<p>Anybody else entering ISEF (affiliated fairs), STS, Siemens, or any science fair?
My project is using Differential Calculus to Predict World Oil Production.</p>
<p>Guessing you mean next year’s Siemens?
I’m a semi from this year. Also doing intel sts and county fair. I worked on vaccine development. I know there’s some (lots) other competitors on here(:</p>
<p>I just want to start a thread where there a fellow competitors. Past, present, or future young scientists are free to come in!</p>
<p>I was also hoping we could share what we are researching, have researched, or plan to research.</p>
<p>I won the local county in 8th grade, but as I was in middle school I could not advance. I competed as a freshman, but my partner was a junior. Quite frankly, I look back and realize I was a deadbeat compared to my partner. We won 3rd in county, but I feel like I stole from my partner.</p>
<p>This year, my junior year, is different. I was thinking about economics one day (my passion) in my AP Calc class, and saw how derivatives could be applied to predicting oil production (based on historical examples and other broader economic theories). So my project will be using derviatives to build several models of oil production, and predict (with uncertainty) when peak oil will come. My mentors are economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, since I know the President/CEO of that Fed district.</p>
<p>I was a semifinalist in this year’s Siemens.
I am going to go to my county’s science fair in March. It would be SO COOL to be able to go to Intel ISEF but people in my county have CRAZY science fair projects so I probably will not qualify. T_T
My project is a model on epilepsy. 
I have a mentor who I’ve only communicated with over the Internet, but since my project is entirely computational, it worked out.</p>
<p>Congratulations on making this year’s Siemens!
I also wish you good luck on entering the county science fair in March, and your project seems unique enough to win and advance. (I hope mine is too)</p>
<p>So, do you guys have any tips for a future science fair hopeful? How many years did you spend working on your projects? I think I have a pretty good idea, but I feel like everyone is going to think it’s ridiculous or it’ll never work.</p>
<p>Hey! Good to find another science fair person!</p>
<p>Here are my tips, I found through experience and talking with other science fair winners:
(1) Find a mentor. I cannot stress this enough. Write letters (don’t email, letters are special now) to local professors/professionals in the field you want to research in. Tell them your passion, and ask to meet with them.
(2) Your project must produce new knowledge; it cannot be a regurgitation of previous work. The hardest part is coming up with your project idea. You can always run it by here and we’ll help you.
(3) The paper (and supporting appendixes) you write are everything. It must be professional, one looking at it must be able to not suspect a high school scientist wrote it. You must demonstrate clear knowledge of the broad and narrow concepts in your paper and your interviews. Judges will go for a simple concept where the person knows his/her stuff over a complicated “glamorous” project where the contestant didn’t know much.
(4) Let your passion flow in your project!</p>
<p>I just came up with my project idea last month… I thought I was pretty clever, and will have to put my mathematics-category project together in a few months.</p>
<p>Oh! and also type in “intel isef” into the Youtube search bar and look up videos. That will give you a sense of the caliber of the competition.</p>
<p>Thanks, Ractogon! I just noticed, you’re in California too! haha. Does your county science fair do the thing where grand prize winners in each category advance to Intel ISEF and the 1st place winners in each category moves to state? That’s what my county does. I’ve only made it to state once, back in middle school. 
</p>
<p>But mainly I feel like it was because I didn’t have a mentor in the past two years. </p>
<p>Yeah, it depends on what topic you choose, since “wet” lab experiences usually take longer than those that are computational/math related. I personally took two months for my project, figuring out how the programming language I used worked, so I guess it was kind of long. </p>
<p>This isn’t to say you shouldn’t take that long. If botany, which is notorious for taking a long time, is what really interests you, go for it! :D</p>
<p>Anyone entering JSHS?</p>
<p>MY county fair advances the first place winners to state, then from there winners go to ISEF.</p>
<p>I noted that the trend in ISEF winners nowadays, all their project have to do with cancer. The grand prize in my county went on to take home ISEF 2011 grand prize! and they came out of nowhere. Their project found a new way to treat cancer.
And ISEF 2012 Grand prize winner was a 15 year old kid, worked at Johns Hopkins, found a revolutionary way to detect pancreatic cancer.</p>
<p>That is the caliber we are competing with. My project is not in that category. ;(</p>
<p>I might do the JSHS… </p>
<p>Yeah, cancer still seems to be popular. For Siemens, there’s this girl at my school who made it into the nationals and hers is on lung cancer treatments.</p>
<p>It seems to be all about cancer… even though there are already solutions for it. Anybody hear of good diet?</p>
<p>Cool, a science fair thread! About time we got one. I was an ISEF finalist last year, and submitted to Siemens twice (no luck either time).</p>
<p>My project was a mechanical engineering project dealing with a new type of bearing for vertical axis wind turbines. So I guess not everyone does cancer :)</p>
<p>It seems most students in ISEF and its affiliated competitions do something related to biological or medical sciences. But the kids who do go into math, boy, are they smart! A winner at ISEF last year was 17 and did his project on quantum teleportation!</p>
<p>Im shooting for ISEF and my country’s national fair. ISEF in Canada is very competitive but the team always does well.</p>
<p>Good luck! what is your project category?</p>
<p>Something in Biology ;)</p>
<p>The Pancreatic Cancer kid’s idea was neat but I think a similar idea had been published in 2008 for a different disease. Still, props to him for thinking up of that as HS student. The science is really beautiful-elegant and precise.</p>
<p>Bio does seem like the biggest category :P</p>
<p>freshman here so it’s my first time doing high school science fairs. however i’ve competed in the middle school fairs state level and nationally, but i bet (no, i am sure) that the high school fairs are a thousand times harder than the middle school ones. i’ve got a lab and all, might be doing something on melanoma. do you guys have any tips on the judging and just the overall process? if i’m aiming to be a finalist at ISEF… (or is that too much a long shot)</p>