On the other hand your science project need not be in utterly unexplored areas; to be successful you need not come up with data and conclusions which will confound professional scientists who have spent their lives in similar work. You are a student and a hobbyist, not yet a professional research scientist. Primarily your project should advance your personal knowledge, and your abilities to observe, speculate, hypothesize, experiment, deduce, and conclude.
You should choose a project which you can expect to follow to a successful conclusion, but which is enough above your current knowledge to make you “stretch” your abilities.
But it is important not to bite off more than you can chew. The project should not demand so much time that you neglect other responsibilities. However, you need not pass up an interesting topic because covering all of it would consume too much time. Instead, zero in on just those aspects which interest you most.
Sophomore Eileen O’Brien of New Dorp High School, Staten Island, New York, displayed this nuclear-related exhibit at the 13th NSFI at Seattle in 1962, but did not win any AEC recognition.
At the 14th NSFI at Albuquerque in 1963, junior Eileen O’Brien returned with a new and better exhibit of a related but more advanced project...
... and found herself an AEC Special Awards winner invited, with her science teacher, to spend a week at Argonne National Laboratory.
