An effective science fair project board is essential for conveying your work effectively. Boards should typically be organized like books from left to right and top to bottom.
Display boards are essential tools for most experiments and can be purchased online from various providers. Some projects also offer downloadable templates to make organizing information simple.
Layout
Your science fair project display board provides the ideal way to share your experiment with people outside your experiment’s scope. Your goal should be to give viewers an “overview” of your project’s focus: what it was about; which questions it addressed; proposed hypotheses for testing; method used during execution and results obtained.
For optimal presentation, most information should be presented in an order that can be read from left to right and top to bottom, like reading a newspaper. This works particularly well if your data can be organized into tables, charts or graphs; other data types could include photos, diagrams or notes that require to be presented in this way; images using dark colors will make more of an impactful statement than light ones and make your information pop more easily.
Text
Utilizing a whiteboard program that enables multiple users to work collaboratively on the same document can be extremely helpful when it comes to science fair projects. Participants can see instantly when changes have been made by other participants and can avoid any misunderstandings that might arise between participants.
The board should include sections for literature review, experimental set-up, procedure and results as well as how the student interprets these results in a conclusion section.
Consider including graphs or diagrams on your board as they will grab attention more effectively than text alone and quickly provide your audience with what they’re searching for.
Be certain that the font size and style is easily legible. Writing titles and other text on separate pieces of paper before adhering them directly to a board may help avoid writing directly onto it. Poster letter products like ArtSkills’ holographic letters can help create large titles with eye-catching appeal.
Visuals
Include pictures or visual aids on your project board when possible to help people better comprehend your activities and results. Furthermore, adding these visuals will make the project more compelling to judges who may review your work.
Once you’ve created an outline of your project, start thinking about which pictures or visual aids will go in each section. This process could take some time; make sure all photos are clear and in focus before considering captions for them all.
This step is optional, but can help make your project more appealing to judges. For example, you might present data in various formats like tables or charts, notes, observations or diagrams to make it easier for judges to compare with similar projects and gain more insights. It also shows them you carried out rigorous research or experimentation.
Organization
Science fairs give students an opportunity to choose an experiment that piques their curiosity and conduct it using the scientific method — similar to what professional scientists use. At the end of all their hard work is their project display board which serves as an outlet to organize findings in an attractive, eye-catching format.
Dependent upon the rules for competitions, a display may include several standard components: title, experiment name, hypothesis, background information, setup procedure and results. Completed informed consent forms cannot be displayed but should instead be presented within your research notebook or logbook.
Students may be expected to present their work both in class and at fairs; this might involve giving an oral presentation that covers all of the points on her display board or performing an experiment live for display.