By: Jolie Leung, Heritage Fair 2013 Alumnus
The air in schools is
beginning to hum alive as students bring their Heritage Fair projects to life! Each year we see mixes
of tri-fold posters, suitcases, costumes, and models, among others. But not
every project starts out looking as amazing as the ones we see at Regional
Fair—so what can you do to improve yours?
During your research,
try to get to the library often and you’ll find that book resources are much
more reliable than what you can read on Wikipedia and other websites. Scholarly
articles are also useful: try searching on Google Scholar,
which works just like Google but only shows scholarly articles. For websites,
make sure you cross-check your references—that means checking between various
sites to make sure the information is the same and accurate. And of course,
make sure you cite these resources in your bibliography!
When making your
display board, try to aim for an eye-catching colour scheme that is appropriate to
your project, but make sure to avoid overloading your audience with rainbows or
overpowering your text with a noisy background! Keep in mind that for more
solemn events in history you may want to stick to a darker colour palette. For
other project types, experiment with your placement of objects—sometimes you’ll
be surprised by what looks good!
Last of all, when
presenting to a judge, be confident in what you’re saying! It’s all too easy to
second-guess yourself, but remember all of the research that you did. Practice
saying some of your content out loud, or if your project has a timeline, such
as a war, familiarize yourself with how one event in time led to another. Be
sure to speak at a good, slightly loud volume to ensure that the judge can hear
you, but not so loud as to disturb other students and judges’ conversations.
If you still feel like
your project isn’t as good as it could be, don’t worry! You still have time to
improve it, and besides, many schools take part in Heritage Fair every year, so
you likely will have another chance to try again next year armed with new
experience!
Good luck doing your
projects, and most importantly, have fun!
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