Hey guys! I won our regional science fair and was selected to go to ISEF. My joy was soon over shadowed by my over thinking. My teacher told me to go to the ISEF website and look around, so I did. I found the page where it has the abstracts from previous years. One of the projects from last year is nearly the same as mine. I don’t think it would cause any issues, but I’m just nervous that someone is going to accuse me of stealing someone else’s idea
I too got discouraged looking at previous abstracts. I just don’t know if my project is ‘up there’ with other projects. And my project is so unique, that it doesn’t even fit into any category!
But we have got to keep our heads up!
Congratulations! I don’t think this will be a problem. Judges will evaluate your project independently of others. It is unlikely that you’ll be judged by the same people who judged that similar project last year. Even if that happens, most projects at the high school level are not original, so it’s fine. Emphasize how you uniquely approached it.
I went to ISEF last year too. Honestly, my project was trash compared to everyone else’s. I didn’t discover any ground breaking evidence, but in the end it didn’t really matter to me. The friendships I made last year are irreplaceable! I’m hoping to meet up with one of my friends this summer. My project this year is not going to compare to anyone else’s project again, but I’ve accepted that fact already. I am just excited to meet so many amazing people. Hopefully this year’s ISEF will measure up the last year’s!