CCPS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR STUDENT SUPPORT SESSION

CCPS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR STUDENT SUPPORT SESSION Janetta Greenwood, K-12 Science Coordinator D’Anna Muhammad, K-12 Science Instructional Lead Tiffany Christian, K-12 Science Instructional Lead Dr. Yolanda White, CCPS DSEF Program Manager

RESEARCH THAT INVOLVES IDENTIFYING AN IMPORTANT ISSUE TO EXPLORE OR PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED. A STRUCTURED RESEARCH PROCESS IS FOLLOWED, ENGAGEMENT IN REFLECTION THROUGHOUT THE PROCESS, AND ADHERENCE TO STRICT ETHICAL STANDARDS. THE RESEARCH MAY HAVE BENEFITS FOR INDIVIDUALS, GROUPS, AND SOCIETY. What is an Authentic Science Research Project?

A Successful Science Project: • Represents student work • Shows careful planning • Includes a complete record – i.e., journal • Includes photos, charts, pictures, etc. • Has accurate, valid, and correct observations • Is attractive and organized • Is applicable/relevant to society

What does authentic research look like? • Biotechnology Research Project • Biotech Research

STAGES OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

CHOOSING A TOPIC... • LOOK AT THE FOLLOWING VIDEO. • THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT THE SUBJECT AND HOW IT RELATES TO YOUR OWN LIFE AND WORLD.

Choose a topic that is interesting. • At this stage your topic can be broad Generating Ideas Search for ideas on the internet around the topic. • Look for scientific research journal articles around selected topic. • Look for general information about the entity you might study and the items you might manipulate within the experiment. Watch the Discovery Channel, National Geographic, etc. for a couple of days to help generate topic ideas • Reflect on a topic you heard about on television that piqued you interest. Think about issues your family deals with. • Maybe there are personal reasons why you might be interested in a specific topic. Review science or math books, magazines such as Science News, or encyclopedias for inspiration. • Reviewing a science or math book, magazines such as Science News, or encyclopedias can lead to great inspiration for a research project.

Browsing science supply catalogs (such as those from companies like Carolina Biological Supply or Flinn Scientific) • Explore the different live specimens, chemicals, and apparatus that you could purchase or borrow. • This will help you to understand realistically what they are able to test and accomplish in a classroom. GENERATING IDEAS Create a list of lab skills you have already learned. • Write how you might use those skills in a research study? • Are there other skills that could be easily learned that you would like to try? Review available equipment in your school that you could check out to use at home or use within the school’s lab. • This informs you as to what you have the capacity to do within the confines of the school lab. Read 3-5 journal articles regarding your topic of interest. • This helps you to become more familiar with your topic. • It also lays the ground work for your literature review and citing sources. • Pull out the purpose of the research, the hypothesis, and the findings and the conclusion. (CER: claim, evidence, and reasoning)

LET’S PRACTICE! • HTTPS://WWW.SCIENCENEWSFORSTUDENTS.ORG/

DO NOW... • THINK ABOUT A TOPIC THAT YOU HAVE IN MIND FOR YOUR RESEARCH. • GENERATE A LIST OF 10 KEY WORDS/SEARCH ITEMS RELATED TO YOUR TOPIC.

Research Topic Search • Review your search results and select the most relevent resources.

NOW CONDUCT INDEPENDENT OR TEAM BRAINSTORMING ON AN ISSUE OR PROBLEM YOU’RE CONSIDERING FOR YOUR RESEARCH.

MAKING CONNECTIONS.. • CONNECT YOUR TOPICS TO YOUR PRIOR KNOWLEDGE. INCLUDE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES ALONG WITH FACTUAL KNOWLEDGE. • NARROW THE TOPICS DOWN TO 2-4 THAT YOU ARE MOST INTERESTED IN RESEARCHING FURTHER.

MAKING CONNECTIONS.. • REFLECT ON YOUR CHARTS/ORGANIZERS FROM THE PREVIOUS ACTIVITY. FOR EACH TOPIC, WRITE AS MANY QUESTIONS AS YOU CAN ABOUT EACH TOPIC THAT WOULD BE USED FOR FURTHER RESEARCH. YOU MAY WANT TO TURN ANY OF YOUR STATEMENTS INTO QUESTIONS TO ASSIST WITH THIS PROCESS. • THESE QUESTIONS WILL GUIDE YOUR PRELIMINARY RESEARCH TO BUILD BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE, AND ULTIMATELY PROVIDE A FOCUS FOR YOUR PROJECT

THE ART OF QUESTIONING...

WRITING A RESEARCHABLE INQUIRY QUESTION... • USING THE QUESTIONS YOU GENERATED IN THE LAST ACTIVITY, COMPLETE THELOOKING AT QUESTIONS ACTIVITY. • REVIEW YOUR WORK FROM ALL OF THE ACTIVITIES TODAY. • BEGIN TO FORMULATE A RESEARCHABLE GUIDING INQUIRY QUESTION. • ONCE YOU BELIEVE YOU HAVE A RESEARCHABLE QUESTION, APPLY THEEVALUATING A RESEARCH QUESTION TOOL TO YOUR QUESTION, AND REVISE YOUR QUESTION AS NECESSARY. • IF POSSIBLE, STUDENT RESEARCHERS SHOULD PEER REVIEW EACH OTHER'S QUESTION USING THE "EVALUATING A RESEARCH QUESTION" TOOL IN ORDER TO CONTINUE REFINING THEIR RESEARCH QUESTION.

Now that I have Chosen a topic… • Keep a record of where all the information came from!!! • READ!!! all of the information you can find on your topic. • LOCATE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL ARTICLES THAT RELATE TO YOUR TOPIC

Your Question Can the question be answered by making observations, collecting data, making measurements, changing variables? Can we narrow the question to look at a single thing (fair testing)? Can we conduct the investigation safely? Do we have or can we acquire the necessary materials? Does the investigation fit my developmental level?

RESEARCH RESOURCES • ONLINE RESEARCH FRAMEWORK- HTTP://WWW.BCPS.ORG/OFFICES/LIS/RESEARCHCOURSE/STEPS.HTML • SCIENCE JOURNAL FOR KIDS-HTTP://WWW.SCIENCEJOURNALFORKIDS.ORG/ • KIDS FRONTIERS-HTTPS://KIDS.FRONTIERSIN.ORG/ • NSTA PUBLICATIONS-HTTP://WWW.NSTA.ORG/PUBLICATIONS/BROWSE_JOURNALS.ASPX?ACTION=ISSUE&ID=93159 • GOOGLE SCHOLAR- HTTPS://SCHOLAR.GOOGLE.COM/

Questions????

CCPS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING FAIR STUDENT SUPPORT SESSION