How to do a winning project

1
How to do a winning project
Pittsburgh Regional Science Engineering Fair
(PRSEF)
Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science (PJAS)
2
Overview

• Who are the judges?
• Choosing a topic
• How to plan a project
• Presenting your project

3
Judges

• Judges applied to be here
• Want to work with you
• Want to have a good time
• Typically scientists or engineers
• Many do research projects regularly

4
Judging Criteria

• Creativity (30 at PRSEF -not at PJAS)
• Scientific thought- 30
• Thoroughness- 15
• Skill- 15
• Clarity (Presentation)- 10
• Really much more, because if you cant tell us
  what you did, we cant judge the first 4 items.
• You can use the same project at PJAS and PRSEF

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Choosing a topic

• Dos
• Passionate and personal
• Something you will like working on for months
• Unique- even bizarre is OK
• Aim to sponsors
• Donts
• Internet science projects
• Your brothers project
• Someone else's winning project
• A project you dont like

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The First 4 Steps

• Notebook- Critical part of project
• Organize thoughts and plans
• Records all meetings, data and setups
• Do not erase!! Cross out.
• Personal thoughts OK
• Judges use to verify student did project
• References- See how others have done it
• At least 5 and NO Wikipedia!!!
• Research Plan- Spend a lot of time here
• Who, what, when, where, why
• Forms to SRC

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Common Misconceptions

• Myth Projects that dont work cant win
• Science doesnt always work like you expect. You
  just need to explain what happened and why.
• Myth Parents should never be involved
• Most good projects have parents as advisors
• Myth Judges like projects without outside help
• Science isnt done in a vacuum. Ask the right
  questions of the right people.

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Presenting your project

• Clear and concise- read in 2 minutes
• Clear graphs and visuals- Dont clutter!!
• Proper layout- follow ISEF handbook
• Hypothesis top left- conclusion bottom right
• Colored board
• Display just enough data to make your point
• Use project book for additional data
• Get English teacher to read board
• Fun- humor can help

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Things to avoid!!

• Fancy decorations-
• spend the time on the project instead
• Too many colors-
• Many males are colorblind
• Too much info-
• Judges get overwhelmed
• Too tall-
• Many judges have neck problems

10
Statistics

• Repeated tests
• Mean, std dev., confidence levels
• Computer tests
• understand what its doing
• Graphs
• Error bars

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Talking to judge

• Practice
• Every time you ride with parents
• Mirror
• Know your board- dont read it
• Dress well
• Introduce yourself, shake hands
• Point out problems- or the judges will!!
• Answer with sentence, not yes/no
• Dont try to fake

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Summary

• Need a good attitude
• Choose a project you really like
• Creative idea
• Clear scientific method
• Clear organized presentation