What Makes a Great Math and Science Fair Project?

Three Main Components Log book Display BoardFormal Report

Start a Log Book A log book must accompany every math or science fair entry. The log book is simply a diary. It must have dates listed and what you did on each day. The log book should be separate from the formal report.

Log Book or Journal Entries All entries in the log book or journal should be dated with complete entries by each date: NO ……. Day 1: I read a book YES… October 24, 2003… I checked out the book Space from the library and read the chapter about Mars. Record all important information…whatever it is.

Step #1 Research Make a list of Math or Science Fair topics that you would like to try. Choose your favorite and research the topic. Find out all that you can and record your information. Make sure to record the books, websites, or magazines that you used in the research. These may be listed in your bibliography if required.

Step # 2 Title Create a title for your experiment. The title should be catchy and interesting. It should be directly related to the purpose. The title should follow capitalization rules and be written large enough to read across a room.

Step #3 Purpose Develop and write a purpose. What are you trying to prove (or answer) by doing the experiment? Example: The purpose of Is It Really Green? is to find out which brand of magic marker uses only yellow and blue dye to make green markers.

Step #4 Hypothesis A hypothesis is a statement of what you think will happen as a result of the experiment. The hypothesis should be made based on the research that you have done. My hypothesis is that Crayola brand magic markers use only yellow and blue dye to make green markers.

NEVER NEVER Change the Hypothesis A math or science project is not wrong because you did not make a correct hypothesis!

Step #5 Materials anyoneanything Develop a list of all the materials and supplies that were needed in order to conduct the experiment. Include anyone and anything that you used. The materials used to conduct the experiment Is It Really Green? were…….

Step # 6 Procedures Conduct the experiment...more than one time. As you do make a procedures list and record the data. step-by-step instructions These are step-by-step instructions of how to do the experiment. The steps should be numbered, in order, and in complete sentences. The procedures that we used to conduct the experiment Your Feet or Mine? Your Feet or Mine? were: 1. We gathered our materials. 2. We measured the feet of each boy and girl. 3. We recorded the data on our chart. 4. We investigated the data to see if the girls or boys had the largest feet.

Recording Data While you are doing the experiment you should constantly record data on a chart, table, or graph. You should repeat the experiment at least three times before you reach a conclusion.

Step # 7 Results Results should include graphs, tables, and charts as well as written information. The results are the outcome of the experiment...What actually happened? Results should include graphs, tables, and charts as well as written information. Photos can be used but can not contain the student’s face. Your Feet or Mine? The results of Your Feet or Mine? were that the boys had larger feet on average than the girls.

Step # 8 Conclusion The conclusion is a statement telling whether your hypothesis was proven true or false. My conclusion is that my hypothesis was proven false. Girls did not have larger feet than boys.

Step # 9 Writing an Abstract An abstract is a vital part of the formal report. It is a three-paragraph paper describing the experiment. Paragraph one includes the title, purpose, and hypothesis. Paragraph two contains the materials and procedures. Paragraph three contains the results and conclusion. There should be no spelling or grammatical errors.

Abstract The title of our experiment is “Hands Down?”. The purpose of our experiment is to find out who has the longer index fingers; girls or boys. Our hypothesis is that the boys will have longer index fingers than the girls. The materials that we used to conduct the experiment were: a centimeter ruler, boys and girls in our class, a pencil, and a record chart. The procedures that we used to conduct the experiment were: 1. Gather materials. 2. Measure both index fingers of each boy and girl. 3. Record measurements on our chart. 4. Investigate the data to see who has the longest index fingers. (Our teacher helped us average the data.) The results of our experiment showed that the boys in our class had longer index fingers, on average, than the girls. Our conclusion is that our hypothesis was true. The boys did have longer index fingers than the girls.

Formal Report Title page Abstract Table of Contents Acknowledgements Purpose Hypothesis Background Information Materials and Procedures Results (including data) Conclusion Bibliography

Display Board

The display board must contain the following: Title Purpose Hypothesis Materials Procedure Results…must contain photos, charts, or graphs Conclusion