ESKOM CAPE TOWN EXPO FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTS EXPO WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS 2013

1. ESKOM CAPE TOWN EXPO FOR YOUNG SCIENTISTSEXPO WORKSHOPS FOR TEACHERS 2013

2. Extra information for teachers • Teacher involvement • Scientific method • Categories • Successful projects • Judging & Rubrics • Research plans & abstracts • Plagiarism & ethics • Dates

3. Teachers – what do you need to do? • Feb/March: Approve the research plan inc. topic and focus question • March – May: 1. Teachers to mentor learners. 2. Check their progress regularly. 3. Evaluate projects in pieces • May: Bring workshops kids to Mini Expo • June - July: Evaluate project progress & select your school’s top projects to bring to Expo • July: enter your school’s projects into Cape Town Expo. Double check projects’ ethics • Help the learners to upgrade their projects before bringing them to Expo • Distribute information (refer to the Expo calendar)

4. Scientific Method

5. *CATEGORIES • Expo has 25 categories and a project must fit into one of the categories • There are categories for Gd 6 & 7 (Primary), Gd 8 & 9 (Junior) and Gd 10,11 & 12 (Senior). • Learners can enter their own individual projects or two learners can work together and enter a group project • A learner may only enter ONE project in ONE region each year • No more than two learners will be able to enter a project at one Regional.

6. Food Sciences and Food Technology • Health Care and Sports Science • Housing, Settlement Studies • Innovation and technology and Recycled Materials • Mathematics and Statistics • Medical Sciences - Human Biology (anatomy, genetics, physiology) • Medical Sciences - Diseases and disease causing organisms and Medicine • Microbiology and biochemistry • Physics , Astronomy and Space Science • Plant Sciences including marine plants and plant ecology • Social and Psychological Sciences • ****See Expo guide for details *CATEGORIES • Agricultural Sciences • Animal/Veterinary Science including marine animals and animal ecology • Chemistry • Computer Science and Applications • Earth Science – Geography and Geology including oceanography • Energy – non renewable • Energy – alternative and renewable • Energy efficiency & energy conservation • Engineering - Electronics, Electrical (Seniors) • Engineering – Chemical, Metallurgical (Seniors) • Engineering – Civil (Seniors) • Engineering – Mechanical, Aeronautical and Industrial (Seniors) • Environmental Management • Environmental Science

7. ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT – things for you as teacher to teach your learners and then check that they are doing 1. Project data book/Rough work • Book or file in which results are recorded as they are produced – learners might not remember some observations and data after experiment • Include careful notes during data collection of every detail of data and observations • Data tables are essential • Make sure each entry is dated

8. ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT 2. Scientific report • The project written up in scientific language in the third person • Presented in a file with a contents page and dividers • The detail of the project is in the report • With headings as shown on the following slides

9. Introduction • Summary of relevant background reading done • Summary of the key points including purpose • Overview of how the investigation was conducte Aim and hypothesis/engineering goals Including variables Method Written in numbered points like a set of Instructions Includes materials and equipment

10. Observations / data / results Provide key results in tables and relevant graphs that lead directly to the conclusions Copied from the rough data book and presented in a programme such as Excel Analysis and discussion Critically evaluate the results and describe patterns and trends as well as unusual results. Give reasons for the results Discuss improvements that could be made

11. Conclusions • Conclusions should be described briefly. • Link back to hypothesis. • State some applications. • Discuss extensions of the research project Acknowledgements • It is OK to have help, but it must be acknowledged • Write a paragraph stating all the names of the people & institutions AND HOW they helped .

12. References • ALL resources and references used, including teachers or people interviewed are listed. • Information is organised so that readers could seek out & find the sources referred to. • In the case of a book, the title of the book, its author, publishing company, the city where the publishing company is located, and the date the book was published must be given. • For a magazine issue, the volume of the magazine, & pages the article appeared on should be stated. • Internet sites as opposed to search engines should be correctly referenced.

13. The following are sample of different sources: Article – Johnson, Peter H. “Wired for Warmth,” (electric soil warmer & ndash; plant propagators), Rodale’s Organic Gardening, Jan. 1987, vol 34,68 Book – Irwin, Wires & Watt (1981) Math New York, Scribner Encyclopedia - “Gyroscopic Properties, “The World Book Encyclopedia, 1968, vol 8, 477 Website – J. Smith (2012) Planning for college and Academic Planning. The College Board. Available at:http://www.collegeboard.org/features/parentd/html/academic/html Date accessed: 7 June 2012.

14. THE DISPLAY AT EXPO • The display represents all the work that learners have done • It should be made in such a way that it attracts and holds the interest of the viewer • It has to be thorough, but not too crowded, so keep it simple

15. HINTS FOR DISPLAY Poster: This summarises the report showing the most important information; *Has a neat descriptive title & headings: large enough to be read at a distance of about 1 meter. *Pictures of important phases of the project can be used, they must have captions and credit author *Use neat, colorful headings, charts and graphs to make the display eye-catching, but it should look simple not crowded. Display: *This needs to be organized and make sure that the display follows a sequence. *The display should follow size limitations and safety rules.

16. JUDGING: judges will focus on the following wrt learners and projects • Were they creative when doing their project? • Does the research show creativity? • Did they solve the question in an original way? • Did they construct or design new equipment? • Did they follow the scientific methods and procedure in the scientific project? • Did they use scientific literature when they did your initial research? • Did they clearly state the variables? • Did they use controls? • Does the data support the conclusions? • Do they recognize the limitations of the data/experiment? And did they state them in your conclusions? • Where they thorough in doing their science project?

20. RESEARCH PLANS 1 • Every student should type a research plan which they should submit to their teacher/mentor/qualified scientist at the beginning of your project. Aim for an original and creative project! • This plan shows how they intend to do their project so it is written in the future tense. • They need to be absolutely sure that their project fits into of the Eskom Expo for Young Scientists 2013 categories. • They need to be sure that their project is ethical – for more information on ethics consult the Expo Guide book on the Expo website: www.exposcience.co.za • The length of the research plan should be between 2 - 4 pages long.

21. RESEARCH PLANS 2 1. Question or Problem being addressed: 2. Hypothesis or Engineering Goals (engineering projects only): 3. Description in detail of method or procedures that will answer the question you asked or solve the problem: • Procedures (method): Detail the method/all procedures and experimental design to be used for data collection • Including Variables and Data Analysis 4. Bibliography: List the three (3) most important references (e.g. science journal articles, books, internet sites) that you used to get information about your topic 5. Teacher’s/mentor’s comment: 6. Teacher’s/mentor’s signature and date:

22. HOW TO WRITE AN ABSTRACT • This is written after completion of the project just before coming to Cape Town Expo • Half to one A4 page in length • A brief summary of the project • Should reflect the focus of the project • Judges should gain a basic idea of the project after reading the abstract • Details and discussions should not be included • An abstract should not include a bibliography

23. PARTS OF AN ABSTRACT PURPOSE • An introductory statement of the reason for choosing and doing this topic AND a statement of the problem or hypothesis being studied. PROCEDURE/METHOD • A summary of the key points and an overview of how the investigation was conducted. OBSERVATION / DATA / RESULTS • Provide key results that lead directly to directly the conclusions. CONCLUSIONS • Conclusions should be described briefly. • State some applications and extensions of the research project

24. Key dates for Cape Town Expo 2013 • Mini-Expo: due date for applications Wed.1st May and Mini Expo Sat. 11th May @ Pinelands HS • Applications for Cape Town Expo open on Monday 10th June • Closing date for applications: Thursday 25thJuly • Preparation afternoon: Friday 2nd August • Cape Town Expo: Tuesday 20th, Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd August. Venue to be confirmed by email.

25. CAPE TOWN EXPO 2013 Website: www.expo.wcape.school.za Facebook page: Cape Town Eskom Expo Look often for project ideas, updates, copies of documents etc CONTACT DETAILS: Mrs Olga Peel Regional science fair director email: opeel@bishops.org.za Or fax: 021 - 6591013