Science Fair Project (Place title of your project here) THE DRAGONS Decide on theme of entire PowerPoint Pick a catchy title Insert a graphic that will be used throughout Make sure you put your name on this slide Your name should be here

Problem State the Purpose of the Project here Write a statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and questions to write the statement.

Identify Variables · Based on your gathered information, make an educated guess about what types of things affect the system you are working with.

Hypothesis Statement Form a Hypothesis · A hypothesis is a question which has been reworded into a form that can be tested by an experiment. · There is usually one hypothesis for each question you have. · You must do at least one experiment to test each hypothesis. This is a very important step.

Design Experiments to Test Your Hypothesis · For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it must have a "control." A control is a neutral "reference point" for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable does by comparing it to not changing anything. · Experiments are often done many times to guarantee that what you observe is reproducible, or to obtain an average result.

Some Guidelines for Experimental Procedures · Select only one thing to change in each experiment. Things that can be changed are called variables. · Change something that will help you answer your questions. The procedure must tell how you will change this one thing. · The procedure must explain how you will measure the amount of change.  Each experiment should have a "control" for comparison that you can see what the change actually did.

Materials and Equipment · Make a list of the things you need to do the experiment, and describe their preparation.

Experiments and Data · As you do experiments, record all numerical measurements made. · If you are not making any measurements, you probably are not doing an experimental science project.

Your Observations and Calculations · Observations can be written descriptions of what you noticed during an experiment, or problems encountered. · Keep careful notes of everything you do and everything that happens. · Do any calculations needed from your raw data to obtain the numbers you need to draw your conclusions.

Lessons Learned Draw Conclusions · Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your original questions. · Other Things You Can Mention in the Conclusion If your hypothesis is not correct, what could be the answer to your question? Summarize any difficulties or problems you had doing the experiment. Do you need to change the procedure and repeat your experiment? What would you do different next time? List other things you learned

Bibliography A bibliography is an alphabetical list of all the sources used in your research. Sources are alphabetized by author or by title if no author is given. Books: One Author: Hoving, Thomas. Tutankhamun. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978. More than One Author : Cooper, Robert K. and Leslie L. Cooper. Low-Fat Living. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1996. No Author Given: The Amazing Universe. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society, 1991. PERIODICALS: Begley, Sharon. "A Healthy Dose of Laughter." Newsweek 4 Oct. 1987: 65. "A Walk Across America: Part II." National Geographic August, 1979: 52. PERIODICALS ONLINE: "Human Cloning?".  Maclean's 28 December 1998: 110.  [Online] Available http://nettrekker.com           March 21, 2000. NEWSPAPER: Collins, Glenn. "Single Father Survey." New York Times 21 November 1986: 20. "Low Cholesterol Level Key." Providence Journal-Bulletin 24 November 1987: A6.

Samples continued ENCYCLOPEDIA ARTICLES: Print and CD-ROM: "Animal Rights." World Book Encyclopedia. 1990 edition. Stemple, James. "Solar Energy." Book of Popular Science. 1990. "Wyoming." Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia. CD-ROM, 1996 edition. PAMPHLET: (Usually the same as book with no author given) Smoking and Your Lungs. Providence, Rhode Island: American Lung Association, 1991. ONLINE SERVICES and the INTERNET: Gordon, Daniel. "Acid Rain." Compton's Living Encyclopedia. [Online] America Online. Mar. 6, 1997. "Plant Extracts."  [Online] Available http://www.sciences.com/scidata/edu.html  February 23, 1997. Other examples: Research Central

Required Sources One Media Center Book One Media Center Reference Source One Online Encyclopedia One Periodical online from Galileo Searchasaurus Plus One SIRS Article from Galileo One website obtained from Galileo or Nettrekker One website from Google with a filled out evaluation.

Save your work Look for interesting pictures for your slides and save them to the folder on the Mac’s LaCie ‘d’ drive or the PC’s Patron drive. Take notes from this work for your slides by typing in Word or copying and pasting from a web site. BeWARE of plagiarism (put notes in your own words no copying word for word!)

Are you ready to conquer your fears?

Can you find these in the Media Center? Card catalog? HMS Magazines? Non-Fiction Books? Reference Encylcopedias? Reference Science Sets? Your Subject? Galileo-don’t forget your password? NetTrekker-don’t forget your login? Google-best place for images on the web? Where to save your work?

Question: What would be worse than being covered with 50 tarantulas? Look for interesting pictures for your slides as you go along!