Successful Science Fair Projects
By Lynne Bleeker(Science teacher, science fair organizer and judge)
A successful science fair project does not have to be expensive or eventerribly time-consuming. However, it does require some planning andcareful thought. Projects become frustrating to students, parents andteachers when they are left to the last minute and thus don't have thechance to be as good as they possibly can. You can't rush good science!
A Science Fair Project display usually asks that you include certainsections. Your particular science fair rules and guidelines may useslightly different words to describe them, but be sure you address each ofthem as you go through your project and then again as you write it up.
Sections of a Science Fair Project
Title
Ideally the title of your project should be catchy, an"interest-grabber," but it should also describe the project wellenough that people reading your report can quickly figure out what youwere studying. You will want to write your Title and Background sectionsAFTER you have come up with a good question to study.
Background or Purpose
The background section is where you include information that youalready know about your subject and/or you tell your project readers whyyou chose the project you did. What were you hoping to find out from theproject?
The Question (Or Selecting Your Subject)
Probably the most difficult part of a science fair project is coming upwith a good subject to research. I suggest to my students that they:
A. think about WHAT INTERESTS them.B. think of a TESTABLE QUESTION about the subject.
If you are doing a project about something that interests you, you willlikely enjoy the research more and stick with it long enough to get somegood data. Remember, you are being a scientist. Scientists go to work each
If you are working to ANSWER A QUESTION, you will be doing real research. (Often students tell me that their parents have suggested doing something such as "volcanoes" or "tornadoes." It is possible to build cute models of these things, but it is pretty hard to come up with questions about them that are testable with materials available to the average person and in the time frame between when the science fair project is assigned and when it is due!) Another problem occurs when students need special equipment to test a question. For example, it might be interesting to find out if television commercials really are louder than regular programming ... but how would you test that without a decible-meter?
Some of the best science fair projects I have seen have also been thesimplest. For example, I had students whose parents bought"off-brands" of cereal. They wondered if those brands were reallyany different from the name brands. They bought 3 or 4 different brands ofthe same type of cereal and asked permission to test them with the wholeclass. They had their peers evaluate them for taste, appearance, andsogginess in milk after 1 minute. They also did a cost comparison. They got a lot of interesting data! (I won't tell you what they foundout in case you want to do something similar!) Other students who likesports have done experiments with the equipment for their sport: Do newtennis balls bounce higher than old ones? Do basketballs that are fullyinflated bounce better than flatter ones? These projects just require sometennis balls or basketballs, some volunteer "bouncers" and a metertape or meter stick!
There are many good sources for science fair project questions. TheNeuroscience For Kids Web Site has some neuroscience-related questionsthat might spark your interest. Projects involving food - tasting,smelling etc - can be very simple to set up yet also very interesting."Can blindfolded people taste the difference between ...?" You canalso get lots of ideas from science trade books, such as Janice VanCleave's books ("Biology for Every Kid" etc). If you browsethrough these books at a store or library, they may give you some ideasfor a project of your own.
Project Guidelines
Be sure to carefully read the project guidelines for your particular science fair. Rules vary greatly from fair to fair in what is allowed, both for safety and ethical/animal use considerations. Obviously, experiments should not involve illegal substances or involve clearly preventable danger to you or your research subjects.
Some situations may require clarification from your teacher and/or parents. For example, suppose you were doing an experiment on the effects of caffeine (or chocolate) on concentration or reflexes. Think about the possible consequences! You would need to get permission before providing large amounts of high-caffeine soda pop. Some science fairs discourage the use of food in experiments because of food allergies. Again, check with your science fair guidebook or your teacher, and be sure you clearly communicate to your (human) research subjects what you will be asking them to consume so they can tell you if they have allergies.
Some science fairs allow experiments with live animals and othersdon't. For example, one classic experiment (found in most olderscience fair project books) involves changing the temperature of fishtank water and seeing what it does to the respiration rate (breathing) ofgoldfish. In some places around the country, that experiment would not beallowed at all. In others, you would need a special permission formguaranteeing that you will take good care of the animal. In other places,they don't yet have such restrictions. Again, use common sense. I oncehad students do a very clever experiment to see if their hamster or theircat could learn to go through a maze more quickly. This experiment,though it had animal subjects, obviously involved no chance of harming thecat or the hamster so I gave them permission to do it. Generally you aresafest if your experiments involve plants or insects, and both types oforganisms can lead to some fascinating studies! If you REALLY want to doan experiment with your pet, be prepared to explain what information youare hoping to gain from the experiment and how you will ensure the safetyof the animal.
Prediction or Hypothesis
As soon as you come up with a testable question, you will probablyinstantly have a hypothesis (prediction) about what the results will befrom your testing. (Isn't the human brain an amazing thing?!) It'sa good idea to write this down before starting, because it may change asyou go about your experimenting.
Materials and Methods
Once you have come up with a question that you can actually test withmaterials at your disposal, you need to figure out how to set up thetests. If you will have a survey for your participants to fill out, getthat written up and duplicated. If you will need a chart to write downyour test results, get it made. If you take the time to make it look nicewith a straight-edge, you can include the actual chart or surveyinstrument in your project write-up. This really impresses the judges!
Let your teacher or science fair coordinator know what your question isand how you plan to go about testing it. They will likely have some goodsuggestions to save you lots of time and trouble. Once you have theirgo-ahead, then make a list of your materials, gather them up and GETSTARTED! If you are really doing science, you will probably find that somethings don't go quite as you had predicted they would. You will haveto modify your research methods or even your original question. You may have to add more materials to your list. My students often getdiscouraged by this, but actually it is a good thing. This is how sciencereally works!
Keep good notes of the things you have tried and plan to include eventhe "didn't-works" and "mess-ups" in your projectreport. Be sure to try your experiment several times to be sure you haveenough data to make a logical conclusion. If you tell me that one brand ofcereal gets soggier in milk but you've only tried each cereal in onecup of milk, I would suspect that maybe it was a fluke; you need lots of"trials" (generally at least 3; the more, the better) forbelievable data. Remember, too, that you want to keep all of theexperimental factors (variables) the same except the one you are testing.In the cereal experiment, it wouldn't be fair to all of the cereals ifyou left one brand in milk for one minute and tried the others after twominutes or something like that. Again, GET STARTED EARLY on carrying outyour project. You can't still be doing the experiment the day beforethe project is due and expect to have a first-class write-up!
In science fair projects as in life, "a picture is worth a thousandwords." Plan to take pictures of the materials you used and of theexperiment as it is being carried out. If you get started early, you willhave time to have the pictures developed and include them as part of yourreport. (Or if you are lucky and your school has cameras that will takepictures and put them right into the computer, you will have time to learnhow to do that and print them out for your report.)
Results or Data
The results section is where you tell your reader the actual numbers(or other data) that you got as you were doing the experiment. (In thetennis ball experiment, this would be a table with the different brands ofballs and the actual heights each of them bounced on each trial.) Youmight also include a graph, if your data lends itself to it. But you donot tell your interpretation of the data - that's for the last section.
Conclusion
In the conclusion you finally get to tell your readers what you foundout from the experiment, or how you interpret your data. Students oftenlike to use this section to expand upon how much they liked doing theexperiment (and how wise the teacher was to require such a goodassignment!) or how much they learned from it ... but really this sectionshould be focused on what you learned about your original question andhypothesis. For example, DID cheaper cereals get soggier in milk faster?
The Display
Project displays tend to be another source of great frustration tostudents, teachers and parents ... but they don't have to be! Again,what you need to do is PLAN AHEAD and then THINK OF YOUR AUDIENCE.Remember that they weren't there when you did the experiment, so whatseems obvious to you will not be obvious to them unless you make itextremely clear.
Check to see if your science fair has any special rules to guide yourdisplay. For example, are there rules about the size of your display?Ideally, choose a display board that is cardboard and a"tri-fold," meaning that it folds into a middle and two sidesections. This shape is the most stable and will stand up in the sciencefair display. These boards can be ordered from supply companies and arealso usually available at stores like Office Depot. Check and see if yourschool has some from last year that can be re-used. This is good for theenvironment and for your pocketbook! I strongly advise against theflimsier posterboard, which tends to fall down easily and irritatesteachers and judges. Also avoid wood backboards, which are VERY difficultto transport!
Once you have written or typed up all of the above sections, be sureyou have TITLES for each section that are large and legible (I'dsuggest 24 point or so on the computer). That way if people have questionsabout some part of your project, they can go right to the section theyneed to answer their question. Arrange the sections of the report on theboard in a way that is attractive and also logical. The purpose andhypothesis should be easy to see right away. An art teacher can give yousome good suggestions about how to use paper of different colors to drawattention to parts of the report and make it look terrific!
Other Science Fair Web Sites
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