Student Perspective: Annual Science Fair goes virtual

The annual Pleasant View School science fair will be held virtually this year. Neeymet Ahmed writes about the competition:

The fair is a competitive science competition for students in grades throughout elementary to high school. It is optional for some elementary school grades and high school, but mandatory for middle school.

There are multiple levels of winning: the school competition, Christian Brothers University competition and Broadcom Masters.

Students that participate in the annual science fair are required to conduct an experiment, then present it in the form of a display board to the judges. The science fair is not an easy project to complete and cannot be done overnight.

There are many steps that one must take in order to conduct their project. First, you must choose a topic that you look forward to. This is essential because the topic you chose is what drives your motivation.

Next, you must conduct research. Then, you must create an abstract (which is optional), ask a question, form a reasonable hypothesis, do background research, gather materials, follow the procedures, identify variables, observe data, create a graph/picture, mark your results, form a conclusion and list future directions. You may also do an engineering project, which is slightly different.

I have participated in the annual PVS science fair ever since I was in kindergarten. Although the science fair requires maximum effort and time, I am passionate about competing in it.

This comes with a new learning experience as well as a few minor struggles. A few struggles that I commonly experienced each year were that results weren’t favorable, the project was long and required a lot of time.

Fortunately, last year I won second place at school, third place at CBU, which resulted in me making it as far as Broadcom Masters. However, this year will be a little different with the whole situation we are in right now. Everything is now virtual.