It's Science Fair Week on the OhmsBlog! Yesterday's post is available here.

This entry is adapted from a speech that I gave at the awards ceremony for the 2008 Kiwanis Regional Science Fair in Medicine Hat, Alberta. Don't be fooled by the humour; this anecdote is non-fiction.

---

When I was an exhibitor at the 1998 Canada Wide Science Fair in Timmins, Ontario, the CBC came to do a series of live broadcasts from the exhibition floor. Unfortunately they could only set up their equipment to broadcast from one particular aisle, so most of the exhibitors (myself included) would not be interviewed on TV.

Being curious and inquisitive science fair students, we were not content to let these CBC broadcasts proceed without seeing some of the action. I wondered over there with a couple of friends who were from British Columbia. We watched the interviews for a while, but I started to get bored and decided that I would walk back over to my project's booth. As I started to walk, I stumbled a bit and thought I felt somebody push me on my shoulders from behind. I didn't think anything more of it, and I sauntered back over to my project.

A few minutes later, one of my friends walked over to me, laughing. "Do you realize what you just did?" he asked.

Confused, I said, "No, what do you mean?"

It turned out that when I stumbled and was pushed, I tripped over the cables that were carrying the CBC's video feed from their camera out to the control van. "You just knocked out the CBC!" he exclaimed.

I might not have made it on TV, but I made my mark on TV.