Mr. McLaren's Science Fair Survival Page
Created for the Science Classes of
Archie R. Cole Junior High School
East Greenwich, R.I.

The key to any successful Science Fair is to employ a series of steps, many of which are rather painless...provided you give your self time to organize your project plan.  To insure a successful Science Fair project, you should begin to organize several months in advance and follow a well designed plan. This page has been created to help students in the creation of a successful Science Fair project.

What Makes a Good Project?

As kids and parents think about Science Fair projects, they sometimes wonder how to pick a topic - not how to find an idea, but how to decide if the idea is a good one. Cyberfair, a resource for science students, has posted a page created by Yvonne Karsten. I have posted some of the main ideas that Yvonne feels are important in creating a successful project. The Cyberfair page offers some very insightful thoughts on Science Fair project creation.  Click here to visit their site and see the full text version.

1. You are interested in the topic - it's something you like to think about.

• To help you think about a topic click here.

A good Science Fair project is an experiment - that means it's a test to find an answer to a question you have.

Don't do demonstrations or simple reports - those don't use the scientific method.

• Having someone else help too much takes away some of your fun and you don't learn as much.
• Don't be afraid to ask for help if you really need it.

• It is  against the rules of our science fair and of the regional science fair to hurt or badly scare people or animals as part of an experiment.

• Did doing the project, or reading or seeing what happened make you think of other questions you are curious about?

STEPS IN DOING AN EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE PROJECT

The steps in the experimental scientific method as usually presented are: Observation, Hypothesis, Controlled Experiment, Conclusion. To actually do a science experiment, many more steps are needed. The following more accurately reflects the course of an actual experimental investigation as stated by David Morano.

Initial Observation

• The first step is to clearly write down exactly what you have observed.

• Read books, magazines or ask professionals who might know in order to learn about the effect or area of study.
• Keep track of where you got your information from.

The title should be short and summarize what the investigation will deal with.

• Write a statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and questions to write the statement.

Based on your gathered information, make an educated guess about what types of things affect the system you are working with.

A hypothesis is a question which has been reworded into a form that can be tested by an experiment.

There is usually one hypothesis for each question you have.

You must do at least one experiment to test each hypothesis. This is a very important step.

For an experiment to give answers you can trust, it must have a "control."

A control is a neutral "reference point" for comparison that allows you to see what changing a variable does by comparing it to not changing anything.

Experiments are often done many times to guarantee that what you observe is reproducible, or to obtain an average result.

Select only one thing to change in each experiment. Things that can be changed are called variables.

Change something that will help you answer your questions. The procedure must tell how you will change this one thing.

The procedure must explain how you will measure the amount of change.  Each experiment should have a "control" for comparison that you can see what the change actually did.

Make a list of the things you need to do the experiment, and prepare them.

As you do experiments, record all numerical measurements made.

If you are not making any measurements, you probably are not doing an experimental science project.

Observations can be written descriptions of what you noticed during an experiment, or problems encountered.

Keep careful notes of everything you do and everything that happens.

Do any calculations needed from your raw data to obtain the numbers you need to draw your conclusions.

Using the trends in your experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your original questions.

Other Things You Can Mention in the Conclusion

• If your hypothesis is not correct, what could be the answer to your question?
• Summarize any difficulties or problems you had doing the experiment.
• Do you need to change the procedure and repeat your experiment?
• What would you do different next time?
• List other things you learned