Science Fair Projects

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Science Fair Projects
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Choose a Topic

• Pick a topic that
• Will be interesting.
• You will be able to complete in the required
  time.

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Problem (Ask a Question)

• Write a Question that reflects your topic.
• Examples
• How does caffeine affect the growth of a plant?
• What is the best stain remover?
• How does a microwave affect the reception of cell
  phones?

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Purpose

• Write 1 to 3 sentences describing what you want
  to find out in this project.
• Example The purpose of this project is to find
  out if a pea plant will grow taller when given
  caffeine rather than water.
• This part is needed for your CONCLUSION.

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Research

• Research should be designed to get background
  information about your topic, before you begin
  your experiment.

• Develop 3 questions that you want to answer about
  your topic.
• Try to use various sources for your research.
• Suggested sources (you need three!)
• Books
• Magazines
• Newspapers
• Internet

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Hypothesis

• Make your guess
• Use your research to make an educated guess about
  how you think your experiment will turn out.
• Use the If __________ then _________ because
  ___________format
• Example If I pour 100ml of coffee on four pea
  plants and pour 100ml of water on another four
  pea plants, then I think the plants with coffee
  will grow taller because the caffeine will
  stimulate the plants.

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Procedure

• Design your experiment
• Design your experiment so that they only test for
  one thing.
• Make sure that you do the same things to all
  groups of objects being tested.
• 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 as many controls as you can
• Keep in mind sample size.
• The more objects in your sample the more valid
  your experiment.
• Use multiple trials. (At least FIVE.)

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Procedure

• Write down step-by-step directions on how to do
  your experiment.
• Do not leave anything out!
• Be SPECIFIC!

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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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Materials

• Make a complete list of everything you will use
  in your experiment.
• Tell how many and how much of each object used.
• Use metric measures only. (look in the back of
  your agenda for the metric system if you dont
  know!)

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Write your VARIABLES

• Independent Variable liquid poured on plant
• Dependent Variable growth of plant
• Controls same plant, same soil and same amount
  of sunlight

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Do your experiment.
Have fun !
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Make Charts and Graphs

• Display data using charts, tables, and graphs.
• Use the Graph Club or Inspiration program.
• Choose the correct graphs for your data.
• Bar-comparison/amounts
• Pie-percentage
• Line-change/time

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Results

• Using your data write a paragraph about how your
  experiment turned out.
• Example
• From reading my charts and graphs, I
  know that 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

• Write a CONCLUSION PARAGRAPH.
• 1st Sentence Purpose of the experiment.
• 2nd Sentence Summarize your chart or graph.
• 3rd Sentence Be sure to use the term My
  hypothesis was/was not supported. Do not say I
  was right/wrong.
• 4th Sentence Indicate errors encountered during
  the experiment and suggest improvements.
• 5th Sentence Suggest future considerations.

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Future Considerations

• Tell what variable you would change if you could
  do the experiment again.
• Tell how you might take your experiment to the
  next step.

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Conclusion

• Example
• The purpose of this project is to find out
  if a pea plant will grow taller when given
  caffeine rather than water. The plants that were
  watered with coffee ( caffeine ) grew taller than
  those that were given water. The hypothesis that
  if I pour 100ml of coffee on four pea plants and
  pour 100ml of water on another four pea plants,
  then the plants with coffee will grow taller
  because the caffeine will stimulate the plants
  was supported. Therefore, caffeine has a positive
  effect on the growth of pea plants. This may be
  due the fact that caffeine is a stimulant. The
  caffeine could have stimulated the plant to grow.

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Future Considerations

• Example
• If I could do this experiment again , the
  variable I would change would be the amount of
  caffeine I would place in each plant group. I
  would use 50ml for plant group 1, 100ml for
  plant group 2, and 150ml for plant group 3. I
  would also have three control groups of plants.
  One would get 50ml of water. One would get
  100ml of water. And one would get 150ml of
  water. I want to see which amount of caffeine
  helps plants grow the tallest.

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Make Your Board

• Start your information on the top left panel of
  the board, move down the left panel, across the
  middle panel, and from the top down on the right
  panel.
• Place pictures of your experiment on your board.

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Make your Board
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Helpful Resources

• Science Fair Web Pages
• http//www.sciencebuddies.org/index_A.htm
• Best site for help through out project!
• http//faculty.washington.edu/chudler/fair.html
• This is a good site explaining the parts of a
  science fair project.
• http//edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/jtindell/
• A web site for children to use in setting up
  their science fair project
• http//school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral
• A great site! It has info for parents, teachers,
  and students. It has project ideas, research
  tools, and tip sheets for all kinds of projects.