Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Now revealed as a hoax: Fourth-grade climate realist wins junior division of National Science Fair

Update 1: Who really sent the trophy, medal and plaque to the Castillos?

Update 2: A good question: If there's no such thing as an NSF National Science Fair, why did Castillo's father allegedly send her project to NSF to be judged at the national level?

Update 3: Closeup views of the trophy/medal/plaque are here.

mySouTex.com - R A Hall fourth grader is science national champion
R.A. Hall Elementary School fourth-grader Julisa Castillo has been named junior division champion for the 2010 National Science Fair.

Her project, “Disproving Global Warming,” beat more than 50,000 other projects submitted by students from all over the U.S.

Julisa originally entered her project in her school science fair before sending it to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to be judged at the national level.

The NSF panel of judges included former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, 14 recipients of the President’s National Medal of Science, and four former astronauts.
mySouTex.com - Conclusion ‘pretty creative’
As world leaders meet in Copenhagen to draft legislation to rein in the release of greenhouse gases and stem climate change, an R.A. Hall Elementary School student is questioning the science supporting global warming.

There is not enough evidence to prove global warming is occurring,” fourth-grader Julisa Raquel Castillo concluded in a science project she entered in the campus’ annual science fair on Tuesday.

10 comments:

Bill in Tib said...

I'd like to know the votes of the individual panel members include Gore!

Anonymous said...

Ummm - does anybody else's BS detector go off on this one?

First of all, the "Junior Division" of science fairs seems to be junior high school, not elementary school.

Second, does anybody really think that if a fourth grader really did prove all those scientists wrong, the panel of judges, including several from the NSF, would admit it?

Third, do you really think Al Gore is judging junior science fairs?

I think somebody is pulling a fast one here...

Bradley J. Fikes said...

My BS detector went off the scale. I wrote a blog post giving my reasoning: http://j.mp/nsfno

What really got my attention was Al Gore's supposed participation. There is no way Gore would take part and risk such an embarrassment undercutting his global warming crusade. Gore would make sure the judges were fellow global warming believers.

Always be suspicious of stories that seem too good to be true.

EcoTretas said...

I didn't find any reference on the web either.
But I did find out some interesting divergences at Beeville temperature data.
Find more at http://ecotretas.blogspot.com/2010/06/quando-esmola-e-grande-o-ecotretas.html (in portuguese)

Ecotretas

Fact Checker said...

This is a hoax. See http://initforthegold.blogspot.com/2010/06/new-low.html.

MikeSnow said...

The person who committed this fraud must be either exceptionally stupid or bright. [And, for sure, a mean spirited person with no care for this child.]

...If a skeptic, stupid. If a warmest, bright, knowing that it would be spun all over the internet and eventually exposeed, embarrassing the skeptic camp which would be sure to put it up in headlines.

Anonymous said...

Are there any close-up photos of the trophy, plaque and medal the girl received? It could be fairly easy to figure out what company made them and who ordered the work and paid for them.

papertiger said...

...If a skeptic, stupid. If a warmest, bright, knowing that it would be spun all over the internet

How about sweet? As in "Look what dad went though to make Julisa feel like a winner."

How about "awwww. That's above and beyond the call. Papa rode the horse off the cliff this time."

You have to laugh. It's ridiculously sweet.

Ed Darrell said...

Think about it in context, though, it does make sense that the best research against global warming in the past three years would come from a fourth grader's science project. It's a sad commentary on the state of science work on the part of "skeptics," but it makes sense, just the same.

papertiger said...

Alzheimer's stages: How the disease progresses from the Mayo Clinic.

Eddie, you ever find yourself leaving your wallet in the freezer, or loading dirty clothes in the dishwasher?
You obviously forget events over long stretches of time.

Good luck to you in your adjustment to the next phase of your illness.