Some of the foundational questions a judge will ask are: Why did you run this particular experiment? Why did it make sense to do it this way? Why didn’t you choose the method that would help you find out A instead of B?
These are some of the most basic protocol questions, and not being able to answer them is one of the biggest flaws students encounter at ISEF. Even if you research at Harvard Medical School or Stanford, if you didn't do the work yourself and can't answer these types of questions, judges will probably rank you below a student who did research at home but can answer every one.
That is the biggest lesson I can give you about how to do biology research in high school: the work has to be yours.
I'm Pranav Reddy, a Neuroscience major at Johns Hopkins University, and my biomedical and health sciences research earned a 2nd Place Grand Award at ISEF. Here's what I've learned about each stage, from finding a topic to getting into a lab to standing in front of a judge.
How to Choose a Biology Research Topic
A lot of students think they need the perfect idea before they can begin. You don't. Research isn't reserved for people who already know everything about science. The whole point of research is to figure out what we don't know yet.
In ninth grade, I wasn't thinking about neurosurgical oncology. I looked around at the environment I lived in Mississippi, found something I was curious about, and used equipment from my school's chemistry lab to test environmental samples. I took that project all the way to ISEF.
Then I paid attention to which parts of the work I enjoyed most. That pulled me toward microbiology, then toward cell-based research, and now I work in neurosurgical oncology research as an undergrad. Every project narrowed my focus a little more.
So start with a broad area that genuinely interests you, then find a smaller question that leads up to the one you ultimately want to answer.
How to Get Into a Research Lab in High School
If you want to work in a lab, do your homework before you send a single email. Read the lab's publications and figure out what they study, which techniques they use, and what their work looks like day to day.
First, determine if you’re even interested in the lab. Every lab is specialized, so you can't do a microbiology project in a lab that focuses on tumor biology.
Then send a lot of emails. Principal investigators are extremely busy, so you may not hear back on your first, second, or even thirtieth email. You just need one yes, so don’t give up.
Finally, don't hold out for the perfect lab. I emailed labs near me and ended up in a university public health lab. I never even presented that work at a science fair. I did it because I cared about the research, and it gave me the skills that led to the clinical and neurosurgical oncology labs I work in now. Whatever lab you join, you'll pick up techniques that transfer to almost any research.
Wet Lab vs. Computational Biology Research: Which Should You Choose?
Both routes can produce a competitive project. They just come with different trade-offs.
A professional wet lab gives you the highest ceiling. When I did research in high school, I was always worried about my budget: whether I had enough cells, enough agar plates, or the specific drug I wanted to use to treat my cells. In a well-resourced lab, you stop worrying about supplies and focus on whether you can answer your question with the primary data that you’re collecting.
The main challenge in computational biology is finding a question nobody has answered, because the datasets you'll analyze are usually public. And since you aren't working with a living system directly, judges expect very strong statistics to back up your claims. Many strong computational projects also include an in vitro experiment to validate the results. However, if your model’s prediction or analysis is complex enough, you don't need one.
If you're leaning computational, browse past ISEF finalists' abstracts in that category to see what the strongest projects looked like.
What Makes a Biology Project Competitive at ISEF
When I think about what makes a project competitive for ISEF, it comes down to three things judges look for: novelty, complex methodology, and impact. Think about all three before you start experimenting, not after.
Novelty means your question hasn't already been answered. Then complex methodology means you didn't run one basic experiment and call it done. Strong projects run multiple experiments, samples, and groups, and they repeat trials to make sure the results hold up. Impact ties the first two together. If you've answered a new question convincingly, who does that help, and how?
Your methodology keeps growing as your research progresses because new questions keep appearing. When an experiment doesn't go as planned, ask what is happening, why it's happening, and how. Each of those questions can become its own experiment, and that's how you build the complexity judges look for. Most projects stall by stopping at a single experiment.
In the end, the project only counts if judges believe the work is yours, and they test that by asking how you did it. They'll ask what media you used, which cells you worked with, and what density you plated them at. If you can't answer those basic questions, they'll suspect you didn't do the work yourself.
How to Answer Science Fair Judges’ Questions
Knowing what you did isn't enough. Judges will ask you questions about the broader biology too, like what happens inside a cell when you treat it with a drug. Because you ran the research, you're the expert on it, and judges want to see that. So make sure that you do a lot of background research, and keep up with new findings in your area.
You also shouldn’t memorize your pitch word for word. Judges interrupt you and ask questions in between, and sometimes you need to adapt your pitch to the judge in front of you.
One question I liked asking was, "May I know your background?" Sometimes a judge in biomedical and health sciences turned out to be an agriculturalist or a doctor. A judge from a different field might not know much about your specific topic but might pay close attention to something else, so you can adapt your pitch accordingly.
Every conversation with a judge is your chance to show why your project matters. When a judge ranks you highly, they're investing in you and your research. The more confidently you can explain and defend it, the more you'll stand out.
How to Succeed at Science: Start Reading Papers Like a Scientist
For every paper you read, ask why the experiment was designed the way it was. Researchers don't design experiments randomly, so there's always a reason. Then compare the conclusion to the methods. Does the protocol actually support what the authors claim, or does the conclusion stretch further than the data? Once you can spot that in other people's work, you'll start designing stronger research of your own.
To start building that skill, pick an area of biology you're curious about, find one recent paper in it, and read it with the questions above.
Get Guidance On Your Biology Project With ScienceFair
When you're ready to turn that curiosity into a competitive project, ScienceFair's coaches are past science fair winners who know what ISEF judges look for.
Book a free consultation with one of our academic advisors to talk through your goals and find the right program for where you are in your research.
