science: How To Win A Science Fair Contest

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

How To Win A Science Fair Contest

A science fair contest is one of the first experiences that students have with real scientific exploration and experimentation. These contests are designed to not only stimulate an interest in science, but to also stimulate the creative subconscious of young scientists. Every year hundreds of these events are held across the country, some at local schools and some at major universities and science institutes. In order to win one of these competitions students need to learn how to create a project that is going to stand out in a good way from the other entries.

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How To Win A Science Fair Contest

Tip #1 – Age Appropriateness Counts When a science fair judge looks at a project they are going to judge its value based partially on the age of the student and the complexity of the project. Students that create projects that are too simple for their grade level are going to receive lower scores than those students that create projects that are more complex than the average project created by someone of their grade level. A good way to select a project idea or topic that will be considered above your grade level is to examine text books or curriculum guides for science classes that are above your grade level. Tip #2 – Select a Topic That You Can Handle While it is important to push the envelope in terms of project complexity, you do not want to over do it. You need to be able to understand your topic and its related concepts in order to complete your project with precision and accuracy. If you select a topic that is too complex then you may not be able to design an experiment that will be manageable for your skill level and available resources. Tip #3 – Take a Unique Approach Uniqueness is one of the main characteristics that will be judged about your project. Uniqueness is very important to implement into the design of your project. You can make your project more unique by asking yourself if there is another way to solve your project’s main question or problem, or if there is a better way to do something or if there is a more interesting way to approach your topic. These simple questions can help you to find new angles that the judges will be intrigued by. Conclusion Winning a science fair contest is not easy to do. There are few prizes to be won and many students try to win the top places in the contest. The best way for you to enhance your chances of wining a science fair contest is to plan out your project, put in your best effort and to organize your time so that you do not have to rush the completion of your entry.