In the eighth grade, I weighed dog poop. We had recently gotten a new dog, and my stepdad had the idea that in order to find out what food was best for him, it was just a measurement of input vs. output. So we bought 3 different brands, fed the dog a different brand every week for 3 weeks, and kept track of the foodoop ratio. I can't remember which brand "won", but it was the most expensive of the three. I won a plaque for "Most Original Award" in the city finals at the science center, and surprisingly met a couple cute girls somehow. And my stepdad had me picking up after the dog for almost a month while at the same time learning how to make the little fucker shit less. Everyone's a winner.
I did well in a class science fair by building a fall cage for an egg using nothing but yarn and drinking straws. It was built like a pyramid, with a tube suspended in the middle. It made a six story drop before the egg finally broke. I got second, and an extra half hour for recess! The kid who got first melted down some cow fat, and powered a little car with it. He only got like 20 bucks to some restaurant. So I felt I really was the winner on that one.