Science Fair Project Poster

I've been giving some thought to science fair projects. When my kids do projects they tend to use posterboards that already come with labels, but the last time we couldn't find pre-made labels. We made our own labels using a word processing program, printed the labels, and cut them out. We learned a lot from the experience like not to use glue to attach the labels (too wet... bled the color from the colored posterboard). Glue from a glue stick wasn't that great either. There wasn't a strong bond, so once the the glue dried some of the labels fell off. Double-stick tape worked best.

We also learned some things about making and printing the labels. If your printer ink isn't waterproof, you definitely don't want to use glue to attach the labels or take the poster out in wet weather. We had to bump up the font size to make it possible to read the labels from a distance. It helped to change the font from the default setting in the program we used (Arial is good) and put the text in bold.

After the project was completed we made up a sample poster to show what labels might be good for a poster and where they should be placed. If your school or science fair requires a different format, please post a description of it in response to this blog entry so other readers can get additional ideas for way to prepare their posters.