TheReport for Your Science Fair Project

  • The purpose of your science fair projectreport is to give you the information to understand why your experiment turns out the way it does.
  • The research portion should include:
  • The history of similar experiments or inventions
  • Definitions of all important words and concepts that describe your experiment
  • Answers to all your background research plan questions
  • Mathematical formulas, if any, that you will need to describe the results of your experiment
  • For every fact or picture in your research paper you should follow it with a citation telling the reader where you found the information. A citation is just the name of the author and the date of the publication placed in parentheses like this: (Author, date). This is called a parenthetical reference when using the MLA format. Its purpose is to document a source briefly, clearly, and accurately.
  • If you copy text from one of your sources, then place it in quotation marks in addition to following it with a citation. Be sure you understand and avoid plagiarism! Do not copy another person's work and call it your own. Always give credit where credit is due!
  • Your final science fair project report paper is to have these sections, in this order:
  • Title page (with the title of your project, your name, and the date)
  • Abstract (An abstract summarizes, in one paragraph (usually), the major aspects of the entire paper in the following prescribed sequence:
  • the question(s) you investigated (or purpose), state the purpose very clearly in the first or second sentence.
  • the experimental design and methods used, clearly express the basic design of the study.
  • the major findingsincludingkey quantitative results.
  • a brief summary of your interpretations and conclusionsclearly state the implications of the answers your results gave you.
  • Report (This part, by itself, should be about two pages)
  • Data – Data tables and graphs, pictures, diagrams
  • Data Analysis – Explain what the data tells you.
  • Results - This should be a detailed explanation of what occurred during the investigation and what this means. What did you find out?
  • Conclusion – The conclusion explains whether the hypothesis is supported by the data or not. Summarize your science fair project results in a few sentences and use this summary to support your conclusion.
  • Include key facts from your background research to help explain your results as needed. State whether your results support or contradict your hypothesis.
  • If appropriate, state the relationship between the independent and dependent variable.
  • Summarize and evaluate your experimental procedure, making comments about its success and effectiveness.
  • Suggest changes in the experimental procedure (or design) and/or possibilities for further study.
  • Works Cited (MLA format) – Here is a great website for questions in text citations and the works cited page.