A first science fair win in sixth grade
Dr. Maille Lyons is the author of Science Fair Coach. She won her first science fair in 6th grade at Joseph Case Junior High School in Swansea, Massachusetts.
Her first project was titled “The effect of acid rain on house plants.” That early experiment sparked a lifelong interest in designing original, well-documented science fair projects.
Science fair projects often begin with a spark of curiosity, the kind that turns a simple kitchen counter into a working laboratory. Parents who want to guide their children through this process can help by encouraging careful observation, thoughtful questioning, and patience with the slow pace of real experimentation. The journey from a wobbly hypothesis to a finished display board teaches more than science; it builds habits of organization and reflection that carry into many areas of life, from reading charts to understanding how evidence supports a claim and how a small change in one variable can ripple through an entire design.
Behind every confident young presenter is usually a quiet coach who has helped shape the work behind the scenes. That role often falls to a parent, a teacher, or a mentor who understands the rhythms of a good experiment: brainstorming unique questions, choosing variables that can actually be measured, setting up a clear control, and recording data day after day. A coach encourages practice with graphing, rehearse friendly explanations, and reminds students that judges value clarity and honesty over flashy results, and that accepting or rejecting a hypothesis both counts as a successful outcome.
The Science Fair Coach approach treats each project as a small story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It begins with curiosity, develops through careful planning of materials, procedure, and data collection, and finishes with a display that communicates findings to others. Along the way, students learn to compare conditions, count trials, track changes over time, and translate raw numbers into clear bar graphs and percentages. With steady guidance, even a nervous first-time participant can discover that the process itself, not a trophy, is where the real learning happens, and that confidence grows naturally with each thoughtful step forward.