How to Create an Excellent Science Fair Project

Science Fair Project Due Dates Choose project and write project questions: 12/8 Get approval from your teacher: 12/9 Research your topic. Write science terms and paragraph: 12/15 Write hypothesis: 12/18 Design experiment & list and gather materials: 1/5 Conduct experiment and record observations & data: 1/5 Create a table, chart, or graph of data: 1/8 Draw conclusions: 1/13 Make display and write and print abstract: 1/22 Present project: 1/26

Selecting a Topic & Project Question When selecting a topic, think of things you enjoy doing, things that interest you, or science topics we’ve studied in class this year. Then, think of a question that goes along with your topic that can be measured and answered by following the scientific method. *Use the worksheet we went over in class.*

Project Research - Sources I recommend finding at least 3 sources (book or internet) to write your research paragraph. For websites: Those ending in .edu and .org should be your first pick. Check at the very bottom of the website to make sure it was updated in 2015. Write down your sources (website name and/or book title and author).

Project Research – Notes & Paragraph Read one source at a time. After 1-2 paragraphs stop to paraphrase and record anything important you might want to include in your paragraph. Do this for each source. Then, look over your paraphrased notes and decide how you want to organize them into a paragraph. Your goal is to give you and your reader the scientific background knowledge you both need to understand the science behind your project.

Project Research – Vocab Look back over your notes and paragraph and pick out at least 3 science words related to your topic that are important to know the definitions of.

Project Hypothesis & Experiment I do not have anything to add to the PowerPoint regarding these portions of the project. Check out the samples I uploaded of each page that go along with our class project.

Project Results This link allows you to enter your data, create a graph, and print your graph: https://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/ Types of Graphs: *Bar Graphs: Bar graphs are good when you're plotting data that spans many years (or days, weeks...), has really big changes from year to year (or day to day...), or when you are comparing things.

Project Results Types of Graphs (Continued): *Line Graphs: Line graphs can be used when you're plotting data that has peaks (ups) and valleys (downs), or that was collected in a short time period. *Pie Chart: Pie charts are best to use when you are trying to compare parts of a whole. They do not show changes over time. These are just the most popular graphs used to show data. Here is a link with info. on a couple other graphs you might want to consider: https://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/help/user_guide/graph/whentouse.asp *Graph Definitions Source: nces.ed.gov