Everything you always wanted to know about this year’s science fair

There are four parts to your project Forms Journal Project notebook Display

Grades Your science fair project grade will be worth one test grade. Every other deadline will be worth a classwork grade. Project is due in class December 18

Background Research Paper 2 pages double-spaced plus proper bibliography. Must be in your own words, organized, and include at least five sources (to be listed in your bibliography). Internet sites used as sources must be from a trusted source (National Geographic, NIH, Higher Education, government, etc.) Must include at least two non-Internet sources (encyclopedia, etc.) Go to www.easybib.com for an easy way to create your bibliography, or to www.agclassroom.org/teacher/sci_biblio.htm for examples.

Forms and Research Plan Due: Nov. 21, 22 All forms required by the science fair for your project. This includes your DETAILED research plan. Detailed includes materials, experimental setup, data collection and analysis techniques, etc. In other words, what exactly will you do and how will you do it. The forms will be handed out in class, or they can be filled out online (at www.sciserv.org/isef/) and printed out. 

Journal (due with project) Must be BOUND (a composition book is recommended), not a spiral bound notebook. In your journal you will write about your progress (the first entry should discuss where you got your idea.) You will keep track of what you have accomplished/learned as you progress. If you decide to change your experiment (with teacher’s permission) you must note this in your journal.

Project Notebook and Display Due with project Completed projects should include a Display and Project Notebook. The project notebook should include the following sections: • Title page (title of experiment) • Table of contents • Acknowledgements (give credit to people who helped in any way.) • Introduction (why project was chosen, what you hoped to learn.) • Experimental work should include: a) PROBLEM - Should be stated in a question form. b) HYPOTHESIS - Your educated guess as to what you think your results will be (should be written as an “If...then...because…” statement.) c) LIST OF MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT USED d) PROCEDURES - Step by step procedures for the experiment. • Results (Observations and data.) • Conclusion (should be based only on data displayed in results.)  

Display Your display should be neat, organized and attractive. Concentrate more on displaying information (graphs, photos, etc.) than on decoration. Plants, animals, live cultures, and chemicals are not allowed to be part of the display. Use photos from your experiment instead. Your display must be able to stand upright on its own. The use of a standard science fair display board is recommended, but not required. The maximum size of your display is 30 inches (76 cm) deep by 48 inches (122 cm) wide.

Good Displays

Bad Display – Do’s and don’ts

Internet Resources http://www.sciserv.org/isef/students/ ISEF Science Fair site (official site. Has all forms you may need to fill out plus information about displays, etc.) http://www.scifair.org/ http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral/ http://scienceclub.org/scifair.html http://www.sciencebuddies.com/

Deadlines Background research paper 11/2 (Thursday) Final project research plan 11/17 (Friday) Forms (corrected and completed) 11/17 (Friday) Final project display/journal 12/18 (Friday)