Hey there from another city! As I’m typing this right now, I’m actually sitting in my hotel room, just finished with a whole day of presentations and meeting students, which was the weekend of the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in my state. It’s been such a crazy weekend, so I wanted to share my thoughts about scientific presentations, conducting research as a high schooler, and reflections on this process!
All right, let’s backtrack to before the symposium. I first learned about the symposium from my local science fair, since they sent out an email about it. I decided to apply, and to apply, you need to send in your research paper, your abstract, and a statement of outside assistance. I had been conducting research on antibiotic resistance for the past two years, so with the deadline coming up at the end of January, the pressure was on for me to get a ton of things done at that time (January, February, and March are hell months for deadlines, then April and May are AP and IB exams). My paper was on designing several small-molecule inhibitors to disrupt the protein-protein interaction in bacteria as a novel antibiotic target (it’s a mouthful). Luckily, I made the deadline. I didn’t think that it was too competitive, but I only realized later on that there were over 100 applicants and they could only select 15. On the day that the results for the finalists were supposed to come out, I was so stressed. They said the results would come out no later than February 10th, so on that day, I was refreshing my email over and over. By 8pm, I was in tears because I hadn’t received any emails and I thought they were done notifying the applicants. As I moped around and cried to my family, I suddenly received an email that I had been selected as a finalist. So, in the middle of talking trash about the symposium, we suddenly went from “it’s okay, we didn’t want to go anyway” to “oh my gosh…. I was accepted!”
So, here’s what I learned about getting accepted to conferences…
- Don’t freak out before you’ve actually gotten the news (I know, I won’t follow my own advice).
- The research paper is standard, and there aren’t really any special rules other than a set of formatting guidelines on their website, so the only general tip is to write a good research paper.
- What is a good level of research for these types of competitions? From what I’ve noticed, most of the projects are very, very complex. During the symposium, at least 75% of the projects involved machine learning models. That’s not to say you need to just write the most convoluted paper ever, but you probably won’t be getting in with a paper about baking soda volcanos. As for the length of the paper, mine was 16 pages long, single-spaced.
- If you’ve been conducting research, you’re probably familiar with the structure and tone of scientific papers. It’s super helpful to read more scientific papers to know the tone and style of the papers, and use that same level of formality and writing in your own paper. As for the structure, the standard paper structure is: Abstract, Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, and Bibliography.
- It’s typically not recommended to write heavily in first-person. I’ve noticed from writing group lab reports in biology that many students tend to write quite informally, especially if they’re not familiar with the tone of scientific papers. If you use “I” once or twice, that’s fine, but try not to write your entire Materials and Methods section like “I pipetted the reagent. Then I added the sample to my Petri dish.” Scientists often say that the Materials and Methods section is the easiest to write, but I think this section is the hardest to get the tone right because we’re so used to writing instructions in first or second person!
- Caption your figures and tables! Okay, it’s not technically a requirement, and I’m not sure if it even helped my paper, but I personally just think the captions looked great on my paper and helped explain the graphs and tables. Here’s a great resource on how to caption images and tables in scientific papers! (Yes, there’s a specific format)
- If you need help with writing your research paper, search up some resources online for each section of the paper! There are too many tips and advice for me to include here, but if you search it up, you’ll be sure to find some tips that are helpful and relevant for your paper. This article by Rice University for new researchers is very helpful for finding specific mistakes that you never even thought about.
- Don’t write your abstract first. Yup, this is a real thing that scientists do, and it makes sense, because after all, your abstract is summarizing your full research paper, so you do need to know what’s in your paper before you try to summarize it. In fact, many scientists recommend writing Materials and Methods, then Results and Discussion, Conclusion, and finally the Introduction and Abstract. Honestly, it just depends on what works best for you. The Results and Discussion should make up the bulk of the paper, though. For mine, over half of my paper was Results and Discussion!
- Don’t expect this to be a paper that you can finish in a day by pulling an all-nighter. Between December and January, I finished writing three, huge research papers about my research, all of them over 10 pages long. I don’t remember exactly how long I spent on my final research paper that I submitted to the symposium, but it was at least a month.
When I was accepted, I realized that I needed to start working on my presentation since there weren’t that many days left before the symposium. Due to COVID-19, there wasn’t going to be a poster session, so we only needed a PowerPoint presentation.
The visual portion of your oral presentation is quite important, and here are some of my best tips:
- Don’t put too many words on the slides, and put pictures and graphs if applicable.
- Have a coherent structure for your presentation. I think this was one of the best things that I did in my presentation. I had a coherent structure that started with the wide scope of the issue, went into exactly what I was researching, and the significance of my research.
- There’s no need to make the presentation crazy aesthetic or anything, but keep the slides clean and professional-looking. Please, no yellow Arial or Comic Sans font on a crowded background…
- Keep it understandable to the general public. Most of our projects didn’t fall under the judges’ expertise, as most of the judges were mechanical engineers. We joked that this turned into the Junior Science and Machine Learning Symposium because of the number of machine learning projects. But because of this, one thing that the best presenters did well was to somehow make a complicated topic understandable. It can be hard to gauge what is understandable for the public, especially when you’ve been working on the same topic for months or years, so try practicing your presentation and asking for feedback from others.
All of the presenters had different ways of going about their presentation, and there were definitely successful presentations from all of the different strategies. For example, some were more rigid and structured, while others had some humor and had a narrative structure.
When it comes to presenting, here are some of the most important things I noticed!
- Show enthusiasm in your presentation! You might be nervous or shy about presenting, but it shows when you’re truly enthusiastic about your topic. Don’t be shy about how much you love your work, since it’s really important for a great presentation.
- Don’t read from the slides. All of the top presenters spoke about their projects as part of their talks, and the organizers stressed that this was an Oral Presentation, so they said that the presentation was only there to supplement your talk, not act as the backbone. You should be able to have a pretty complete speech without your presentation, so you’re not just relying on your slides.
- Don’t overlook the Question and Answers session. This is where it’s most obvious if the presenter knows about their subject, and it can play a huge role in judging. While I expected super technical questions that would nitpick every single one of my decisions, the questions I got were actually very general and mostly about my process. I think a lot of it depends on the judges’ expertise and understanding of your topic, though. For students who had projects that fell within the judges’ expertise, they did get some technical questions.
- Don’t try to overstate your project. For example, some organizers said that there was a project where the student claimed that they were the only person in the world doing this type of research, but one of the judges was actually an expert in that research.
- Make sure you submit a project that you actually conducted, and only talk about the areas of the research that you conducted. While most students were incredibly knowledgeable and brilliant in their fields, there was one case where I think the judges and audience both suspected that the student didn’t actually conduct the project themselves, because the student couldn’t answer any technical questions about their work.
- Get comfortable presenting your speech and practice A TON. If you get nervous, just pretend that you’re just practicing your presentation in your living room again.
- Go with what makes you feel most comfortable. What I mean is, if you have tiny quirks or tricks that you do during a presentation that make you feel a lot more confident, don’t be shy about following your instincts during the presentation! For example, most presenters stood at the podium, but I knew that I felt a lot more comfortable holding the microphone and being able to walk around on the stage, so I did that even though it was more unconventional. Another thing that I did was that I actually purposefully stared at a spot on the wall instead of looking at the audience while I was presenting, because I found that it helped me stay focused and shake off the nerves. Top tip? Probably not, but it helped me, so I did it. All of these tiny quirks are things that you find out from practicing, so go practice that presentation!
- Notecards or not to have notecards? I made notecards just in case, but I didn’t use them. Most of the notecards were written in giant font with single words to remind me of what I was supposed to say for each section on the slide, and I only planned to use the notecard in a worst-case scenario if I freaked out and couldn’t remember anything. I don’t recommend preparing a script and just reading off of it, because, again, engagement is an important part of presenting. I think most students did prepare a script just in case of a worst-case scenario, though, like I did.
Here’s the thing: I can’t memorize a speech to save my life. So, how did I memorize this presentation? For some reason, this presentation was a lot easier to memorize for me, and I’d say the “formula” for memorizing the speech was structure + visual cues + practice. My presentation had a clear structure that I knew perfectly, which was very helpful in giving me cues on what to do next. The slides also came in handy as visual cues, especially since I broke up the slides to remember, “Okay, on this slide, there are three pieces that I need to remember. The top picture on the left, the bottom picture on the right, and the graph.” So, for each slide, split it up into sections, so once you reach a certain section, you’ll be thinking, “Alright, bottom picture on the right… What did I need to say about this picture?” Finally, I practiced my presentation multiple times before the symposium, and by the end, I had gotten very comfortable with it and I could recite it starting from any slide.
Also, take the time to listen to all (or as many as you can) of the presentations! They’re all incredibly fascinating, and it truly blew my mind away to hear from so many accomplished students. That day, I learned so much about everything from astrophysics to machine learning. It’s also helpful to note down what each presenter did best, so you can use that to improve your own presentation. It is so, so valuable to have this opportunity to hear about the groundbreaking research being conducted in all different fields, so really take advantage of it! Another valuable opportunity that comes from participating in these conferences that you should absolutely take advantage of is the networking opportunities. Of course, it’s not like business networking where other people are potential employers or CEOs, but it’s incredible to get to meet and become friends with such an amazing group of students. Throughout the course of three days, our group actually became quite close and we all became good friends. No one treated this like a competition – we were all cheering each other on and encouraging each other, and it was just such a supportive community. I’m also super surprised by how much more social I was. Normally, I can be quite shy and afraid to go up to people, but this time, I often just came up to other students and joined in on their conversation, and they were super accepting as well. I know it’s a cliche, but it’s the truth. The community and connections I made at the symposium were the most important things that came from this experience, and I can’t describe how much I loved it.
After the day of the symposium, we got the opportunity to tour the city and visit some local attractions. As a group, all of us went to a local museum about naval technology, which was a cool experience in itself. With all of us back in our normal clothes and acting like normal kids, it was so funny but also mind-blowing to see the same people, who just yesterday were all dressed in suits and ties and presenting such advanced scientific research, turn into simply normal kids. But when you put a group of engineers, physicists, chemists, and biologists at a museum about naval technology, it’s just crazy what knowledge and discussions result. We discussed everything from quantum biology to glassmaking techniques. If you can’t tell, I truly think these kids are awesome, and I’m so glad to have gotten the opportunity to meet them.
Overall, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped organize these opportunities for students. This weekend was absolutely one of the best weekends of my life. I sometimes talk about this on my blog, so some of you may know that social anxiety is something that I often struggle with. But this experience of being in a room with 30 of some of the most talented students I’ve ever met just completely transformed me. I was regularly going up to students, asking them about their presentations, and just chatting with them and geeking out about everything. It was absolutely bizarre for me, and I loved it. So, if you feel that you struggle with connecting with people, you might see that you can completely change if you find the right people. Everyone was incredibly talented, but just so humble, and I loved the experience. Of course, my family loved the free trip to another city, and I really appreciate this opportunity to have been able to participate in a scientific conference.
Let’s talk about imposter syndrome as a high school researcher
Being in a room with so many brilliant students was the best experience of my life, but at the same time, I felt intimidated. After I learned about their backgrounds and their accomplishments, I was thinking, “There is no way I belong here. I’m so unaccomplished in comparison to them.” Many of the students had been conducting groundbreaking research since middle school. Because I didn’t have the same sort of background of participating in science fairs and conducting research since middle school, I felt insecure about my work and my accomplishments. Yet, this is when it’s important to compare yourself to yourself and not to others. I know, super cliche advice. But in retrospect, I’m so proud of how far I’ve come. A while ago, I was searching through my email and I found a copy of my old resume from ninth grade. So many things have changed, and as I was looking at how many more accomplishments I have now, I was thinking, “Wow… It’s crazy how much I’ve changed since freshman year.” I never had parents or teachers who pushed me to pursue research, and I found every single opportunity on my own and conducted every single part of my research through my own work, which is incredible to think of how much I’ve built on my own. Realizing that I needed to appreciate myself more was a huge revelation, since as someone who’s intensely ambitious, I always seem to think towards the future, feeling that I’m not doing enough rather than realizing how much I’ve accomplished.
Having the opportunity to conduct research in high school is incredibly privileged
Finally, another issue that I wanted to address is the privilege that comes with being able to conduct scientific research in high school. Currently, a big argument against the SAT is that SAT scores correlate with household income, and wealthier students have higher SAT scores. Yet, I have to say, science fairs and scientific research, as well as other extracurricular activities, are pretty much the biggest and most obvious factor in showcasing the income disparity. There’s no doubt – in order to conduct scientific research, you need to be quite privileged, and it’s an opportunity that often requires lots of support and background work from parents, teachers, and mentors. Most students who are able to reach this level of work have received some amount of support from their privilege and connections, and if you don’t have the same type of connections, it’s incredibly daunting to climb this mountain yourself to get the same opportunities. I know this first-hand from building my entire research journey on my own beginning in high school, whereas some other students had been conducting advanced-level work since 6th grade.
Yet, it’s not impossible to do research if you don’t have connections or internships. Many things are possible to accomplish if it’s something that you’re truly passionate about, and for me, research has been a long journey, but one that has been incredibly rewarding, and I’m so grateful for all of the opportunities I’ve been able to find on my own. However, I’d still like to acknowledge that I’ve been incredibly, incredibly privileged to have this opportunity to pursue research, because even without parents or teachers who could arrange internships for me, my family still supported me in participating in science fairs and conducting all this work. It’s not an opportunity that every student has, so I think that research is probably one of the most unfair opportunities that most directly correlates with income. Also, not that anyone asked, but I also find sports to be way more unfair than the SAT, because sports lessons, practices, equipment, and travel fees are all very expensive and usually only affordable for the wealthy. Just like in research, if you’re talented enough, you can still make it, but those who make it big are most likely quite privileged to have been able to train and have plenty of resources available to them. At least with standardized testing, you still have to put in the effort to study, even if one kid has a private tutor and unlimited time to study, while another kid has to study using a borrowed prep book in between shifts at work. But I digress… (Alright, enough about standardized testing. I promise I’m not a secret CollegeBoard agent!)
If you’re a student interested in pursuing research, I plan on writing a post soon about how you can get involved, depending on the resources you have available to you!
