Dear Parents,

Soon your child will be taking part in an exciting school event- a science fair. Science fairs offer children experiences in exploring beyond the classroom to understand more about their world. Investigating a selected science topic in detail can open up new vistas and a new appreciation for not only this planet but the worlds beyond!

We would like to invite you to work along with your child as he or she selects, investigates and reports on an appropriate area of science. With your interest and your encouragement your child can develop the skills and attitudes he or she needs to make this project a valuable experience. But do encourage your child to do most, if not all, of the work. Parents sometimes want to build an entire project, to make it “perfect.” It is more important that your child wrestle with problems and try to solve them, because learning is in the doing. Guide your child whenever and wherever you can, but please let the final project reflect your child’s individual effort and design.

In order to help you and your child prepare for the science fair, we will be sending home information regarding possible topics, types of research and project requirements. Please take the time to review these materials with your child.

Your child’s success in our science fair will not be measured by ribbons, trophies, or certificates. Your child will succeed by learning and understanding more about science and how scientists work. The real goal of the science fair is stimulating your child’s curiosity about the world.

We look forward to your participation in our science fair on Thursday, May 19th from 9:00-10:30 AM in the Smith School Gymnasium.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Lander, Miss Schott and Miss Yoo

P.S. If your child needs help forming an idea for their science project, try going to these links:

Successful Science Fair Projects

A successful science fair project does not have to be expensive or even terribly time-consuming. However, it does require some planning and careful thought. Projects become frustrating to students, parents and teachers when they are left to the last minute and thus don't have the chance to be as good as they possibly can. You can't rush good science!

Our Science Fair Project display must include certain sections.

Experimental:

  • Title
  • Purpose
  • Experimental Design (Procedure)
  • Background Information including problem and hypothesis (The question)
  • Results, including tables and/or graphs of data
  • Conclusion(s)
  • Written Report
  • Log book with observations and notes
  • Equipment-samples or other items from your experiment
  • Acknowledgment of assistance

Non-Experimental Project Requirements:

  • Title
  • Labels and/or identifications of parts
  • Background information
  • Informational statements
  • Pictures and/or photographs
  • Written report
  • Your model, collection, demonstration equipment or invention
  • Acknowledgment of assistance

Please display all information on a large tri-fold display board

Non-Experimental:

These types of projects require a lot of research. The project must “tell a story” and the student should understand the topic indepth.

  • Model-an entry which shows how various parts work together to accomplish the purpose for which it was designed. For example how the leaf of a plant functions or how an engine works.
  • Demonstration-an entry which explains a principle or law found in the physical creation or in mathematical realms, such as why objects appear to lose weight when placed under water.
  • Collection- An entry which classifies and displays items gathered from nature. It can include various types of rocks and minerals, insects or shells. This type of entry focuses on how items are classified and on landmark information used to classify.
  • Invention- An entry which is unique item developed by the student representing a past, present or futuristic creation. This also will show how various parts work together to accomplish the purpose for which they were designed.

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 well enough that people reading your report can quickly figure out what you were studying. You will want to write your Title and Background sections AFTER you have come up with a good question to study.

Background or Purpose

The background section is where you include information that you already know about your subject and/or you tell your project readers why you chose the project you did. What were you hoping to find out from the project?

The Question (Or Selecting Your Subject)

Probably the most difficult part of a science fair project is coming up with a good subject to research. We suggest that students:

A. think about WHAT INTERESTS them.

B. think of a TESTABLE QUESTION about the subject.

If you are doing a project on something that interests you, you will likely enjoy the research more and stick with it long enough to get some good data. Remember, you are being a scientist. Scientists go to work each day because they are interested in what they are studying and because they are curious to know the answers to the questions they are researching.

If you are working to ANSWER A QUESTION, you will be doing real research. (Often students want to do projects 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 decibel meter?

Some of the best science fair projects have also been the simplest. For example, if you wondered if no name brands of cereal were really any different from the name brands, you could buy 3 or 4 different brands of the same type of cereal and ask permission to test them with the whole class. Your peers could evaluate them for taste, appearance, and sogginess in milk after 1 minute. You could also do a cost comparison. You could gather a lot of interesting data!

Other students who like sports have done experiments with the equipment for their sport: Do new tennis balls bounce higher than old ones? Do basketballs that are fully inflated bounce better than flatter ones? These projects just require some tennis balls or basketballs, some volunteer "bouncers" and a meter tape or meter stick!

There are many good sources for science fair project questions. The Neuroscience For Kids Web Site has some neuroscience-related questions that 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 can also get lots of ideas from science trade books, such as Janice Van Cleave's books ("Biology for Every Kid" etc). If you browse through these books at a store or library, they may give you some ideas for a project of your own.

Prediction or Hypothesis

As soon as you come up with a testable question, you will probably instantly have a hypothesis (prediction) about what the results will be from your testing. (Isn't the human brain an amazing thing?!) It's a good idea to write this down before starting, because it may change as you go about your experimenting.

Materials and Methods

Once you have come up with a question that you can actually test with materials at your disposal, you need to figure out how to set up the tests. If you will have a survey for your participants to fill out, get that written up and duplicated. If you will need a chart to write down your test results, get it made. If you take the time to make it look nice with a straight-edge, you can include the actual chart or survey instrument in your project write-up.

Keep good notes of the things you have tried and plan to include even the "didn't-works" and "mess-ups" in your project report. Be sure to try your experiment several times to be sure you have enough data to make a logical conclusion. If you report that one brand of cereal gets soggier in milk but you've only tried each cereal in one cup of milk, we would suspect that maybe it was a fluke; you need lots of "trials" (generally at least 3; the more, the better) for believable data. Remember, too, that you want to keep all of the experimental factors (variables) the same except the one you are testing. In the cereal experiment, it wouldn't be fair to all of the cereals if you left one brand in milk for one minute and tried the others after two minutes or something like that. Again, GET STARTED EARLY on carrying out your project. You can't still be doing the experiment the day before the project is due and expect to have a first-class write-up!

In science fair projects as in life, "a picture is worth a thousand words." Plan to take pictures of the materials you used and of the experiment as it is being carried out. If you get started early, you will have time to have the pictures developed and include them as part of 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 the tennis ball experiment, this would be a table with the different brands of balls and the actual heights each of them bounced on each trial.) You might also include a graph, if your data lends itself to it. But you do not 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 found out from the experiment, or how you interpret your data. Students often like to use this section to expand upon how much they liked doing the experiment (and how wise the teacher was to require such a good assignment!) or how much they learned from it ... but really this section should be focused on what you learned about your original question and hypothesis. For example, DID cheaper cereals get soggier in milk faster?

The Display

Project displays tend to be another source of great frustration to students, 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 what seems obvious to you will not be obvious to them unless you make it extremely clear.

Choose a display board that is cardboard and a "tri-fold," meaning that it folds into a middle and two side sections. This shape is the most stable and will stand up in the science fair display. These boards can be ordered from supply companies and are also usually available at stores like Office Depot.

Once you have written or typed up all of the above sections, be sure you have TITLES for each section that are large and legible ( 24 point or so on the computer). That way if people have questions about some part of your project, they can go right to the section they need to answer their question. Arrange the sections of the report on the board in a way that is attractive and also logical. The purpose and hypothesis should be easy to see right away.

The most important thing for you to remember is to research a topic that YOU are interested in and to get started right away! Oh yeah, and also…Have fun!

Science Fair Date: May 19th From 9:00-10:30 in the Gymnasium

Completed Projects Due: May 17th

WEEK 1 Topic Ideas Due April 1

  • Choose a topic or problem to investigate
  • Check for resources
  • Gather written material on topic. Remember to write down all sources of information used.
  • Begin designing experiments or models
  • Begin putting information together
  • Start collections or experiments
  • Describe your statement or purpose
  • State your hypothesis if doing an experiment

BRING TO CLASS YOUR:

  • Topic title
  • Statement or hypothesis
  • Plan for completing this theory or model
  • By: April 6th

WEEKS 2 -4

  • Begin building your model
  • Plan your procedure for your investigation
  • Begin investigating
  • Design all visual aids
  • Take any pictures you may need
  • Complete your research
  • Develop an outline for your writing
  • Begin first draft of written report

BRING TO CLASS YOUR:

  • Outline for your written report
  • Actual procedure list and notes
  • By:May 4th

WEEK 5 and 6

  • Continue collecting materials and items for display
  • Finalize your experiments and draw conclusions
  • Set up apparatus and test it
  • Complete experiment and record data
  • Assemble graphs and charts
  • Complete your display board

BRING TO CLASS YOUR FINISHED SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT:May 17th

Name______Due Date: 4/6

Science Fair

What is your topic title?

______

Write a statement or hypothesis that goes along you’re your topic. ______

______

What is your plan for completing this theory or research?

First:______Then:______

Next:______

Then:______

Finally:______

Name______DUE FRIDAY 4/1

List your possible topics in order of your preference! If you choose Non-Experimental list the way you think you will present the information. (Model, Demonstration, Collection)

Possible Topic / What do you want to learn? Why are you choosing this idea? / Experimental or Non- experimental

Science Fair Outline



Science Fair Outline