Irving School's Academic Fair
  
Parent and Student Support: Present at the Fair

About the Fair

About the Egg-Drop Contest 

Fair Rules

Registration

Types of Projects

Choose a Topic

Develop a Question

Answer the Question

Present at the Fair

Frequently Asked Questions

Schedule for Day of Fair

Links

Return to Home Page

How to Present Your Child's Project

Now that you've chosen a topic and developed and answered a research question, it's time to decide exactly what type of presentation you want to do.  

• Examples of presentations
• Types of presentations
• Hints for creating a display board
• Schedule for the day of the fair 
      

Examples of Presentations

Go here to see some examples from last year's fair.

Almost every presentation will be built around a display board, like these ones from an earlier fair:

  
Types of Presentations

There's a pretty close match between the type of project your child did (as listed on this page) and the type of presentation that will be most appropriate for the fair:

• Students who used a collection to answer their research question will want to display part of their collection at the fair and to document why and how they made it on their display board.
    
• Students who demonstrated a process may want to repeat the demonstration at the fair and document why they did it on their display board.
    

• Students who made a model should display it at the fair and document why and how they made it on their display board.  If it's a working model, they can demonstrate how it works during the fair.
    

• Students who did an observation can explain and illustrate their findings on their display board and show their project notebook at the fair.
    

• Students who did an experiment can explain and document it on their display board and show or demonstrate parts of it at the fair.
    

• Students who answered their question with research at the library or on the Web can document it on their display board.

  
Hints for Creating a Display Board

Display boards like the ones shown above may be purchased at many office supply and craft stores.  They are sometimes called "project boards," and they may cost $5 to $10.  

You can also make your own display board by taping together two or three pieces of poster board.  (If your homemade board is a bit floppy, try gluing it to a corrugated cardboard backing.)

Most display boards are divided into three parts or "panels."  One way to organize a display board for the Academic Fair is as follows:

• Introduce your topic and research question on the left panel.
• Show how you answered your question in the center panel.
• Summarize your answer on the right panel.

The title usually goes on the center panel

  
There are several ways to make the large letters for the title.  Here are some examples:

	Print the letters by hand.
	Print the title using a computer and word-processing program.
	Buy letters at an art supply, craft, or office supply store.

The other labels may also be printed by hand or printed out on the computer.  Here are some examples:

All done on the computer	Subtitles on the computer, text by hand	Computer and hand-printed text on the same paper

If you don't want your labels to wrinkle, then print them on stiff paper, and then glue them down with a glue stick.

On the night of the fair, your child's display board will be placed towards the back of a table.  Collections, models, demonstrations, and so forth may be placed on the table in front of the display board, like this:

Go here to link to some websites with advice about presentations. 

  
Schedule for the Day of the Fair  

Here is the preliminary schedule from the 2008 Academic Fair.  The final schedule will be sent to participating families in early April.