After months of preparation, long hours and late nights, it was finally here. The two words that have haunted many AHS students since October: Science Fair.

On Feb. 4, students manned their stations beside their boards in the cafeteria after school to give their presentations to the judges.

“I like the Science Fair because it gives you an opportunity to explore anything you want, and it’s still educational,” sophomore Sahil Chawla said.

“[Science Fair] is a project you can actually do on something you like and you don’t have to follow any certain rules,” sophomore Abner Casillas said.

However, not all students feel the same way about the extensive project.

“I don’t really like Science Fair because it’s just extra work on top of our normal load,” junior Steven Lose said.

All students taking an honors or IB science class are required to conduct an experiment and participate in the annual Science Fair. Despite the differing opinions, the students gathered in the cafeteria after school in hopes of impressing the judges.

“In my project we tested the strength of bridge designs. My goal was to get an A and make it to the regional science fair,” sophomore Matthew Del Signore said.

“The presentation went fairly well, I think I presented well in front of the judges,” junior Jack Deible said. Deible and his partner earned first place in the engineering field.

Each group was judged two times and after they were done, the students were asked to put their boards down so everybody could be judged. However, nobody was permitted to leave until everybody was finished, and then still had to wait for the scores to be totaled and the winners announced.

The students had to wait for over 45 minutes while the judges counted the scores, which angered some students. “I was upset that we had to stay and wait for the results. It took a really long time and I didn’t want to have to spend an extra hour waiting around. We didn’t have to do that last year,” Lose said.

In the end, the first and second place winners were announced for each category, which marked the end of another successful Science Fair at AHS.