Science Fair Project Description (5th Grade)
You will need to purchase a 36” x 48” tri-fold poster board. On the poster board you will need to include the following sections:
Background Information
The background information section should contain information about your topic. An example is, if you were doing an experiment on what brand of paper towel is the strongest, in your background information section you could include information about what affects the strength of a material.
This section should be written as a paper. It needs to be 16 sentences, double spaced. The font size is 12 and the style is Times New Roman. It also needs to include a bibliography that list 3 sources.
Title of Experiment
The title of your experiment should give your audience an idea of what your experiment is about. An example is, for the paper towel experiment, I may choose the title “Strongest Paper Towel”. Your title may be done by hand, but it should be large and easy to read. If you decide to type your title it should be in size 150 font or greater.
Question
The question is what you are trying to answer by doing this experiment. In the paper towel experiment my question could be: What brand of paper towel is the strongest? Your question should be typed and in size 72 font so that it is easy to read.
Hypothesis
This section is where you write what you think is the correct answer to your question. In the paper towel experiment my hypothesis could be: That Brawny paper towel will be the strongest. Then include why you think your hypothesis is correct. Your background information may help you with this. This should also be typed using Times New Roman font size 12 and double spaced.
Materials List
The poster board needs to include a list of all the materials needed to complete your experiment. Try to be as detailed as possible. This needs to be typed using Times New Roman font size 12 and double spaced. Remember, it is a list not a paragraph.
Independent and Dependent Variable
Identify what the dependent and independent variables are in your experiment. It should be typed and setup similar to the example below.
Independent Variable:
Dependent Variable:
Step by Step Procedure
In this section you need to tell your audience exactly how you did your experiment. It can be in the form of a list. It should be typed using Times New Roman font size 12 and double spaced.
Results
The results need to tell your audience what happened when you did your experiment. It should also include if your hypothesis was correct. Be sure to explain why your hypothesis was correct; if it was not correct explain how your experiment proved your hypothesis wrong. This section should be a minimum of 8 sentences and should be typed. It should be typed using Times New Roman font size 12 and double spaced.
Limitations
This section should include what changes you would make if you did this experiment another time. Were there any problems with your experiment? How could you make the experiment better? The paper towel experiment was flawed, because each piece of paper towel was not the same size and when testing the strength, they were not held the same way. This section should be a minimum of 6 sentences. It should be typed using Times New Roman size 12 font and double spaced.
Pictures, Chart, & Graph
This section needs to include pictures of your experiment. You also need to have a chart that shows all the information you collected while doing your experiment. The last thing you need in this section is a graph. It can be any kind of graph (bar graph, line graph, or pie graph). The graph and chart may be done by hand or you can type them. If you do the graph by hand, it must be done on graph paper. They need to be large enough, so that they can be read easily.
Layout of Poster Board
You have a drawing in your notebook from class that shows you exactly where to place each one of these sections on your poster board. Please refer to that drawing and make sure that everything is in the proper place. You must label each of the following sections: hypothesis, materials list, procedure, background information, results, and limitations. The label for each section should be in size 36 font.