Tips for an awesome science fair project…

 Prepare a short explanation or “speech” to effectively communicate your project to judges and attendees  Important info: - How did you get your idea? - How did you do your experiment? - What were your main findings? - What did you learn from your results and could you have done differently to reduce error?

 Background research: What is the question you are trying to answer? What kind of info would be useful in trying to answer it?  Why should people care about what you’re doing?  How does the topic you’re studying affect everyday life? How can it be applied?

 What is it?  An educated guess about how you think your project will turn out. (NOT a question!)  Express your hypothesis using your dependent and independent variables. For example: Adding fertilizer (independent variable) to plant pots will result in faster plant growth rate (dependent variable) compared to plant pots that do not receive fertilizer.

 Make sure your hypothesis is TESTABLE, meaning that both your variables can be easily measured!  Avoid vague hypotheses! For example: Adding plants to an aquarium makes fish healthier. Better: Adding plants to an aquarium increases fish growth rate (or reproductive success)

 Include a materials list  How will you change your independent variable? How will you measure the impact this will have on your dependent variable?  Make sure you only manipulate your independent variable and that all other control variables stay constant. For example: How does temperature affect running speed in lizards?  same species, same sex, same size, same age for all experimental lizards…

 Make sure to include information about sample size (n) or the number of trials used in your methods.  When appropriate, distinguish experimental groups from control groups.

Analyzing your data:  Review your data; Is it complete? Do you need more trials or replicates? Mistakes?  Calculate an average for different trials of your experiment, when appropriate.  Alternately, you could use ratios, proportions or individual data points…depends on the data!  Become familiar with Microsoft Excel if necessary.

 Graphs: - Include a descriptive title. - Place independent variable on x-axis and dependent variable on y-axis. - Label your axes! - Units of measurement (cm, °C, mL, etc.) - Use a different color for each data series and include a legend.  Bar graph: comparing different trials or different experimental groups  independent variable non-numerical  XY-Line graph: relationship between dep. and indep. variables  both numerical  Pie graph : shows proportions/percentages of a whole

 Summarize your results.  Does your data support your hypothesis?  If your results DON’T support your hypothesis, you are NOT wrong! Don’t change your hypothesis!  Instead present what your next steps would be and what kind of error you may have encountered. *Don’t use the word “prove”…data only supports or doesn’t support your hypothesis.

 Make a list of questions that you think the judges will ask and practice answering them.  Use bright and colorful photos/drawings to catch audience’s attention  Place your sections in order from left to right and focus on images/figures in the center.