New Haven Independent

Two of the standout projects at last week’s Citywide Science Fair were put together by Holly O’Brien’s pre-K class at Davis School, and by Heather Treciokos’s third-graders at Daniels School.

It turns out that O’Brien is Treciokos’s mother. Both went into the teaching profession around the same time.

That link wasn’t known by your reporter when a story was filed about the two projects. (Click here to read it.)

O’Brien’s students (pictured at top of the story) crumbled a Total flake to enable a magnet to pick up the iron. Treciokos’s students (pictured here) clocked speeding cars on Congress Avenue outside their school; they have a meeting planned with the city’s transportation czar to talk about how to make the block safer. Both projects won awards last week.

After the Independent story appeared, O’Brien sent in this email:

“Just thought you would find it interesting—Heather Treciokas is my oldest daughter. We started teaching about the same time, but because I taught in Head Start for six years, Heather was a Science Fair veteran by the time I started doing the projects. She was—and still is—relentless when it came to MY projects. This year I had to change part of the border on my board, reword my purpose and hypothesis, etc., etc.

“The awards ceremony was last night. I won a special award and first place—out of 3 entries :), and Heather won second place with a special award. The best part, however, is that our students worked hard and really understood their projects. The whole thing is just so much fun- we’re already thinking ahead to next year’s project!”

Click here and here to read about all the Science Fair winners and projects.