Science Fair Projects

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Science Fair Projects

• Tips for Primary Grades

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Science Fair Projects

• Must be experiments. An experiment is a test to
  find out something.
• Experiments are repeated 3 times.

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Scientific Method

• Judges will not score projects that do not follow
  the scientific method.

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• DO NOT MAKE A VOLCANO

• DO NOT USE THE SOLAR SYSTEM

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What would be a good project?

• Select a good topic.
• Make sure you can investigate.
• Select a topic that interest you!

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Where can I find ideas?

• Television-Watch commercials on TV. Compare
  products that claim to be the best with other
  products that claim to be the best!
• Current Events-look in the newspaper.
• Check out the science section of the media
  center. What do you think is interesting?

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Gather Background Information

• Research your topic from books, magazines, the
  internet, people and companies. Write down your
  findings and your source, where you found the
  information.

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What is the PURPOSE?

• Why is this a project worth doing?
• Why are the results important?
• Who would want to know the results?

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Use the Scientific Method

• Question
• Prediction
• Materials
• Procedure
• Results
• Conclusion

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Question

• What do I want to find out?
• What do I hope to learn?

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Prediction

• Based on what I already know, what do I think
  will happen?

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Materials

• What will I use?

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Procedure

• What will I do?
• As I plan my experiment, I need to identify the
  variables.

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Variables

• The variable is the one factor I wish to change
  (or use in different amounts). Everything is
  given the same conditions except for one factor.
  This factor is my variable. I need to explain
  things I did to make it a controlled experiment.
  Variables are the things that have an effect on
  the experiment.

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Independent Variable

• The independent variable is the one condition
  that you change in the experiment. It is the
  factor that you are comparing or testing. What
  may affect the results of my experiment? Choose
  one variable to change and keep the others the
  same.

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Controlled Variable

• The controlled variables are the conditions that
  need to remain the same during my experiment so
  that they do not affect the results.

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Dependent Variable

• The dependent variable is what happens in the
  experiment because of what was changed. Its
  what you are observing.

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Results

• What actually happened when I conducted the
  experiment?

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Conclusion

• What did I learn? Was my prediction correct or
  should it be rejected?
• Based on my results I learned

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• Be Creative and Start Early

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• Keep your project a secret!
• Good luck and have fun!