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The 4H Science Fair is an often overlooked 4H national opportunity. This national program is open to all 4Hers in grades 7 to 12 and is a wonderful opportunity to meet other 4H members from across the country and learn more about STEM. In order to promote this program, I thought I would share my experience with the 4H Science Fair! (Please note: the first round of the 4H Science Fair is virtual, where you submit your project as a PowerPoint. The second round, described below, is your opportunity to present your work in-person).

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend the 4H Canada Science Fair which was hosted by Olds College in Olds, Alberta from March 9-12th. Those three jammed-packed days were full of many exciting activities which I will highlight below.

All of the science fair participants (photo credit: Chelsea Crawford)

Day 1 was mostly arrivals. Since there were 4H members from Coast to Coast, I was from BC, but there were even two members from Newfoundland, the arrivals were very dispersed. However, most of us arrived by lunchtime, so we were able to eat lunch together. In the afternoon, we had a campus tour of Olds College and received lots of cool swag! We also checked into the hotel we were all staying, which was walking distance from the college.

As this was a science fair, we also had time to prepare our science fair boards. Participants print off any information they want to put on the boards, ahead of time. Rather than making all the participants travel with Ed-display sized boards, those are provided at the fair. This means all you have to do is glue everything on! Our evenings were spent preparing the boards and practicing how we wanted to present our projects.

Smart Farm Tour (photo credit: Chelsea Crawford)

For day 2, we did a bus tour of the Smart Farm located on and around Olds College which was led by one of the professors at the college. This was very interesting as we were able to first-hand see many up and coming agricultural technologies.

Day 3 was Judging day where we presented our science fair projects to professors at Olds College. After judging, we had a STEAM workshop where we learned about seed scientists and how they support farmers by determining germination rates. After that, there was the awards ceremony, where the winners where announced. The winners of the 4H Science Fair have the opportunity to represent 4H at the Canada Wide Science Fair facilitated by Youth Science Canada in May. After the awards ceremony, we all went bowling to celebrate everyones’ hard work.

I hope this provides some insight into what it’s like to participate in the 4H Science Fair. It is a very fun national opportunity that I would recommend all 4H members try at least once!