Science Fair Projects

1. Science Fair Projects

2. Choose a Topic Pick a topic that: • Will be interesting. • You will be able to complete in the required time. ( See handout for timeline.)

3. Title • Choose a title that reflects your topic and is in the form a question Example: How does caffeine affect the growth of a plant?

4. Purpose • Write 1 to 3 sentences describing what you want to find out in this project. Example: The purpose of this project is to find out if a pea plant will grow taller when given caffeine rather than water.

5. Develop 3 questions that you want to answer about your topic. Try to 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

6. Hypothesis Make your guess • Use your research to make an educated guess about how you think your experiment will turn out. • Use the “ If I __________ then I think _____”format 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.

7. 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.

8. 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.)

9. Procedure • Write down step-by-step directions on how to do your experiment. • Do not leave anything out! Example

10. Procedure • 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.

12. Do your experiment. Have fun !

13. Make Charts and Graphs • Display data using charts, tables, and graphs. • Use the Graph Club or Inspiration program. • Choose the correct graphs for your data. • Bar-comparison • Pie-percentage • Line-change/time

14. Results • Using your data write a few sentences how your experiment turned out. Example: 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.

15. Conclusion • Write down why you think your experiment turned out the way it did, include if your hypothesis was supported or not. • Be sure to use the term “ My hypothesis was/was not supported. • Do not say I was right/wrong. • Even when your hypothesis was not supported you gain information about your topic. • Use scientific reasoning for conclusion.

16. Conclusion • Example: 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.

17. Future Considerations • Tell what variable you would change if you could do the experiment again. • Tell how you might take your experiment to the next step.

18. Future Considerations • Example • 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.

19. 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.

20. Make your Board

21. 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.

22. Bringing It Together • Keys for success: • Make a time-line and stick to it. • Parental support • Organization