Throughout the past few months, students have spent time trading in their binders and homework for lab coats and safety goggles. However, this process has been taking place in a timely fashion for some but in a last-minute manner for others.

Sophomore Eva Gomez stayed ahead of the herd with her Science Fair partner when working on her project.

“We tried to get everything done early and worked together very well,” Gomez said.

Senior Maisha Maliha, who had to complete two Science Fair projects due to her double enrollment in science classes, is in a more complicated situation.

“I used my time wisely for physics, but for my biology project, I’ve been running into a lot of problems,” Maliha said.

It took a lot of work to get to the point of project completion. Gomez started working on her project months ago, but ran into some obstacles.

“We messed up the first time, so she had to redo the rest of the experiment by herself, which I made up for by doing the abstract and other paperwork by myself,” Gomez said.

In addition to having problems with her biology project, Maliha also needs to complete extra assignments that go along with the project portion due to being an IB diploma candidate.

“The science fair projects are also internal assessments, so I have to write a paper too,” Maliha said.

The Science Fair process has changed over the years. Two years ago, there used to be a school fair in the cafeteria where all of the projects were presented.

“That gets to be problematic, especially when you build in snow days and the huge crowds of people, so now what we do is we have team fairs,” Chemistry teacher Nancy Kaegi said.

Although Maliha has not yet found out if she’s been selected for the Science Fair, Gomez and her partner found out on Jan. 7 that they were selected for the schoolwide science fair via a Google Classroom announcement.

“There were some really good projects, so I wasn’t really expecting getting selected,” Gomez said.

Some students are thrown in a loop in juggling their need for practice and other obligations.

“We aren’t really preparing because we’re both really busy right now. When there is time, we do talk about what we are going to do to make out project better and stand out,” Gomez said.

Students who place first, second or third in the biology, chemistry or physics in the school Science Fair will then have the opportunity to move on to the Regional Science Fair, which will be taking place at Robinson Secondary School.