🪧 The display board, section by section

The board and its three panels

A tri-fold board is 48 inches wide and 36 inches tall, folded into three panels: 12 inches on the left, 24 in the middle and 12 on the right. The middle panel is twice as wide as the others, so it holds the biggest things.

Most fairs set a size limit. A common limit is 30 inches deep, 48 inches wide and 96 inches high, from the table. A standard 36 × 48 inch tri-fold fits. Check your school's sheet, though: it wins.

What goes where, in reading order

Here's the classic layout, card by card, in the order a judge reads it. Sizes are in inches, width first. The title runs across the top of the middle panel (22 × 5 in): your question makes a good title, or a short name like "Straw rocket nose shapes".

• ❓ Question (10 × 8 in): Your question, big enough to read from a step away.
• 💭 Hypothesis (10 × 9 in): If… then… because…, in your own words.
• 🧺 Materials (10 × 12 in): Everything you used, as a list.
• 🪜 Steps (22 × 9 in): What you did, numbered, so someone could do it again.
• 📊 Results (22 × 16 in): Your table and your graph: the heart of the board.
• ✅ Conclusion (10 × 14 in): Was your hypothesis right? Which numbers show it? What next?

What a judge reads first

A judge stands back and reads the title and the question first. If they can't read them from a step away, the letters are too small, so make the title the biggest words on the board.

Next, their eyes go to the middle: the table and the graph. That's why the results card is the biggest. A judge wants to see your numbers fast, then come back for the steps.

Last, they read the conclusion and check it agrees with the numbers. If your conclusion says the long cone flew farthest, the long cone's bar should be the tallest one on your graph.

Judges don't have long. At the Alpine School District's fair, two judges spend about four to five minutes at each project, so the board has to make sense quickly.

Three layouts to choose from

• Classic: Question and hypothesis on the left, what you did and found in the middle, the answer on the right.
• Big results: The results fill the middle panel; the steps move to the right, under the conclusion.
• Big question: The question takes the top of the middle, under the title; the left panel holds the hypothesis and materials.

The board tool draws all three to scale for your own project, in the colour you pick, with the six headers to print full size.

Making it yours

• Write or print big. Your question should be readable from a step away.
• Use your own words and your own drawings. Judges at elementary fairs favour children's own language and drawings over a grown-up's typing.
• Bring photos or drawings of your test, not the test itself. One K–5 rule set bans liquids and batteries on the display and anything hotter than 75 °C; another bans open containers.
• Lay all the cards out before you stick any down, then glue them flat and straight.
• Put your name on the back, unless your school says otherwise.

Then tick everything off on the fair-day checklist.