Science Fair VES First Science Fair March 2, 2017 After Curriculum Night
Why Do A Science Fair Project? • Practice scientific thinking and problem-solving & improvising when a procedure doesn’t work out as predicted. • Strengthen math skills through analyzing and graphing data and creative problem-solving skills throughout the process. • Learn life long project preparation skills. • Communication skills & team building skills collaborating with friends.
What Does A Science Fair Project Look Like?
What Does A Science Fair Project Look Like?
Quick Project ideas • How to clean pennies/ Corrosiveness of soda • Color changing milk (milk, soap, food coloring) • Pepper, water, dishwashing liquid • Menthos & diet coke (messy – do outside) • Color changing carnations
Quick Project ideas • Do some colors of candy melt faster (skittles or m&ms) • How to make rock candy or borax crystals • Exploding lunch bag • Balloon rocket
Quick Science Fair Projects • Gummy bear or candy heart experiment • What kind of salt melts ice the fastest?
Websites for Ideas • www.ipl.org/div/projectguide • https://sciencebob.com/category/experiments/ • www.stevespanglerscience.com
Websitesfor Ideas • http://www.sciencebuddies.org/index_A.htm Site for help through out project. • http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/fair.html Explains project parts. • http://www.education.com/science-fair/elementary-school/ This one has it broken down by grades.
Websites for Ideas • www.tryscience.org • www.sciencekids.co.nz/experiments.html • www.need.org/sciencefair • Youtube
Books at the Library
Science Fair Project Steps 1. Find friends or siblings to work with 2. Register on the PTA website (so we know how many tables to set up on science fair night.) 3. Pick a topic to experiment 4. Make a hypothesis 5. Have fun experimenting and take pictures 6. Analyze your results 7. Prepare your board – buy your board early – do a little each night
Choose a Topic Pick a topic that: • Will be interesting. • You will be able to complete in the required time
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 .
Collect materials and do your experiment Have fun !
Make your Board
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.
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: Example: The purpose of this project is to find out if a pea plant will grow taller when given caffeine rather than water.
Procedure • To increase the validity of your experiment • Make sure to keep a control group. • Keep in mind sample size. • Use multiple trials. (At least three.) • Write down step-by-step directions on how to do your experiment.
Procedure - 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.
Materials Make a complete list of everything you will use in your experiment. Tell how many and how much of each object used.
Materials MATERIALS EXAMPLE: - 8 Pea plants - 2 Trays to hold 4 plants each - Tap water - Coffee - 2 beakers - 1 ruler - 1 black marker
Make Charts and Graphs • Display data using charts, tables, and graphs. • 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.
Tips • Start early - pick a time line and stick to it • Pick a topic that interests you • Parental support -do a little bit each night • Stay organized • It is ok if your science project does not turn out as you like – write about what was learned
Tips • Buy the trifold boards early – several schools have science fair at the same time. Use Michaels coupons. • Great websites – Pinterest, google • Work with friends for a joint project • Kids do most of the work
Font Sizes Font Size Item Comments (points) You want your title to be visible from across a room! Title 150+ (We used pre made letters from Michaels) 32+ Should be easily readable from 5 feet away by someone just Headings (we used 36) walking by. This text is smaller than headings, but more noticeable than Subheadings 20+ main text size. 16 – 18 This is a comfortable text size for someone who comes closer Main Body Text (we used 20) to read more. It's OK to make these a bit smaller than the body text if Captions 12 – 16 necessary.
Questions? http://www.ves-pta.org/programs/science-fair/ Anjum Sikka – AnjumSikka@gmail.com (Rahul’s mom) Seema Javeri – SeemaJaveri@gmail.com (Zane & Zara’s mom) Alysia Thompson – Alysia@teamthompson.org (Jay, Claire & Ryan’s mom)
Thank you!
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