Science Fair

Thursday,
March 10th
 Project Due Dates

Project Topic/Question approved ______Due Friday, 2/10

Parent/Student Compact ______Due Friday, 2/10

Research and Hypothesis ______Due Friday, 2/17

Plan: Materials List/ Procedures ______Due Friday, 2/24

Final Experiment and Backboard ______Due Monday, 3/3

 After School Meetings

Lab/work time will be provided. A flash drive

is recommended for saving work.

Wednesday, 2/8 2:35-3:45

Wednesday, 2/15 2:35-3:45
Wednesday, 2/22 2:35-3:45
Wednesday, 3/1 2:35-3:45
 Choose a Topic

Pick a topic that:

 Will be interesting.

 You will be able to complete in the required

time.
 Question

 After narrowing down your topic, choose a

testable question.

Example: How does caffeine affect the growth

of a plant?
 Research

 Research should be designed to get background

information about your topic, before you begin
your experiment.
 Develop 2-3 questions that you want to answer
about your topic.
 Try to use various sources for your research.

Example: What do plants need to survive? How does

caffeine affect plants? Do all plants need the same
amount of water?
 Hypothesis

Make your guess

 Use your research to make an educated guess about
how you think your experiment will turn out.

 Use the “ If __________ 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.
 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.
 Procedure

 Design your experiment

 Design your experiment so that you are only testing 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. (CONTROLLED/CONSTANT VARIABLE)
 Plant all of them with the same soil. (CONTROLLED/CONSTANT
VARIABLE)
 Put them all in the same amount of light for the same amount of time.
(CONTROLLED/CONSTANT VARIABLE)
 The only thing that should be different about the plants is that one
received coffee and the other water. (INDEPENDENT VARIABLE)
 Procedure

 Write down step-by-step directions on how

to do your experiment:

 Do not leave anything out!

 Use multiple trials (At least three.)
 Procedure
Example:
1. Get 8 pea plants (100 cm tall).
2. Place 4 pea plants on each tray.
3. Label one set of plants “Caffeine”.
4. Label the second set “Water”.
5. Pour 100ml of coffee (with caffeine) onto the soil of each
plant on the caffeine tray twice a week.
6. Pour 100ml of water onto the soil of each plant on the
water tray twice a week.
7. Measure each plant with a metric ruler.
8. Record data in record book.
Do your experiment.

Have fun!
 Collect, Record, and Display Data

 Record observational and/or measurable data in a table

 Take Pictures and/or print pictures that go with your

experiment

 Choose the correct graphs for your measurable data.

 Bar-comparison

 Pie-percentage

 Line-change/time
 Results

 Explain the data exactly as your charts/

graphs/observations show in paragraph form
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.
 Conclusion

 Tell what the outcome was (consider your original question)

 Include if your hypothesis was supported or not

(Be sure to use the term “ My hypothesis was/was not
supported”)

 Think of something you could do differently next time

(What variable you would change if you could do the experiment
again?)
 Conclusion
 Example:
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 since 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.
 References

 Include a list of resources you used to gather any

information pertaining to your project

 Example:
1. Science Fair Project Guide. http://www.sciencebuddies.org.
February 11, 2014.
2. Caffeine. http://www.uhs.umich.edu/caffeine. February 5, 2014.
 Backboard

 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.
 Backboard layout

Question Results
Procedure

Data Conclusion
Hypothesis
(Pictures, Tables, and Graphs)

Materials References
 Scoring

 Scoring rubric is provided in folder

 Will be used for scoring at the completion of

the project

Scoring Rubric
 Helpful Resources
• http://www.sciencebuddies.org
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.
Begin With The End In Mind

Keys for success:

†Make a time-line and stick to it.

†Parental support
†Organization
Questions