Science Fair Projects

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Science Fair Projects
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3rd Biannual Science Symposium

• Partner project
• Judged by science department with winners in each
  class competing for prizes
• ALL projects will be presented to other science
  students, parents, admin., etc
• Top 10 will have the opportunity to compete in
  the ISU Science Symposium

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Choose a Topic

• Pick a topic that
• Will be interesting.
• You can write a 5 page research paper on.
• You will be able to complete in the required
  time.
• Something that can be experimented on and has a
  relevance to your field

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Paper Specifications

• Must be linked to symposium project in 4th term
• Will be the background, or preliminary research,
  required for you to fully understand your science
  symposium project
• 4-6 pages
• Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins
• Cited in the MLA style
• Minimum of 6 sources
• Of those 6 sources, only 2 can be internet based
• More to come on citations and sourcing (brought
  to you by Mrs. Flott!)

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Important Paper Dates

• Friday, January 24th 5 potential topics due
• Wednesday, January 29th Topics handed back,
  proposals started
• Friday, January 31st Final proposal due
• Friday, February 7th Hard copy sources due,
  interlinear citation sheet due
• Friday, February 28th Works Cited due
• Monday, March 3rd Peer Editing day (3
  required)
• Friday, March 7th Final paper due

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Finalized Proposal (cont.)

• Your finalized proposal must be
• Typed
• 12 point Times New Roman
• Double Spaced
• Bulleted with sections that contain the following
  headings (next slide)

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Finalized Proposals

• Must contain the following
• Title/Topic with necessary background information
• Hypothesis
• Variables
• Constants Controls
• Procedure
• Materials
• Cost Analysis

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Your Board for those who want to get started
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The Board

• Please get out Poster Presentation sheet
• Tri-fold poster board will be used to present
  data at symposium
• Will be provided
• Must be typed
• Typing specification in packet
• Must be self-standing
• Note what must be on tri-fold

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Parts of your Tri-fold
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Title

• Choose a title that reflects your topic and is
  not oversimplified
• Place your name and your partners name
  underneath the main title
• Font specification on sheet

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Abstract/Introduction

• Complete overview of experiment
• Includes purpose, experiment, variables,
  results
• Summary form, less than 250 words
• Absolutely NO pronouns

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Good Abstract/Bad Abstract

• Please refer to the abstract page as we will be
  going over an example of a good abstract vs. a
  bad abstract
• Good why?
• Bad why?

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Hypothesis

• A hypothesis is not an educated guess
• Use your preliminary research to make a
  hypothesis about how you think your experiment
  will turn out.
• Easiest to use the If I __________ then I think
  _____format
• Example If 100 ml of coffee is poured on four
  pea plants and 100 ml of water in another four
  pea plants, then the plants with coffee will grow
  taller as caffeine will stimulate the plants
  growth rate.

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Experimental Procedure

• Design your experiment
• Design your experiment so that they only test for
  one thing.
• CONTROL
• Example If you are testing plants
• Use the same seeds.
• Plant all of them with the same soil.
• Put them all in the same amount of light for the
  same amount of time.
• The only thing that should be different about the
  plants is that one received coffee and the other
  water.

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Procedure

• To increase the validity of your experiment
• Make sure to keep a control group.
• Keep in mind sample size.
• The more objects in your sample the more valid
  your experiment.
• Use multiple trials.

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Procedure

• Write down step-by-step directions on how to do
  your experiment.
• Do not leave anything out.
• Keep sentences short and to the point, do not
  waste room.
• Bullet variables at the end.
• Example

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Procedure

1. Get 8 pea plants ( 100 cm tall).
2. Place 4 pea plants on each tray.
3. Label one set of plants Caffeine.
4. Label the second set Water.
5. Pour 100ml of coffee( with caffeine ) onto the
   soil of each plant twice a week.
6. Pour 100ml of water onto the soil of each plant
   twice a week.
7. Measure each plant with a metric ruler
8. Record data in record book.

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Data/Results

• Meat of presentation
• Should take up the most room
• Should be visually stimulating
• Display data using charts, tables, and graphs.
• Choose the correct graphs for your data.
• Bar-comparison
• Pie-percentage
• Line-change/time
• All measurements must be in metric

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Results

• At the bottom of the results section, write a few
  sentences how your experiment turned out.
  (Summarize your results)
• Example
• From reading my charts and graphs, Plant Group
  1 grew an average of 40cm with 100ml of coffee.
  Plant Group 2 grew and average of 20cm with
  100ml of water. The Plant Group that was given
  coffee grew 20cm more on the average than the
  Plant Group that was given water.

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Conclusion

• Refer back to hypothesis
• Be sure to use the term The hypothesis was/was
  not supported.
• Do not say it was right/wrong.
• Even when your hypothesis was not supported
  information is gained about the topic.
• Use scientific reasoning for conclusion, no
  colloquialism.
• Discuss any errors and how they could have
  contributed to manipulating data

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Future Considerations

• Tell what you would change if you could do the
  experiment again.
• Tell how you might take your experiment to the
  next step.
• Tell what other scientists may be doing with this
  in your particular field
• Still no pronouns if you need help, ask!