Key aspects of successful science fair projects

Abstract

Students’ projects are a valuable way to gain experience with real science and motivate them towards a career in science. However, a description of a successful project is missing. To identify the key aspects of successful projects, we analysed biological projects presented in the national round of the Students’ Professional Activities. Particular projects presented in 10 years were evaluated based on, eg, branch of biology, number of authors, cooperation with experts, use of statistics or laboratory versus fieldwork, and county (region of origin within Czechia). Several different variables (eg, statistical analysis or additional work suggestions) pointed to the influential role of the supervisor, under whose guidance projects are more likely to be successful. Additionaly, projects carried out in the laboratory likely ranked better than those carried out in the field. Furthermore, we traced the influence of supportive teachers and show a high influence of the region on projects’ ranking revealing a potential socioeconomic inequity in access to science in Czechia. The trend of doing more biology work in the laboratory is reflected in increasing the percentage of laboratory-based projects over the ten years. We present a summary of how to conduct successful science projects.