Science Fair Project

Choose a Topic Pick a topic that will be interesting and will be able to be completed on time.

Title Choose a title that reflects your topic and is in the form a question. Example: How does vinegar affect a penny?

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 what will happen when vinegar is placed along side a penny.

Research Research should be completed to learn background information about your topic. This will help you complete the experiment accurately. Develop 3 questions that you want to answer about your topic. Use a variety of sources for your research. Use books and the internet. Save the URL into a word document so you have the website’s address.

Does the penny get cleaner? Does the penny rust? Is there a chemical or physical reaction with the penny and the vinegar?

Hypothesis Make your guess Use your research to make an educated guess about how you think your experiment will turn out. The If… then format must be used. “ If I __________ then _____”format Example: If a penny is placed on a paper towel that contains 20 drops of vinegar, then the penny will increase in luster.

Procedure Design your experiment Design your experiment so that it only tests for one variable. Make sure all other variables are controlled. 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. (At least three.)

Procedure Example: If you are testing pennies and vinegar: Use the same luster of penny. Use the same brand and type of vinegar. Use the same amount of vinegar.

Do not leave anything out! Procedure Write down step-by-step directions on how to do your experiment. Do not leave anything out! Write everything down so that another scientist can replicate your experiment exactly as you have completed the experiment.

Materials Pennies Vinegar Paper towel Petri dishes

Procedure Get 1 pennies of similar luster. Place paper towel into petri dish Drop 20 drops of vinegar onto the paper towel Place 1 of the pennies in a petri dish on a paper towel Place petri dishes is a safe place for 24 hours. Compare the 1 pennies from the petri dish to the pennies that were not placed in the petri dish. Record data

Do your experiment. The experiment may need to be completed multiple times to be sure correct results are made.

Display data using charts, tables, and graphs. 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 Pie-percentage Line-change/time

Results Using your data write a few sentences how your experiment turned out.

Conclusion Write down why you think your experiment turned out the way it did, include if your hypothesis was supported or not. Be sure to use the term “ My hypothesis was/was not supported. Do not say I was right/wrong. Even when your hypothesis was not supported you gain information about your topic. Use scientific reasoning for conclusion.

Conclusion Example: My hypothesis was supported. The plants that were watered with coffee ( caffeine ) grew taller than those that were given water. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Bringing It Together Keys for success: Make a time-line and stick to it. Parental support Organization

Parent note needs to be signed Print copy of PowerPoint to be used for students To take notes on Time line give to students—put on blog