The Bookwyrm

Today I presented my research project that I've been working on since September at a regional science fair.

They had us set up our posters, two to a table, in a sort of gymnasium or conference or something room in a building at the big college in my city. 

I had been kind of nervous, but not that nervous. I was fairly confident in my presentation, though I'd never actually written it down.

The first judges came for the first round, and my confidence waned just slightly as I presented. My presentation itself felt solid, and I felt I was able to answer their questions well. The first judge complimented my poster, saying it stood out and looked good. But both the first and second ones pointed out a lot of ways I could have improved the research, or at least continued it. They grilled me a little bit, which resulted in the minor confidence loss.

We had a small break, then onto round two. At this point I should mention that all of the students in the high school division (probably about 30-40 of them) were all juniors and seniors from my science focus program that I attend except for two of them. So I was around a bunch of fellow juniors, and in spaces where judges weren't around we discussed and tried to figure out who the judges were visiting the most. I had three more judges come listen to me present for a total of five. They each had good things to say, and only one of them asked as many questions as the first two had.

Afterwards they gave us lunch and some tours of the college campus. Then results.

They gave six awards in the high school division, though in no particular order. And I was one of them! It seemed as though I had impressed the judges. Five of the six winners were from my school (which makes sense), and I was the only junior amongst those five. The rest were seniors.

As we were cleaning up, one of the judges that had interviewed me came to congratulate me afterwards. She got a little quiet and said to me that some of the other judges had said things about my project along the lines of: "If I had been told this was a college sophomore or junior undergrad project at a conference, I would have believed it."

So yeah. I can apparently do science.