In March 2024, I participated in Scifest – an annual science exhibition organized by students of the 54th class of the National University of Education High School under the ASO organization. I am very proud to be one of the members who brought their products to the exhibition.

Scifest Exhibition

Scifest is one of the very famous exhibitions for students. I have been following the exhibition for a long time and now I am officially one of them. When the exhibition opened for registration, I immediately signed up without hesitation. For me, this is an opportunity for me to develop the abilities I already have and also skillfully “flex” with my friends about what a future science engineer can do.

The topic was given: Bring your homemade products to the event. The topic sounded quite simple but the scale was quite wide. It made me think. So where to start? What product is reasonable? What features should my product have? With 1001 questions and ten thousand ideas in my head. I think the first thing I should do like a real scientist is “Research”. Briefly summarizing the questions in my head, what I need to do is to find the answers to my questions.

Finally, I found a product called: Water rocket

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Completing the homemade water rocket

The product I brought to the exhibition this time was a homemade water rocket. To complete this product, I had to come up with the idea and complete it in just 1 week. I took advantage of all the time to prepare for the exhibition. Going to school, completing homework, and completing my own work, if anyone asks me if I feel tired or exhausted, the answer is definitely yes.

I have divided my time into 3 parts and set goals for each period of time to achieve certain results:

Time to study at school: During my time at school, I will try to focus 100% to make sure I do not miss any knowledge. This helps me not waste time looking for knowledge I have missed.

Time to do homework: I often try to complete homework right in class, take advantage of recess, or study in groups with friends after school.

Time to make water rockets: I spend all my time exploring and inventing water rockets. If there are many homework assignments, I will try to finish them quickly to save time for my research.

After completing my idea. What I need to do now is to prepare the necessary tools to make the product. I asked my mother for help with some simple tools such as water pipes, plastic bottles… I will find and buy more specialized tools myself. So in just over a day, I completed the preparation part.

The following days were days of cutting, sawing, tying, and rolling plastic pipes. There were times when I accidentally dropped glue on my hands, making my hands and knuckles stiff. I realized that this is the pain of a scientist. This is what it means to dedicate yourself to science haha. There were days when I stayed up quite late to prepare for the product, making me a bit “tired” but I still had to tell myself that I was giving my all for science.

Finally, after hours of tinkering, assembling, and chiseling, I completed my product. Once completed, of course, it was time for testing. I was very excited about this part. Surprisingly, I succeeded in the first test. But to be sure, I still tried to test 2 more times so that I would not be “embarrassed” at the exhibition.

After 2 successful tests, my product was ready to be shown.

Display at the exhibition

I brought my product to the exhibition with a proud face. I guided everyone to put the rocket into the launcher, pump the air, and untie the knot. More than I expected, the students were quite interested in this product. As for me, I could not hide my pride.

The exhibition displayed many products of other students and ended up being an unforgettable mark in my childhood