a black, round head with a styrofoam ball, and filled it with electronics through which he sent emotion commands for its face to mimic. (pictured above)
There is something in hearing a ten year old talk about the motherboard of his robotic head that makes you realize these kids are alright, and they are actually light years ahead of us at that age.