Purpose, Hypothesis, materials, abstract, Background knowledge, tables, charts, and a perfect conclusion all on a 36 by 48 inch display board. All of these things are required when putting together a science fair project required for honors science courses freshman and sophomore year.

The process before you even go out and get the recognizable “board” is a struggle. Gathering sources and citing them is hard but before that you need an idea. I spend the majority of my time looking for a project to do. I rely on those websites that spell it all out for you is like a roadmap, where most of the roads you take lead you somewhere dangerous. These dangerously confusing experiments are often awkward to explain to your teacher. Once you have mastered the totality of prep, you have to actually do the experiment and then bring everything together for your poster. This is the hardest part for me because time is my enemy. Winter Break is the key time to strike against the enemy. The first week I did nothing about it, but the second week is when I gathered up all my energy and sat down and went to work. Putting all your work together takes time especially when the boards not only has to explain your experiment but also make it look pretty and pleasant to the eye. It’s a lot of work and as the science fair is used as a final grade in a science course, it’s a big deal.

I don’t really see the point of science fair as a mandatory assignment. No one likes to do science fair and it really differentiates regular science and honors science. Many people take regular just to get out of the science fair and for those that have the courage and inner spirit strength to take honors science it is a mad race to get out of it via Robotics, Envirothon, or the newly created Engineering Club. But for those that don’t manage to earn a spot in those clubs you are forced to do science fair. I am one of those people and the stress and time management that comes with science fair isn’t beneficial to an already stressful honors chemistry class. If science fair wasn’t mandatory many people would like to challenge themselves in a harder science course but with the science fair it deters them from doing so and leaves the rest of us struggling to find a purpose (pardon the pun).