I have received several questions about the science fair... hopefully this will help answer some of them! There is a PDF on homeworknow.com of the entire packet that went home that also answers questions. I will use an example that I used in class with the kids to help illustrate each one.
Problem Statement/Question:What are you trying to answer/learn/figure out with your project?
Ex. Does rap music help daisies grow?
Hypothesis:An educated guess, in the form of an if-then-but statement to address the multiple types of variables:
Ex. If I play rap music for my daisies, then they will grow taller than daisies that aren't exposed to rap music, but only if all other conditions remain the same (same age of plant, same amount of soil, same type of pot, same amount of food/water/sunlight, etc.)
Variables:Independent variable (also called the manipulated variable): This is the ONE thing in an experiment that changes. I like to say "it's Independent because I change it." - It is what is being manipulated by the scientist. If you relate it to cause and effect, this is the cause.
Ex. Rap music
Dependent variable (also called the responding variable): This variable depends on the independent variable - it's the effect you are hoping to get by applying the independent variable.
Ex. the height of my daisies
Control variables: These are pretty much everything else in the experiment - and they all stay the same because the only thing the scientist changes in an experiment is the independent variable.
Ex. age of plants, amount of sunlight received, time and amount of watering, person giving care to the plants, etc.
Materials and Procedure:I like to compare these to cooking: materials are your ingredients and equipment needed to cook and the procedure is the steps to the recipe!
Ex.
Materials: 6 daisy plants, 6 cups of soil, measuring cup for water, water, cd player, rap music, ruler, lab notebook, pencil, camera.
Procedure: This should be a numbered list with VERY specific instructions of exactly how to perform the experiment, beginning with set up, specific measurements where appropriate, and directions of when to observe, record data, and repeat steps, as well as duration of the project.
Data/Observations/Results:Data and observations are recorded during the experiment. Data tends to be number driven and can be recorded in a table - quantitative information. Observations are qualitative in nature - like a journal entry. The scientist records what is happening using sentences with details.
Results are a summary of the data/observations. With numbers, what are totals and averages? What general trends are seen?
Conclusion and Application;Conclusion - was your hypothesis correct? Yes or no? If no, how would you alter your project in the future to obtain different data?
Application - so, who cares? How does this project apply to everyday life? Who would want to know about the results of your experiment? Why does this matter? What made you curious to do this?
Abstract:A 100-150 word summary of the project. I compared the abstract to the blurb on the back of a novel, or a mini-commercial about the project to convince others to do this experiment.
The Display Board: This is just a suggestions of layout, but there should definitely be order to the board.The display board is split into three sections:
The left: question, hypothesis, variables
The center: on the top the title with name, date and class period. Also materials procedure and data/observations.
The right: conclusion, application and abstract.
Pictures, graphs, and data tables are encouraged!
The paper:6 pages:
1. Title, name, date, class period, work hard. be nice.
2. Problem question, hypothesis
3. materials and procedure
4. data/observation/results
5. conclusion/applications
6. abstract
