Science Fair Projects

Choose a Topic
Pick a topic that:
Will be interesting.
You will be able to complete in the required
time.
( See handout for timeline.)

Title
Choose a title that reflects your topic and is
in the form a question
Example: How does caffeine affect the growth
of a plant?

Purpose
Write 1 to 3 sentences describing what you
want to find out in this project.

Example: The purpose of this project is to find

out if a pea plant will grow taller when given
caffeine rather than water.

Research
Research should be designed to get background
information about your topic, before you begin
your experiment.
Develop 3 questions that you want to answer about
your topic.
Try to use various sources for your research.
Suggested sources:

Books
Magazines
Newspapers
Internet

Hypothesis
Make your guess
Use your research to make an educated guess about
how you think your experiment will turn out.
Use the If I __________ then I think
_____format
Example: If I pour 100ml of coffee on four pea plants and pour
100ml of water in another four pea plants, then I think the
plants with coffee will grow taller because caffeine will
stimulate the plants.

Procedure
Design your experiment

Design your experiment so that they only test for one thing.
Make sure that you do the same things to all groups of objects being

tested.
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. (At least three.)

Procedure
Write down step-by-step directions on how
to do your experiment.

Do not leave anything out!

Example

Procedure
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.

Materials
Make a complete list of everything
you will use in your experiment.
Tell how many and how much of
each object used.
Use metric measures only.

Do your experiment.
Have fun !

Make Charts and Graphs

Display data using charts, tables, and graphs.
Use the Graph Club or Inspiration program.
Choose the correct graphs for your data.

Bar-comparison
Pie-percentage
Line-change/time

Results
Using your data write a few sentences how your
experiment turned out.
Example:
From reading my charts and graphs, I know that
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.

Conclusion
Write down why you think your experiment turned
out the way it did, include if your hypothesis was
supported or not.

Be sure to use the term My hypothesis was/was not

supported.
Do not say I was right/wrong.
Even when your hypothesis was not supported you gain
information about your topic.
Use scientific reasoning for conclusion.

Conclusion
Example:
My hypothesis was supported. The plants that
were watered with coffee ( caffeine ) grew taller
than those that were given water. Therefore,
caffeine has a positive effect on the growth of
pea plants. This may be due the fact that
caffeine is a stimulant. The caffeine could have
stimulated the plant to grow.

Future Considerations
Tell what variable you would change if you
could do the experiment again.
Tell how you might take your experiment to
the next step.

Future Considerations
Example

If I could do this experiment again , the variable I

would change would be the amount of caffeine I would
place in each plant group. I would use 50ml for plant
group #1, 100ml for plant group #2, and 150ml for plant
group #3. I would also have three control groups of
plants. One would get 50ml of water. One would get
100ml of water. And one would get 150ml of water. I
want to see which amount of caffeine helps plants grow
the tallest.

Make Your Board

Start your information on the top left panel
of the board, move down the left panel,
across the middle panel, and from the top
down on the right panel.
Place pictures of your experiment on your
board.

Make your Board

Helpful Resources
Science Fair Web Pages
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/index_A.htm
Best site for help through out project!
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/fair.html
This is a good site explaining the parts of a
science fair project.
http://edweb.tusd.k12.az.us/jtindell/
A web site for children to use in setting up
their science fair project
http://school.discovery.com/sciencefaircentral
A great site! It has info for parents, teachers,
and students. It has project ideas, research
tools, and tip sheets for all kinds of
projects.

Bringing It Together
Keys for success:
Make a time-line and stick to it.
Parental support
Organization