Science fair over Zoom displays outstanding student achievement

Madeline Ullman, Staff Writer|March 11, 2022

Science Fair participant Senior Deirdre Belger reflects on the science fair that happened on March 2. Belger has participated in the science fair for her entire high school career.

This year’s Science Fair, held March 2 over Zoom showcased a first place finish by senior Simran Kaur, a tie for second between Ishita Khurana and Shithi Pogula, and senior Vania Guatam in third place.

“It will be fun to attend the Regional Awards Ceremony and listen to the project titles of students in different towns,” Kaur said.

These four and eight other teams will move on to the regional fair next, but the virtual nature of the fair was what dominated many competitors’ attention.

The past two Science Fairs at HHS have been held online as a result of COVID. Senior Olivia Sward, who has been doing Science

Science Fair participant
Senior Olivia Sward thinks back to the recent 2022 science fair. Sward and Carly Ozmun had initially intended to present a project, but ended up as judges instead. “Carly and I judged together. We listened to 4 presentations and asked some questions to fill out the judging rubric,” Sward said.
(Photo by Madeline Ullman)

Fair since sophomore year, reflected on the fair this year on zoom, and last year where they recorded a video presentation for their project.

“This year definitely mimicked the real fair a lot more than last year. All of the judges were on there live and asked questions at the end,” Sward said.

Sward feels that the science fair has allowed her to explore topics of interest not usually covered in school and has taught her a lot.

“I’m really interested in environmental science so all three of my projects have explored some kind of environmental issues. I feel like I’m a better problem solver and better at taking initiative and getting through the trial and error,” Sward said.

Senior Deirdre Belger has done Science Fair all four years of high school. She felt similarly to Sward in regards to the online fair.

“Personally, I’m zoomed out, but I thought it was better than last year. Doing it on zoom allowed us to interact with the judges which I thought was really good,” Belger said.

Belger has previously loved walking around the fair to see the projects done by other students and having parents and students come to see all of the hard work. This has not been a possibility for the past two fairs.

Online Science Fair Presentation Deirdre Belger shows her google slides presentation, where in past years before COVID a poster board was used. Belger took strips of bathing suit material and tested for chemical changes. “Once a week, I would test how much the bathing suit stretched, how much light went through it, and how the color changed,” Belger said.

“I missed being able to present in the library and talk to students about their projects. But overall, the virtual HHS Science Fair was well-organized and it was nice to catch breaks between sessions with the judges,” Kaur said.

In person or online, the science fair has always allowed students to show off an experimental test with a hypothesis, or design a product of their choice and test it.

“My favorite part of Science Fair is being able to research about any topic in science and engineering and creating a detailed and passionate project where you can create anything you want,” Kaur said.