Science Fair Projects

1. Science Fair Projects

2. MARK YOUR CALENDARSDO-NOW • Take an Academic Expo Packet from the chair, sit in your “color teams” for centers. Everything on floor except agenda, science fair packet and something to write with • Write the following in your agenda NOW in the correct date. Along with HW on board • Entry forms and contract : February 13 (one per pair) • Purpose and Hypothesis: February 27th (ONE PER STUDENT) • Materials and Procedures: March 13 (ONE PER STUDENT) • Observations and Raw Data: March 27th ( ONE PER STUDENT) • Wait quietly for directions! • The following four checkpoints count as quiz grades! • These are rough drafts which I will correct.. It is your job to take these checkpoints seriously, and the corrections to write your 3 paragraph abstractdue with your trifold!

3. Choose a Topic Pick a topic that: • Will be interesting. • You will be able to complete in the required time. • Hold onto to handout, check my faculty page, and take notice of the large checklist posted outside our hallway to keep on task!

4. Title • Choose a title that reflects your topic and is snappy or creative • For the stretch of it • Acid plants • Mood and Music

5. Purpose • Write 5-8 sentences describing the purpose. Have the following: • Topic Sentence • Describing the project • What you expect to learn • Conclusion Example: Plants grow from the process of photosynthesis. The purpose of this project is to find out if a pea plant will grow taller when given caffeine rather than water. During the course of this project the scientist expects to expand their knowledge of plant life and how it thrives. In conclusion since humans eat pea plants this will be beneficial. DUE: February 27th with hypothesis

6. Use various sources for your research. Suggested sources: Books Magazines Newspapers Internet Research should be designed to get background information about your topic, before you begin your experiment. Research

7. Hypothesis Make your guess • Use your research to make an educated guess about how you think your experiment will turn out. • Use the “ If the scientist does this __________ then this will happen_____” format. “If-then” statement Example: If I pour 100ml of coffee on four pea plants and pour 100ml of water in another four pea plants, then I think the plants with coffee will grow taller because caffeine will stimulate the plants. • Due: February 27th with purpose

8. Procedure • Design your experiment • Design your experiment so that they only test for one thing. • Make sure that you do the same things to all groups of objects being tested. Example: If you are testing plants: • Use the same seeds. • Plant all of them with the same soil. • Put them all in the same amount of light for the same amount of time. • The only thing that should be different about the plants is that one received coffee and the other water. • Manipulated Variable- coffee vs. no coffee • Responding variable- Plant growth • Control Variable- everything else the scientist keeps the same.

9. Procedure • To increase the validity of your experiment • Make sure to keep a control group. • Keep in mind sample size. • The more objects in your sample the more valid your experiment. • Use multiple trials. (At least three.)

10. Procedure • Write down step-by-step directions on how to do your experiment. • Do not leave anything out! • Get 8 pea plants ( 100 cm tall). • Place 4 pea plants on each tray. • Label one set of plants “Caffeine”. • Label the second set “Water”. • Pour 100ml of coffee( with caffeine ) onto the soil of each plant twice a week. • Pour 100ml of water onto the soil of each plant twice a week. • Measure each plant with a metric ruler • Record data in record book.

11. Materials Make a complete list of everything you will use in your experiment. Tell how many and how much of each object used. Use metric measures only. Materials and Procedures due: March 13

12. Do your experiment. Have fun ! Collect your data and observations Measurements, pictures, charts, observations Example: Keep a weekly chart of your plant growth include pictures

13. Make Charts and Graphs • Display data using charts, tables, and graphs. • Choose the correct graphs for your data. • Bar-comparison • Pie-percentage • Line-change/time • Observations and Raw Data: March 27th

14. Conclusion • Include your observations and raw data • Have the following in your paragraph • Topic • Observations and Data- take your charts and pictures and put them in words ( On day two this happened,…., During the experiment it fizzed and….) • Does your hypothesis support your results why or why not • If you were doing this experiment what would you test again • Conclusion sentence

15. Results/Conclusion/Observation/Data • Example Plants are more than humans think! From reading my charts and graphs, I know that Plant Group #1 grew an average of 40cm with 100ml of coffee. Plant Group #2 grew and average of 20cm with 100ml of water. The Plant Group that was given coffee grew 20cm more on the average than the Plant Group that was given water.My hypothesis was supported. The plants that were watered with coffee ( caffeine ) grew taller than those that were given water. Therefore, caffeine has a positive effect on the growth of pea plants. This may be due the fact that caffeine is a stimulant. The caffeine could have stimulated the plant to grow If I could do this experiment again , the variable I would change would be the amount of caffeine I would place in each plant group. I would use 50ml for plant group #1, 100ml for plant group #2, and 150ml for plant group #3. I would also have three “control groups” of plants. One would get 50ml of water. One would get 100ml of water. And one would get 150ml of water. I want to see which amount of caffeine helps plants grow the tallest. In conclusion maybe it should rain coffee!

16. Make Your Board • Start your information on the top left panel of the board, move down the left panel, across the middle panel, and from the top down on the right panel. • Place pictures of your experiment on your board.

17. Make your Board

18. Helpful Resources Science Fair Web Pages http://www.sciencebuddies.org/index_A.htm Best site for help through out project! http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/fair.html This is a good site explaining the parts of a science fair project. http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/jtindell/ A web site for children to use in setting up their science fair project http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral A great site! It has info for parents, teachers, and students. It has project ideas, research tools, and tip sheets for all kinds of projects.

19. Bringing It Together • Reminders • Keys for success: • Make a time-line and stick to it. • Parental support • Organization • Remember you are handing in the check points which I will correct it is your job to take those checkpoints and turn them into a 3 paragraph report with bibliography of your sources • Google and Wikipedia and Yahoo are not sources!

20. Final Project • Your final project is due April 7th • It must include the trifold, presentation, and 3 paragraph report • Paragraph One- Introduction/Purpose/Hypothesis • Paragraph Two- Procedures/Materials written in sentences not list • Paragraph 3- Data/Results/Conclusion • Attached bibliography- examples on page 7. • Use rubric on page 8 to guide your project, that is what you need to succeed!

21. TONIGHT • Tonight read this over at home with your parent/guardian • If you have any questions e-mail me or ask in class so we discuss together • If you have a question changes are someone else does too. • Yes, I want you to do well this is 4 quiz, 1 test, and 1 lab grade • Everyday a checkpoint is late you lose 10 points and you call your mom/dad at work to explain why!