Science Fair Tips PJAS Presentations

Saturday morning Dress nicely; bring transparency slides! Print “handouts” one per page Consider sleeve protectors/page separators with the info printed/# your slides/binders – anything that will help you deal with organization and the static charge that builds up on the projector Feeds into printer like paper – follow instructions Or get printed professionally; drying issues? You’ll mingle in hallway until being called into auditorium to have overview and room assignments You will go to your room; there will be 2-3 judges in your same category, and roughly the same age group If you have a conflict (like PSTS judging) you ask to go first; otherwise, it is supposed to be youngest to oldest You are timed for 10 minutes; then there is a Q & A

What are the judges told? We are given the rubric Major emphasis: metric, one hypothesis; one variable; a control – missing these key points automatically drops you down to a 1 in that category Time – going over 10 minutes is an automatic 1 Statistics – do you know what your data means? You need to use at least averages, preferably also standard deviation, perhaps something more advanced. Can you then also explain what the statistic is? Be nice!

Q & A suggestions All judges are supposed to ask 1-2 questions of every presenter. We are given suggestions in case we aren’t able to think of one…. What did you learn? Why should the average person care about your data? Were there unexpected problems during your experiment? How did you deal with them? What could you do next to expand your project? Did you perform any statistics on your project? In general, original judge questions will focus on the science of WHY your IV caused your DV. Research enough background info to attempt to explain causation. Many times, the questions will be experimental clarifications or data clarifications so that the judges can draw their own conclusions, which they use to probe your understanding more. We can’t question you really until we are sure we understand. (Do not take these questions personally; just be confident to review your procedures.) Be prepared to scientifically explain your outliers and your trend (again: mechanism/causation)

Your Presentation Introduce yourself! Simple slides – not too much info; bullet points Intro – give context! Why were you interested? Clearly state the hypothesis Materials & Procedure (give judges enough time to absorb, but you don’t need to read this word for word; this is where you will save time) Tables & Graphs – go slowly enough for judges to absorb! State the trend – point out the most important aspect Have error bars if possible (hand drawn is okay) You can have raw data tables, but ALSO have averages very clearly. There are a lot of ways to represent data; choose the most clear! If you need to have a graph without error bars and one with, it is best to have the two. Show the trend first, clearly, then show the trend being analyzed.

Your Presentation Clearly state the results This could be on same slide as tables/graphs or not. Accept or Reject your hypothesis Conclusion – WHY did this occur??? What was the mechanism behind the action? Be as SCIENTIFIC as possible Ex: soap vs bleach on bacteria. How EXACTLY does soap kill bacteria? Is it killing or preventing growth? Bleach? What went wrong? What data points are in error? Why? Where would you go next? Why should someone in the real world care about this?

Questions asked by students…. 1. Do judges look for an effort to control extraneous variables during the experimental process? (YES) 2. what leeway are we allowed for the length of our presentation? What are the score penalties for going over/under time? (10 min. strictly; automatic lowest score for judges opinion. Skip stuff to finish if necessary – there is a q & a where you can communicate missed info) 3. Do judges look for quotes/support from specific case examples (other experiments made by experts)? (varies; usually in the q&a informally) 4. Do judges look for connections to the bigger picture? real world applications and how the experiment is significant to science? (YES) Are pictures good or bad? (It depends; they can be a welcome & fast way to present data. Do not put them in for the sake of putting them in though; they are typically not expected. If you have multiple trials and categories of your independent variable, a schematic would be very helpful – it doesn’t have to be a photograph)