Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hi, my fair is on April 1st and I've been thinking about what to do for my display board. My project is somewhat unique so I have a lot of visuals and information (figuring out what to leave out will be challenging), so I'm not too worried about that. However, I want an attractive background.

This photo caught my eye while browsing the ISEF website:
http://www.intel.com/Education/images/i ... InPage.jpg
and this one
http://www.intel.com/Education/images/i ... rofile.jpg

Where can I purchase a board with a background like this (i.e., not just a solid color)? Is it affordable?


Thanks

These boards are professionally printed on large inkjet printers (usually at places like kinkos or other professional sign printers/makers) and cost a LOT of money--on the order of a few hundred dollars. Its a sizeable investment, and unless you feel comfortable spending around $400-$600 on a display its not worth it. From my experience the kids that have these fancy boards have generous laboratory or school support to do so.

I don't know about an entire one-piece board like those pictures that you showed, but at my school, people do sometimes have their board panels printed (two side panels and one middle panel). Currently, my school is trying to get a deal with the UPS so that our boards can get printed at a cheaper price and my teachers have told me they have settled at ~$150 for the side panels and middle panel (this is for 35 x 54 and 18 x 45.2 inch panels). If you look around online, there are also printing companies that may print for cheaper.

Even if you can't afford to do all of the fancy printing on your board, one think that I like to do is use cardstock from the scrapbook store. If you have Microsoft Publisher, go to it and pick a theme for your backboard (soap bubbles is my favorite). Even if you don't have the program, it can still work. Just pick three colors that you want to be the main colors on your board. Then just have fun!