mean, but what the heck....

In my volunteer life, I act as a judge of science fairs. Mainly my state's "big" science fair, the one that the best projects go to, so they tend to be pretty good.

The problem is - a lot of the kids (and these are mostly 6th through 8th graders with a smaller number of high school students) are taught that you need to have a catchy, preferably punning, title, to grab people's attention.

And a lot of these kids are - since we're in the rural south here - from pretty sheltered backgrounds.

So once in a while, there's a title that's unintentionally funny, or a title that makes you a little bit horrified if you think of the full ramifications of it.

But (and here comes the mean part), I don't think I've ever seen titles quite as bad as those featured in 41 hilarious science experiments.

(At least one of those is Photoshopped. And a lot of them rely on the unintentional humor of words like "wood"). Most horrifying title? "Crystal Meth: Friend or Foe?"


Um, I think I can decide on "foe" without a tri-fold posterboard presented under unflattering fluorescent light...

(Although I have to admit some of those - like "Drop it like it's hot" were probably presented with humor on the part of the students, so maybe it's better to laugh with them than at them. Though in a few cases, possibly laughing AT is justified...)