U of M Math & Science Family Fun Fair

We are so fortunate to live in a city with a major university, especially one that takes its land-grant mission seriously and engages at every level with the people of its state. The U's College of Science & Engineering puts on an annual fair for kids where all the student clubs can exhibit or demonstrate the many cool things they do!

It is no exaggeration to say there were a thousand kids at Coffman today, and what a wonderful sight that was. Wynn was recognized almost at once by a couple of her summer camp counselors!  (Our little rock star...)

Ann comments,"it's pretty easy to tell which students are cut out to be teachers, and who should just stay in the lab.."

So awesome to see so many girls in attendance, BTW

 

Technically, her first selfie

Hmm, someone seems to like using microscopes. CHRISTMAS HINT.

The Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers was ready to sign her up...

Building tetrahedrons with string and soda straws

The Society of Women Engineers was also ready to sign her up, too, especially after she built an awesome parachute!

 

CT scan today

As we try to figure out the next steps to take to deal with Wynn's re-emergent hearing loss, we figured it would be good to know what's going on inside her ears. We couldn't get a scan appointment on the same day as our office appointment, but we were able to get in at Children's Hospital pretty quickly. Within 15 minutes of check-in, Wynn was already set up for the scan as you see here.

Same machine she was scanned in several years ago, as I recall. I stayed here next to her. The hardest part for her was not being able to look around & satisfy her curiosity, especially with a big piece of SCIENCE all around her.  The scan was over in 5 minutes & we were able to get her to school before lunchtime.

Postscript - it took our ENT clinic longer than usual to get back to us due to staff absences (but we know bad news will find you immediately so we weren't worried) - all her inner-ear bones and organs are exactly where they should be and appear to be in fine working order.

With this information, we have decided to re-construct her right eardrum again - we could not get a date during Winter Break; the earliest date was at the end of January. It will be an outpatient procedure, but will take a good 3 hours (about twice as long as the last reconstruction.)

Wynn isn't happy about the prospect of another surgery - she can't hide her disappointment - but the hearing loss is really noticeable now and needs to be taken care of (and she knows that in her head, but it's OK for her heart to be sad...)