1. Science Fair Projects

2. 2nd Annual 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

3. Choose a Topic Pick a topic that: Will be interesting.
You can write a 5 page research paper on.
You will be able to complete in the required time.
Something that can be experimented on and has a relevance to your field

4. Paper Specifications Must be linked to symposium project in 2nd term
Will be the background, or preliminary research, required for you to fully understand your science symposium project
4-6 pages
Times New Roman 12 pt. font, 1 inch margins
Cited in the MLA style
Minimum of 6 sources
Of those 6 sources, only 2 can be internet based
More to come on citations and sourcing (brought to you by Mrs. Flott!)

5. Important Paper Dates Friday, August 30th – 5 potential topics due
Wednesday, Sept.4th – Topics handed back, proposals started
Monday, Sept. 9th – Final proposal due
Friday, Oct. 4th – Hard copy sources due, works cited due, interlinear citation sheet due
Friday, Oct. 11th – Peer Editing day (3 required)
Friday, Oct. 18th – Final paper due

6. Your Board – for those who want to get started

7. 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

8. Proposal due Sept. 9th
Proposal sheet must have following parts up to the procedure completed:
Title
Hypothesis
Variables
Instead of abstract, you will do background questions
Answers you need to know before your project can be done to the best of your abilities
List of Materials – potential costs included
Experimental Procedure

9. Parts of your Tri-fold

10. 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

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

12. 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?

13. 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 I __________ then I think _____”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.

14. 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.

15. 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.

16. 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

17. Procedure Get 8 pea plants ( 100 cm tall).
Place 4 pea plants on each tray.
Label one set of plants “Caffeine”.
Label the second set “Water”.
Pour 100ml of coffee( with caffeine ) onto the soil of each plant twice a week.
Pour 100ml of water onto the soil of each plant twice a week.
Measure each plant with a metric ruler
Record data in record book.

18. Data/Results All measurements must be in metric 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

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

20. 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

21. 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!

22. 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

23. 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

24. Rubric Rubric for posters will be given at a later date 120 points
Do not overlook an area

25. Questions
????