Reflection on My Science Fair Journey: Actionable Tips and Life Lessons, Part 2 - Doing Well In Research Competitions
In this article, I’ll explain how I got Regeneron STS T300 and ISEF Finalist in detail. Hopefully this is helpful to those wanting to begin their science fair journeys. However, know that my journey and circumstances are likely very very very different from yours, so this advice isn’t necessarily universal. But hopefully it’ll help you get some clarity and help you plan things.
Before I begin, I’d like to point out that the information contained in this series of articles is pretty personal. I’m explaining my journey in-detail in hopes that someone can relate and benefit from hearing about my experiences and perspective. Don’t do anything stupid.
---
Read Part 1 before you read this.
Ok, so I started working in the lab the summer after sophomore year. I went in with a rich understanding of biology and that helped me a lot (thanks to USABO prep + community college). For this first summer, I focused on getting acquainted with the flow of a lab. I got involved with a bunch of projects they were doing, and learned how to operate machines and be careful with lab equipment, and how to think scientifically. Here’s some key things I did:
I kept a diary of my lab work every day in case I wanted to use something for a college essay (anything from witty things my mentor said, to lessons learned from mistakes I made in the lab, etc.)
I kept a digital notebook on Google Slides of all the things I was learning. This helped me get a lot better at biology.
I read research papers and relevant Reddit threads during my BART commutes to and from the lab to learn more about not only the science I was involved in, but also the societal impact it had. I ended up using this anecdote of reading on BART trains in my college essays.
I started a blog (this one!) to write about the things I was learning. This was practice to eventually write a research paper. I asked my mentor for feedback on one or two of my long articles. Eventually, he showed me the Letter of Recommendation he co-wrote for my college applications: a huge point he made on his LOR was about how my blog was good and demonstrated my scientific knowledge.
All in all, I was a very active participant in the lab. This doesn’t mean I was chatting everyone up; this means that I was squeezing out every single piece of information from my summer, and trying my hardest to take the most advantage out of this opportunity. Although in hindsight, I should have talked to more people. But I was lowkey kind of scared of all the adults, and everyone was so busy. Even the grad/PhD students were kind of scary to me. I mostly just goofed around on my phone during lunches because staring at the walls was scary too - I didn’t want to accidentally catch someone’s eye and have to greet them while I was trying to eat or something.
Anyway.
That summer ended. Junior year happened, and I was mostly focused on USABO all year. As the sweaty clout-hungry junior I was, I applied to research programs: Research Science Institute, Stanford Institutes of Medical Research, and Scripps Research Translational Institute (I think those are the full forms of the acronyms - RSI, SIMR, SRTI).
I got humbled four times that year: I failed USABO and got rejected by all three programs. The rejections turned out to be blessings in disguise, because I went back to lab after junior year and did my Regeneron STS T300 and ISEF-qualifying project.
Here’s how I did it.
First, I neurotically scrolled Quora, trying to find if anyone said it would be possible to do a whole wet lab project for science fairs in a single summer. Most people said no, but one person said “if u grind then maybe.” I decided to take that chance. It’s not like I had anything better to do, anyway.
Second, I prepared a slideshow presentation about a research idea I had. I tried to make a methods section with control and experimental groups and stuff. I sent an email to my PI and mentor saying “can we talk about this idea I have because I wanna do my own project this summer” and they were like ok. So we had the meeting and they said my idea was too expensive, and I pointed out my idea’s flaws and lack of efficiency in the presentation, so they were like “ok yeah let’s discuss a better idea.” So that’s how it came about.
Third, I read the rules for Regeneron STS. I opened the application portal. I confirmed with my mentor beforehand that my project met all the requirements. THIS IS IMPORTANT, DON’T BE STUPID AND DO A WHOLE PROJECT AND GET DQ’D FOR SOMETHING DUMB.
Fourth, I got to the lab. Bro. I literally lost half the summer because of extenuating circumstances and vacations, so I started my project on 6/26 and my last day in lab was sometime in early August. So like, if you have limited time, you’ll be ok. Just grind, go to lab every day, stay late, and you’re chilling.
Fifth, I took advantage of my time in the school year. I met with my mentor on Zoom and I kept showing him my paper and getting his feedback.
During the paper-creation process, I had to make some visuals. I’m going to talk about that now. In my opinion, you don’t need to learn Adobe Illustrator or anything crazy. You don’t need to buy any drawing softwares either. Here’s my project, and if you like the visuals you see here, here’s the sauce:
For complex images, hand-draw them, outline in bold black pen, color well. Scan using Notes App in iPhone. Screenshot the scan. Upload to https://vectormagic.com/ to make it look like a computer-generated drawing and play around with those settings until you like the pics.
For simpler images, use the Sketchbook app from the App Store (or any free drawing app, really). Use one of those pens with the squishy thingy on the other side to draw on your screen. Screenshot!
Use https://www.remove.bg/ to make backgrounds transparent.
Arrange everything on Google Drawings. To this day, I have no clue how to use PowerPoint. Such a crusty interface, imo. I made my ISEF poster on Google Drawings ☠️☠️☠️☠️
Learn Excel to make graphs and tables look cool. Specific skills needed vary by project, obviously. Don’t hesitate to ask your mentor for help. They know you’re a noob.
Once you get your results, if there is anything that can be converted into an image, do it. What I mean is: one data point I got was the COVID helicase’s amino acid sequence. I was initially going to put the sequence of letters in a color-coded text box and call it a figure. Then I got a genius idea: what if I made a molecular model out of it? People love pretty pictures. I googled around for some free software, and found SWISS-MODEL. Now I have a colorful image.
Listen to Yeat. This goes without saying.
Ok so. Yeah. I got everything ready and submitted my Regeneron STS application.
So I made Top 300. I started going crazy after that. I idolized T40 so much. I was panicking the day T40 calls were supposed to come out. I was so salty when I failed. My villain arc began, and I angrily submitted an application to my regional science fair. During the fair, I smiled and nodded and all that, and I got first place in Biology and made ISEF (top 3 project out of a few hundred maybe? we’ve got a lot of sweats in our region). I focused on explaining the problem-solution arc of my project, and emphasizing the impacts and novelty of my work while being brief yet obviously knowledgeable about the methods and other technical components.
So yeah hopefully this villain arc comes full circle and I win Grand Award or something next week. Hope this was helpful, and lmk if you have questions.
