How to Make a Showstopping Board
Ah yes, the part that everyone has been waiting for, the central part of your project, the board.
Your board is the first thing that any peers, parents, judges or teachers will see when they are presented with your project so ensuring it makes a good impression is crucial. Many (including us sometimes) leave their boards to the last minute and then have to make a rush job. Don't be that person. Instead, follow these tips to have an outstanding board that catches the judges eye and holds their attention.
In a good way.
The Board Itself
Tri fold boards may be some of the flimsiest creations known to man. Typically, we get our boards from Staples as we find them to be the sturdiest. It is extraordinarily easy to bend, break, dent, or rip a trifold board, so be careful with it.
Most people go for the easiest board to acquire, the white trifold. Getting a black trifold instead will allow your board to stand out in the room of white backgrounds. Additionally, try to pick a board that is cut relatively evenly. Most trifolds are cut oddly at the bottom, and because of that the flaps have a hard time staying open on their own or sitting flat on the table. Also, make certain to check the guidelines posted for your math fair as they may require a certain size of board. I have seen many people with mini trifolds get disqualified because they don't meet regulation.
The Creative Element
There are lots of ways to spice up your visual presentation, some of them are more effective than others. You don't need to go over the top with 3D elements and involved art projects to get points for creativity. Over time, our main strategy has become painting the board itself with a design that is related to our project (you can see all of our boards in the project archive). If you have access to a projector, my suggestion is to project your desired image onto the surface of the board, trace it, and then paint it. If you don't have a projector, here is how to DIY a projector out of plastic wrap, a cardboard box, and a flashlight. Make sure you use as few layers of paint as possible! Paint can warp your board and make it even less likely to stand up on its own.
Pick a color scheme to carry through your entire project. If your colors are green and yellow, you could make your title letters yellow, your evidence binder green, your graphs color coded with green and yellow, etc. In places where you have written or printed text on your board, add backing paper that fits your color scheme. This helps seperate the sections of your project from one another, while also keeping the look of the whole board clean and professional. However, don't change the color of your text; it frequently makes it difficult to read and is typically considered unprofessional.
Placement and Size
These two elements are possibly the most important when it comes to the utility and aesthetics of your board. Try to keep the title of your project from consuming over 1/3 of the middle panel. The title of your project is important, but not nearly as deserving of that space as the actual content of your project. Your text should be large enough to read, but not so large there's no room for anything else. Balance is key. Include a few photos or fun cut-outs, graphs, 6-8 blocks of text, and try to limit your title to the top 5-7 inches of your board. Most importantly, don't sacrifice your content for a better looking board.
Content
Speaking of content, when someone reads your board, they should be able to easily follow your project across the three panels. This typically means left to right and top to bottom. Start with your introduction and research question at the top left, and end with your conclusion and sources at the bottom right. You want a reader to be able to get all the information needed to understand the basics of your process, without being overwhelmed by specifics and details that could be saved for your oral presentation. Hit the highlights and hold the rest until it's time to talk to the judges.
If you're a younger competitor, hand-writing your text is cute and personal, while also indicating that you have knowledge of your topic and did the work yourself. Many younger kids, especially those working with higher level materials, face the extra challenge of needing to prove to the judges that someone else didn't do the project for them. Including photos of yourself during experiments and doing calculations on your board will help lend you credibility in this area as well.
Ultimately, balancing form and function is going to be your main goal when creating your math fair board. Finding a board that is physically sound, and keeping it that way, while also displaying well defined and visually pleasing content, is more difficult than it sounds. Just make sure that when you transport it you're nice and gentle! For more tips on traveling with (two) giant display boards without denting, bending, crinkling, ripping, or getting them wet, check out Tips and Tricks.