Science Fair Projects

5th 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 24th – Observation and Data check in Friday, May 8th – Data, Abstract, & Future Considerations

due Friday, May 15th – Poster Boards due Tuesday, May 19th – Chemistry Science Symposium Wednesday, May 20th – 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 guessUse 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

H0 – Null Hypothesis

Hi – 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

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