Every year thousands of students are given the opportunity to create a science fair project. This project can be about anything that the student is interested in and it can take on a variety of forms. While these projects give students the chance to explore an area of science independently and a chance to win prizes and scholarship money, many students fail to put in the effort to create a winning project.

Complexity

One of the most effective ways to impress science fair judges is to create a complex project. These projects will tackle advanced subjects and/or involve extensive research. In other words, complex projects will go above and beyond what is “expected” from a student at a certain grade level.

While a complex project is a good way to impress science fair judges, the student has to be able to deliver what their project promises. This means that they need to be able to manipulate components in their experiment successfully and be able to understand what their data presents. This is not easy to do.

Humor

If you are not a gifted science student you can focus on other aspects of the project that can impress judges. For example, projects that are infused with humor often do very well at science fairs. This is because science fair judges are looking for projects that are unusual and that stand out from the crowd.

Humor is an effective attention getting tool, however, it can backfire if you are not careful. To get the most from your humor infusion you will want to make sure that your humor is backed up with solid science. You still need to complete your project following the seven steps in the scientific method and you still need to produce viable results.

Innovative

Innovation is another quality that you can add to your science fair project in order to impress the judges. Science fair project innovation can be applied to several aspects of your projects. For example, you can be innovative in the way that you test your hypothesis, you can be innovative in the way that you apply your findings or you can be innovative in your overall approach to your project’s design.

To be successful your use of innovation has to be demonstrable. This means that you have to show that your way is better, or that your innovations improved a process. If you fail to show that your “innovation” was affective your project will not be viewed as innovative, but rather a failure.

Conclusion

Impressing science fair judges is not always easy. They spend hours listening to students drone on about their science fair projects and how they were created. By the time these judges get to your project they are most likely to be tired and over-stimulated with information. To impress them you need to quickly grab their attention and engage them in your presentation. This can be accomplished by being enthusiastic about your project and by quickly pointed out the innovative, humorous or complex nature of your project.