Science Fair Projects

5 th Biannual Science Symposium  Partner project  Judged by science department with winners in each class competing for prizes  ALL projects will be presented to other science students, parents, admin., etc…  Top 10 will have the opportunity to compete in the ISU Science Symposium

Important Project Dates  Friday, April 24 th – Observation and Data check in  Friday, May 8 th – Data, Abstract, & Future Considerations due  Friday, May 15 th – Poster Boards due  Tuesday, May 19 th – Chemistry Science Symposium  Wednesday, May 20 th – Biology Science Symposium

Your Board – for those who want to get started

The Board  Please get out Poster Presentation sheet  Tri-fold poster board will be used to present data at symposium Will be provided  Must be typed Typing specification in packet Must be self-standing  Note what must be on tri-fold

Parts of your Tri-fold

Title  Choose a title that reflects your topic and is not oversimplified Place your name and your partner’s name underneath the main title Font specification on sheet

Abstract/Introduction  Complete overview of experiment Includes purpose, experiment, variables, & results Summary form, less than 250 words Absolutely NO pronouns

Good Abstract/Bad Abstract  Please refer to the abstract page as we will be going over an example of a good abstract vs. a bad abstract Good why? Bad why?

Hypothesis A hypothesis is not an educated guess  Use your preliminary research to make a hypothesis about how you think your experiment will turn out.  Easiest to use the “ If __________ then _____”format Example: If 100 ml of coffee is poured on four pea plants and 100 ml of water in another four pea plants, then the plants with coffee will grow taller as caffeine will stimulate the plants’ growth rate.

Board should contain 2 hypotheses  H 0 – Null Hypothesis  H i – Alternative Hypothesis

Experimental Procedure  Design your experiment  Design your experiment so that they only test for one thing.  CONTROL 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.

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.

Procedure  Write down step-by-step directions on how to do your experiment. Do not leave anything out. Keep sentences short and to the point, do not waste room. Bullet variables at the end. 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 twice a week. 6.Pour 100ml of water onto the soil of each plant twice a week. 7.Measure each plant with a metric ruler 8.Record data in record book. Procedure

Data/Results  Meat of presentation Should take up the most room Should be visually stimulating  Display data using charts, tables, and graphs.  Choose the correct graphs for your data. Bar-comparison Pie-percentage Line-change/time  All measurements must be in metric

Results  At the bottom of the results section, write a few sentences how your experiment turned out. (Summarize your results) Example: Plant Group #1 grew an average of 40 cm with 100 ml of coffee. Plant Group #2 grew and average of 20 cm with 100 ml of water. The plant group that was given coffee grew 20 cm more on the average than the goup that was given water.

Results - Data Analysis  You will be required to analyze your data using some sort of statistical analysis ANOVA Stats kids, take it away

Conclusion  Refer back to hypothesis Be sure to use the term “The hypothesis was/was not supported. Do not say it was right/wrong. Even when your hypothesis was not supported information is gained about the topic. Use scientific reasoning for conclusion, no colloquialism.  Discuss any errors and how they could have contributed to manipulating data

Future Considerations  Tell what you would change if you could do the experiment again.  Tell how you might take your experiment to the next step.  Tell what other scientists may be doing with this in your particular field  Still no pronouns – if you need help, ask!

Bibliography  If you use a source, you must cite it.  Let’s just clear this up, YOU WILL HAVE SOURCES! MLA style Ezbib & Son of Citation Machine

Additional Info.  Copies of abstract sitting in front of poster Regular size font (12 pt, Times New Roman)  Research Report Everything restated in paragraph form Regular font

Rubric  Rubric for posters 120 points Do not overlook an area

Questions  ????