Science Fair Manual

 

Brief Description

When you do a science fair project you become a scientist. You go through the same investigative steps as a scientist to find the answer to such question as: Can you tell the temperature from the chirping of crickets? Who has a better sense of distance, boys or girls and why? In what kind of soil do plants grow the best? The possibilities are endless but the projects should always be based on what interests you.

There are four main parts to a science fair project:

·         Lab. Book: This will be your scientific diary. Everything you do, observe, or over think should be in the lab. Book (also called Logbook). The day of the science fair, judges might want to see this notebook.

·         Research paper: You will do a library research on your topic to see what other scientists have discovered. It`s important to have a complete bibliography at the end of your research paper.

·         Project display board: The final step of your project is to make a science fair board with all the steps as in the drawing. This is the part of the project where you can be as creative as you want, you can use all of your creative powers. 

·         Oral presentation: The oral presentation is when you speak to the judges. You need to understand and know your project in order to explain your conclusions to the judges.

	Statement of problem										Results
				Observations
	Hypothesis										Conclusions
											Limitations
	Materials
				GRAPHS
											Applications
	Procedure
					Biblical principal
							Lab Notebook
			Research Paper

 

Research paper

To write a good Science Fair project, follow this guideline:

Title Page	Center the project title Name of your school Members of the group Grade (at the bottom right) If it is an outside competition, add to this page the address of your school
Contents	Include a page number for the beginning of each section
Introduction	Describe the research problem that you are exploring. Explain the reasons why you wanted to do this particular research. Briefly summarize your readings about this topic and write down your hypothesis.
Experiment	Tell exactly how you did your experiments, which variable you were testing and which variable(s) you keep constant. List your materials and describe your procedure step by step so that the person that is reading your report will be able to repeat your experiment. Be sure to tell how many times you repeated your experiments and how long your sample was.
Discussion	Data: Show your results both as data tables and as  graphs (be sure you label everything) Summarize the data table and graphs in a few sentences. Did your experiment seem to support your hypothesis? Explain. Discuss the factors that might have influenced your experiment. Did your repeat your experiment several times? Did you keep all of your variables constant except for one you were testing? Did you have a control group? What other experiments could you have tried? How might the results of your experiment be useful to other people?
Acknowledgements	Please give credit to all those who have helped you with your project specially your mentor or teacher.
Bibliography	Your reference list should include all books and articles used in your research. There should be at least four (4) different sources.

SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS OUTLINE  7-11^TH

INTRODUCTION OR BACKGROUND	·         Find a topic that really interests you ·         Become knowledgeable about the topic by reading books, surfing the web, and observing as much as you can on your own. Take notes. ·         Develop a list of questions and write them down in your laboratory notebook. ·         From this list, pick a topic that is both interesting and doable.
PROBLEM	·         What are you trying to find out by doing this project? ·         Try to state the problem in quantitative terms so that your results will be numerical. Ex. Quantitative: Does fertilizer cause radish plants to grow taller? Qualitative: Does fertilizer cause radish plants to grow better?
HYPOTHESIS	·         Hypothesis is your tentative explanation about WHY something happened. It requires experiments to see if it is valid. It is not just a prediction of what will happen. Ex. Prediction: More earthworms will be found under the soil than on top of the soil. To see if the prediction is correct, all you have to do is observe and count. Hypothesis: More earthworms are found under the soil because they prefer darkness. To see if the hypothesis is valid, you must do experiments to test it. It might turn out that darkness is not an important factor. Perhaps the moisture under the soils is more important.
MATERIALS	·         List your materials ·         Use metric measurements of the quantities
PROCEDURES	·         This procedure has to be equal in your lab notebook. ·         Replicating your experiment several times is more valid. ·          Keep all your variables constant except for the one you are testing. ·         Have a control group so that you can compare your experimental results again with an expected known result.
DATA TABLE	·         Your experiment should be quantitative ·         Make a table with the results of observations. Make sure you leave evidence of your arithmetic results.
GRAPH	·         Most commonly used are the line or bar graphics. ·         Make sure you label everything
RESULTS	·         In a few sentences summarize your data table and graphs.
CONCLUTIONS	·         Restate your hypothesis ·         State if your hypothesis was correct.
LIMITATIONS	·         How could you have improved your experiments? ·         Number of trials ·         Have a control? ·         What else could you have done differently? ·         Are you planning to continue this experiment?
APPLICATIONS	·         How might the experiment be useful to other people? ·         Have your results demonstrate any applications that might be helpful to others?

PROJECTS TYPICS                                                            **All demonstrations are disqualified

Behavioral Science	Study of human and animal behavior. In this type of studies you have to include quantitative analysis. Ex. Opinion surveys, psychology, social and community relationships
Botany	Study of the plant life
Chemistry	Study of the nature of matter at atomic and molecular levels; all branches of chemistry, inorganic, organic, physical, analytical, polymer and metallurgical
Computer Science	Design and development of computer software and hardware
Biology	Study of all living things.
Earth Science	Geology, mineralogy, meteorology, oceanography, geography and seismography
Engineering	Projects that apply scientific principles to practical applications of aeronautical, automotive, civil, electrical, environmental and mechanical.
Environmental Science	Projects that include study of ecology, and air, water and land pollution.
Medicine and Health	The study of diseases and health of humans and animals.
Microbiology	The study of all categories of microorganisms
Physics	The study of optics, electricity, thermodynamics, acoustics, mechanics, states of matter, quantum mechanics, laws of motion and energy

PROJECT SIZE

All exhibits will be confined to table space having the following measurements:

·         48 inches wide

·         24 inches deep

·         36 inches tall plus and an additional 8 inches extension cardboard for the title if necessary

LOSS OR DAMAGE

Valuable equipment, such as computers might be part of the display only if the student accepts fully responsibility.

ACA assumes no responsibility for loss or damage to any project or project part.

Observations

·         Parents, mentors or people outside of the group are not allowed in the display areas during judging time

·         Students must develop their own projects, they can have mentors, but the actual project should be done by the students

·         Projects should have correct spelling, grammar and punctuation

·         All projects should have a logbook

·         All presentations should be given in English

·         If the group is not at the table by the time the judges pass by, they are immediately disqualified

·         One typed report is required for each project.

GENERAL SAFETY

Any exhibit which violates these safety rules will be disqualified.

1.       Anything which could be hazardous to the public is prohibited from display	The prohibited items includes: ·         Acid or toxic gases ·         Live disease ·         Microbial culture and fungi, live or dead ·         Highly flammable materials ·         Firearms or any other weapons ·         Combustible gases ·         Preserved vertebrate or invertebrate animals ·         Human or animal parts (Exceptions: teeth, hair, bones, histological sections, and wet-mount tissues slides) ·         Poisons, drugs or controlled substances
2.       All operating exhibits must meet the following requirements:	·         Any exhibit producing temperatures exceeding  212 F must be insulated ·         Any moving belts or pulleys must be covered ·         Batteries with open-top cells are not permitted ·         All electrical wiring must be properly insulated
3.       Each group is responsible for the removal of ALL the display materials at the conclusion of the science fair.	·         Any material found at the tables will be thrown away.

 CATEGORIES FOR SCIENCE FAIR PROJECTS

Category “A”     1-2 students working together

Category “B”     up to 4 students working together

GRADING

GRADE	OBSERVATIONS
7th- 9th	·         The students will be evaluated in science class. ·         10 points will be evaluated during the class following the rubric below. ·         The total grade of the science fair project is going to be over 20 points ·         The evaluation of the remain 10 points will be based on their performance during the Science Fair and the average of the points given by the judges
10th-11th	·         The students will be evaluated in Chemistry, Biology and Physics class. ·         10 points will be evaluated during the class following the rubric below. ·         The total grade of the science fair project is going to be over 20 points per class ·         The evaluation of the remain 10 points will be based on their performance during the Science Fair and the average of the points given by the judges

 SCENCE FAIR RUBRIC

7^TH-11^TH

Week	Due Date	Assignment	Points
1		Recall the scientific method with students
2		Check report and correct errors Bring all materials needed for their experiments and also their display boards and log books	2 2
3		Bring display board information to be checked. Bring final report.	2
4		Check log books and work on the display board	2
5		Final check-up on their science Fair projects Agape Christian Academy Science Fair	2 10