Science fair poster boards

For the past several years, my son has used the same black foam-core poster board for science fair each year. This year, he decided that it was getting too beat up, and he wanted a new one, so we designed and built a different one for this year. The constraints were the same as before:

• When set up, the board has to fit within the science fair limits of 48″ wide, 30″ deep, and 72″ high (the county limit—state allows 78″ high).
• When folded up and in a protective carrier, the board has to checkable as luggage without extra fees (at least from Southwest—other airlines charge fees for everything).
• When in its carrier, the board has to be easily carried by hand for a mile and easily transported by taxi or airport shuttle.
• The board has to stand freely on a table and not be easily knocked over.
• The board needs to have a lot of room for text, diagrams, plots, and pictures.
• The board had to be fairly cheap (less than $50 in materials).

The old design made a traditional trifold display, with the side panels folding in on duct-tape hinges, and the back panel then folding backwards to make a 30″×27″×3/4″ package.

The new design is a bifold, with two horizontal hinges making an accordian fold, and with one hinge at the top. The vertical slit for the other two panels will be held closed with Velcro hinges.

Checkable cardboard carrier for poster

Carrier with straps removed

Carrier open. Note that the inner plastic bag that keeps the poster clean and keeps the parts from sliding out of the carrier is not shown here. A heavy-duty plastic bag is an essential part of the carrier. Note also that the carrier is too tall and not wide enough, because this carrier was for the previous poster backdrop with folded size of 27″×30″, not 20″ ×32″.

The parts without the carrier. The entire stack is 20″×32″×1.5″

Unfolding the accordion fold panels.

The back of one side of the board. Note the Velcro hook tape on the hinge said (closest to the camera) and diagonally crossing the hinges (near the back). The diagonal velcro is arranged that way so that when the hinge is closed, there is only one layer of hook tape, not two, between the panels.

The 14″ battens, made from 2″ Velcro loop tape stuck to paint stirrers and backed with colored duct tape, attached to the Velcro hooks to stabilize the hinges.

The board stood up, showing the battens holding the horizontal hinges open, and the loose Velcro loop tape attached on one side.

The back of the poster with the Velcro loop tape forming hinges. The bottom panels in this picture are joined by a vertical duct-tape hinge.

The front of the poster, with the duct tape hinge at the top and the Velcro hinges at the bottom. In this orientation, there is some slight gapping of the center where the lower horizontal hinge and the vertical hinge meet. We could reduce this by using the poster the other way up, but the outlining of the top third fit better with the poster design. (We may also use blue duct tape to outline the remaining white edges.)

The optional top piece, unfolded, but not braced yet.

The back of the top piece with battens in place.

The full poster board, with top piece in place. The top piece has not been shaped yet.

The one-way duct-tape hinge, shown open and closed. The hinge is made by butting the two pieces of foam core, and taping them together on the inside of the hinge. That half hinge is then folded closed, and the outside is taped.

We had originally chosen the bifold design to be able to use colored foam core (which was only available locally in 20″×30″ sheets), but the colors available did not appeal to my son, and white foam core was on sale for $3 a 40″×32″ sheet, so we decided to go with white.  The only expensive part was the 2″-wide stick-on Velcro, which we used about 10 feet of.

Related articles

• Google Science Fair (gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com)
• Presentation rubrics (gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com)
• Science Fair advice (gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com)
• More science fair advice (gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com)
• Science fair time again (gasstationwithoutpumps.wordpress.com)