As part of your STEM project, you may be asked to create a display to share your findings. Often, trifold cardboard displays are used, particularly at the school or regional STEM fair level. The quality of your scientific discovery or innovation is always more important than how your display looks, but there are things you can do to help people more easily understand why your project is important and what you learned.

Here are some tips and resources to help your display make an impact!

1. A clear, short title. Your project title is the first thing people see, so it should clearly explain what your project is about and your key finding. Keep the wording simple and direct so your audience can quickly understand. We recommend no more than 150 characters (your regional STEM fair may have different requirements). Learn more about creating an effective title here.
2. A big, bold takeaway statement. Whatever your display design, it is effective to use big, easy-to-read text for a takeaway statement – a sentence that summarizes the most important result from your project. Your audience should be able to quickly understand what your project is about and the main thing you want them to learn or remember. That way, they will be curious to learn more and can read the rest of your display with some context…instead of hunting through lots of text to understand what your project was even about. Learn more about creating an effective takeaway statement here.
3. Video instructions. Watch our video made with Dr. Mike Morrison on how to make an eye-catching project display (proven by research!):

4. Design guide. To go along with the video, check out our Designing Your STEM Project Display guide to help you make an effective display for your project.
5. Use a template. To get you started with your design, we recommend starting with our STEM Project Display Template – a PowerPoint template that fits on a typical trifold board. From there you can change the template to make it your own!
6. Consider adding to your display (if allowed by your educator/regional STEM fair):

• A laptop or tablet to show a video of a key process in your experiment, or demonstrate your innovation working.
• A small model of your innovation prototype, or a key component of your experiment.
• Something your audience can engage with. Think about how people could better understand your project if they could touch the material used, see how a material moves, or try out your innovation prototype. It all depends on what your project is about, but here are some examples:
  • For a project about fossils, have an example or model that people can see and feel.
  • For a project with a digital innovation, let people try it out on a device.
  • For a project using a unique material or components (e.g. 3-D printed), have a sample for people to touch or see how it moves.

Just make sure that anything you display is safe, won’t spill or be easily broken, and follows the rules of your regional STEM fair (if applicable).

Tip:

Looking for help on what to write in each section of your project display? Check out our Why, How, What, So What, What’s Next? resource for ideas on how to tell the story of your project.