The ABRHS Science Fair and Research Club

BY HARUKI OHARA '24

If you’re interested in free food or large amounts of prize money, read on, as you’ve just found the perfect article (100% legit, we guarantee this is not a scam).

On January 13th of 2023, the first in-person ABRHS Science Fair took place. Now, in all honesty, this was nothing near perfect, and truthfully, it may have had more flaws than charm. That said, this fair was also arguably one of the most enthralling and extraordinary events that AB had ever held this year. Projects ranged from research on fruit flies to creating rocket landing algorithms, but they were all similar in the way that they overflowed with the dedication and effort that the participants had poured in. 
The format was relatively simple: three judges, each judging 30 minutes per project, a rubric out of 95, and a total score being the average of all gained points. Now did it go according to plan? No, not even close. Did it somehow work out in the end? Kind of. Will it be better next year though? You bet. And in truth, we’re already planning for such improvements as we write.
    
In no particular order, up first, we have the incorporation of food. We aren’t letting our poor participants present for around two hours just to go home with an empty stomach. Up next, we have increased activities. As much as presenting our projects may be enough of a fun activity for some participants, we thought it might become even better if we added more events, such as raffles, photo booths, etc. Now our last idea is going to be a secret for now, but it’ll be available for all of the participants in the upcoming 2024 ABRHS Science Fair. 

I imagine you may be interested in getting more involved or even signing up for the event! Well, look no further, I got you covered for that as well. The easiest way to participate is to join the research club (after school 258W on Tuesdays), where us captains and Mr. Dempsey will take care of your forms, so all you have to do is enjoy conducting your research at your preferred times. Another method would be to sign up for the Research for Publication or Intro to Research electives, where the respective teacher for those classes will guide you through the steps. 
As for the topics you should do your research on, it's basically anything that you can conduct research on (aside from a couple of things, including harming humans and animals). You really get all the freedom you want with this, so feel free to research or create whatever you want. It can be a difficult topic or even a bizarre one. For pete’s sake, if you can find a way to make a flying toaster, why not present that at the fair?

Lastly, other than the academic merits of hands-on experience for research and increased knowledge in your field/topic, the people at the club are just fun to be around. If that isn’t enough, though, if you are able to qualify for the regionals and state competitions, you’ll have a chance to win a lot of monetary prizes. Just within last year, our students received over $10k in prize money, so we aren’t kidding when we say you could win a lot of money. If you're interested in more details, feel free to google our website, and we hope to see some of you this year!

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