Google Science Fair: A Great Way to Get Into Science as a High Schooler
Many highschoolers often struggle to find opportunities where they can pursue their passions for the sciences. They often feel overwhelmed, as the constant pressure to succeed makes many people scared to apply to competitions.
In this blog post, I’ll be talking about the Google Science Fair, an online science competition open to students around the world.
What is a Science Fair?
Before we talk about the Google Science Fair, this is a great time to talk about what exactly a science fair is. A science fair is simply a competition where students can submit their science projects to be shown off and judged. Science fairs can be just for fun, but in some cases, they can include awesome prizes, including cash and recognition.
Science fairs are an opportunity for high schoolers to get together with friends and make projects about topics they are interested about. Unlike the real world, these fairs have very low stakes, making them great introductory opportunities.
Benefits of Science Fairs for High Schoolers
There are a number of benefits to competing in a science fair as a high schooler — some of which I will be sharing below.
Figure out your passions
Science fairs, like the Google Science Fair, are above all else a place to just try thing out. If you don’t know what you like, just pick a project and start tinkering and building away. You might just fall in love with the topic and decide to pursue it further.
Build meaningful skills
When students work on a project, they build meaningful skills. For example, working on science projects encourages critical thinking skills, note-taking skills, planning skills, and so much more. Almost all aspects of your academic skillset can be enhanced by taking the time to make a project and document your journey.
And don’t forget about presenting! This isn’t always required, but sometimes, you may be asked to present your project. In these cases, you will have to rehearse your speaking and make sure that you are able to project your voice, memorize a short speech, and really understand what it is you are talking about. And presenting in these scenarios really builds skills that you will be glad to have later on in life.
Boost your college applications
Of course, these science fairs look absolutely amazing on college applications. If you win awards, obviously colleges will be impressed, but even if you don’t win, it’s still really impressive. Participating in science fairs gives you skills and experiences that many college students don’t even get to experience until much later in their lives. As long as you are able to properly reflect on the things you’ve learned, the journeys you’ve had, and the project you were able to create, you have a great essay or activity to write about on your college applications.
How to Get Started With a Passion Project as a High Schooler
I hope you’ve been inspired to try out a science fair in the future! I would highly recommend it, as it is truly a rewarding and amazing opportunity. To sign up is quite simple: just look up “Google Science Fair” online and get signed up :)
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AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
