how to write a background research for science fair

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The Ultimate Science Fair Project Guide – From Start to Finish

When our daughter entered her first science fair, we kept seeing references to the Internet Public Library Science Fair Project Resource Guide .  However, the IPL2 permanently closed… taking the guide with it.  Bummer !  After now participating in over a half-dozen elementary school science fairs (including a first-place finish!), we created our own guide to help other students go from start to finish in their next science fair project.  If this is your first science fair, have fun!  If you’ve done it before, we hope this is your best one!  Let’s science!

*Images from Unsplash

How to Use the STEMium Science Fair Project Ultimate Guide?

If you are just starting off and this is your first science fair, here’s how to get started:

• Start with the STEMium Science Fair Project Roadmap . This is an infographic that “maps” out the process from start to finish and shows all the steps in a visual format.
• Getting Started – Why Do a Science Fair Project . Besides walking through some reasons to do a project, we also share links to examples of national science fair competitions, what’s involved and examples of winning science fair experiments .  *Note: this is where you’ll get excited!!
• The Scientific Method – What is It and What’s Involved . One of the great things about a science fair project is that it introduces students to an essential process/concept known as the scientific method.  This is simply the way in which we develop a hypothesis to test.
• Start the Process – Find an Idea . You now have a general idea of what to expect at the science fair, examples of winning ideas, and know about the scientific method.  You’re ready to get started on your own project.  How do you come up with an idea for a science fair project?  We have resources on how to use a Google tool , as well as some other strategies for finding an idea.
• Experiment and Build the Project . Time to roll up those sleeves and put on your lab coat.
• Other Resources for the Fair. Along the way, you will likely encounter challenges or get stuck.  Don’t give up – it’s all part of the scientific process.  Check out our STEMium Resources page for more links and resources from the web.  We also have additional experiments like the germiest spot in school , or the alka-seltzer rocket project that our own kids used.

Getting Started – Why Do a Science Fair Project

For many students, participating in the science fair might be a choice that was made FOR you.  In other words, something you must do as part of a class.  Maybe your parents are making you do it.  For others, maybe it sounded like a cool idea.  Something fun to try.  Whatever your motivation, there are a lot of great reasons to do a science fair project.

• Challenge yourself
• Learn more about science
• Explore cool technology
• Make something to help the world! (seriously!)
• Win prizes (and sometimes even money)
• Do something you can be proud of!

Many students will participate in a science fair at their school.  But there are also national competitions that include 1000s of participants.  There are also engineering fairs, maker events, and hackathons.  It’s an exciting time to be a scientist!!  The list below gives examples of national events.

• Regeneron Science Talent Search
• Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair
• Google Science Fair
• Conrad Challenge
• Microsoft Imagine Cup
• JSHS Program
• Exploravision

What’s the Scientific Method?

Before we jump into your project, it’s important to introduce a key concept:  The Scientific Method .  The scientific method is the framework scientists use to answer their questions and test their hypothesis.  The figure below illustrates the steps you’ll take to get to the end, but it starts with asking a question (you’ve already finished the first step!).

After we find a problem/idea to tackle, and dig into some background research, we create a guess on a potential solution.  This is known as our hypothesis.

Example of a Hypothesis

My brother can hold his breath underwater longer than I can (“our problem”) –> how can I hold my breath longer? (“our question”) –>  if I drink soda with caffeine before I hold my breath, I will be able to stay underwater longer (“our solution”).  Our hypothesis is that using caffeine before we go underwater will increase the time we hold our breath.  We’re not sure if that is a correct solution or not at this stage – just taking a guess.

Once we have a hypothesis, we design an experiment to TEST our hypothesis.  First, we will change variables/conditions one at a time while keeping everything else the same, so we can compare the outcomes.

Experimental Design Example

Using our underwater example, maybe we will test different drinks and count how long I can hold my breath.  Maybe we can also see if someone else can serve as a “control” – someone who holds their breath but does not drink caffeine.  For the underwater experiment, we can time in seconds how long I hold my breath before I have a drink and then time it again after I have my caffeine drink.  I can also time how long I stay underwater when I have a drink without caffeine.

Then, once we finish with our experiment, we analyze our data and develop a conclusion.

• How many seconds did I stay underwater in the different situations? 
• Which outcome is greater?  Did caffeine help me hold my breath longer? 

Finally, (and most important), we present our findings. Imagine putting together a poster board with a chart showing the number of seconds I stayed underwater in the different conditions.

Hopefully you have a better sense of the scientific method.  If you are completing a science fair project, sticking with these steps is super important.  Just in case there is any lingering confusion, here are some resources for learning more about the scientific method:

• Science Buddies – Steps of the Scientific Method
• Ducksters – Learn About the Scientific Method
• Biology4kids – Scientific Method
• National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences – Scientific Method

What Science Fair Project Should I Do?

And science is no different.

Just know that if you can get through the idea part, the rest of the science fair is relatively smooth sailing.  Remember to keep an open mind and a positive outlook .  Each year 100s of 1000s of kids, teenagers and college students come up with new projects and ideas to test.  You’ve got this!

What Makes a Great Science Fair Project?  Start with a Problem To Solve

As we discuss below, good science experiments attempt to answer a QUESTION.  Why is the sky blue?  Why does my dog bark at her reflection?  First, we will step through some ways to find TESTABLE QUESTIONS.  These questions that you create will be what you work on for your science fair project.  Pick something fun, something interesting and something that you are excited about.  Not sure what that looks like?  Step through some of the tips below for help.

Use the Google Science Fair Idea Generator

Are you surprised Google made a tool for science fair projects??  Our post called the low-stress way to find a science fair project gives a more in-depth overview about how to use it.  It’s a great first stop if you’re early in the brainstorming process.

Answer your own questions

• What type of music makes you run faster?
• Can boys hold their breath underwater longer than girls?
• How can I be sure the sandwich I bought is gluten free?
• If we plant 100 trees in our neighborhood, will the air be cleaner?

Still stuck? Get inspiration from other science fair projects

Check out the Getting Started section and look at some of the winning science project ideas, our STEMium experiments and our Resource page.  We’ve presented a ton of potential idea starters for you – take time to run through some of these, but our suggestion is to give yourself a deadline to pick an idea .  Going through the lists could take you longer than you think, and in many cases sometimes it’s just better to pick something and go for it!  The next section will take you through how to create testable questions for your project.

Starting Your Project: Find A Testable Question

The best experiments start with a question.  Taking that a step further, the questions you useyou’re your science fair project should be ones that are TESTABLE.  That means something you can measure.  Let’s look at an example.  Let’s say I’m super excited about baking.  OH YEA!!  I love baking.  Specifically, baking cakes.  In fact, I love baking cakes so much that I want to do a science project related to cakes.  We’ve got two questions on cakes that we created.  Which question below could be most useful for a science fair project:

1)  Can eating cake before a test improve your score?

2)  Why isn’t carrot cake more popular than chocolate cake?

The second question isn’t necessarily a bad question to pick.  You could survey people and perhaps tackle the question that way.  However, chances are you will get a lot of different answers and it will probably take a lot of surveys to start to pick up a trend.

Although, the first question might be a little easier.  How would you test this?   Maybe you pick one type of cake and one test that you give people.  If you can get five people to take the test after eating cake and five people take the test with no cake, you can compare the test results.  There might be other variables beyond cake that you could test (example: age, sex, education).  But you can see that the first question is probably a little easier to test.  The first question is also a little easier to come up with a hypothesis.

At this point, you’ve got an idea.  That was the hard part!  Now it’s time to think a little more about that idea and focus it into a scientific question that is testable and that you can create a hypothesis around .

What makes a question “testable”?

Testable questions are ones that can be measured and should focus on what you will change.  In our first cake question, we would be changing whether or not people eat cake before a test.  If we are giving them all the same test and in the same conditions, you could compare how they do on the test with and without cake.  As you are creating your testable question, think about what you WILL CHANGE (cake) and what you are expecting to be different (test scores).  Cause and effect.  Check out this reference on testable questions for more details.

Outline Your Science Project – What Steps Should I Take?

Do Background Research / Create Hypothesis

Science experiments typically start with a question (example: Which cleaning solution eliminates more germs?).  The questions might come up because of a problem.  For example, maybe you’re an engineer and you are trying to design a new line of cars that can drive at least 50 mph faster.  Your problem is that the car isn’t fast enough.  After looking at what other people have tried to do to get the car to go faster, and thinking about what you can change, you try to find a solution or an answer.  When we talk about the scientific method, the proposed answer is referred to as the HYPOTHESIS.

• Science Buddies
• National Geographic

The information you gather to answer these research questions can be used in your report or in your board.  This will go in the BACKGROUND section.  For resources that you find useful, make sure you note the web address where you found it, and save in a Google Doc for later.

Additional Research Tips

For your own science fair project, there will likely be rules that will already be set by the judges/teachers/school.  Make sure you get familiar with the rules FOR YOUR FAIR and what needs to be completed to participate .  Typically, you will have to do some research into your project, you’ll complete experiments, analyze data, make conclusions and then present the work in a written report and on a poster board.  Make a checklist of all these “to do” items.  Key things to address:

• Question being answered – this is your testable question
• Hypothesis – what did you come up with and why
• Experimental design – how are you going to test your hypothesis
• Conclusions – why did you reach these and what are some alternative explanations
• What would you do next? Answering a testable question usually leads to asking more questions and judges will be interested in how you think about next steps.

Need more help?  Check out these additional resources on how to tackle a science fair project:

• Developing a Science Fair Project – Wiley
• Successful Science Fair Projects – Washington University
• Science Fair Planning Guide – Chattahoochee Elementary

Experiment – Time to Test That Hypothesis

Way to go!  You’ve found a problem and identified a testable question.  You’ve done background research and even created a hypothesis.  It’s time to put it all together now and start designing your experiment.  Two experiments we have outlined in detail – germiest spot in school and alka-seltzer rockets – help show how to set up experiments to test variable changes.

The folks at ThoughtCo have a great overview on the different types of variables – independent, dependent and controls.  You need to identify which ones are relevant to your own experiment and then test to see how changes in the independent variable impacts the dependent variable .  Sounds hard?  Nope.  Let’s look at an example.  Let’s say our hypothesis is that cold weather will let you flip a coin with more heads than tails.  The independent variable is the temperature.  The dependent variable is the number of heads or tails that show up.  Our experiment could involve flipping a coin fifty times in different temperatures (outside, in a sauna, in room temperature) and seeing how many heads/tails we get.

One other important point – write down all the steps you take and the materials you use!!  This will be in your final report and project board.  Example – for our coin flipping experiment, we will have a coin (or more than one), a thermometer to keep track of the temperature in our environment.  Take pictures of the flipping too!

Analyze Results – Make Conclusions

Analyzing means adding up our results and putting them into pretty pictures.  Use charts and graphs whenever you can.  In our last coin flipping example, you’d want to include bar charts of the number of heads and tails at different temperatures.  If you’re doing some other type of experiment, take pictures during the different steps to document everything.

This is the fun part….  Now we get to see if we answered our question!  Did the weather affect the coin flipping?  Did eating cake help us do better on our test??  So exciting!  Look through what the data tells you and try to answer your question.  Your hypothesis may / may not be correct.  It’s not important either way – the most important part is what you learned and the process.  Check out these references for more help:

• How to make a chart or graph in Google Sheets
• How to make a chart in Excel

Presentation Time – Set Up Your Board, Practice Your Talk

Personally, the presentation is my favorite part!  First, you get to show off all your hard work and look back at everything you did!  Additionally, science fair rules should outline the specific sections that need to be in the report, and in the poster board – so, be like Emmett from Lego Movie and read the instructions.  Here’s a loose overview of what you should include:

• Title – what is it called.
• Introduction / background – here’s why you’re doing it and helping the judges learn a bit about your project.
• Materials/Methods – what you used and the steps in your experiment. This is so someone else could repeat your experiment.
• Results – what was the outcome? How many heads/tails?  Include pictures and graphs.
• Conclusions – was your hypothesis correct? What else would you like to investigate now?  What went right and what went wrong?
• References – if you did research, where did you get your information from? What are your sources?

The written report will be very similar to the final presentation board.  The board that you’ll prepare is usually a three-panel board set up like the picture shown below.

To prepare for the presentation, you and your partner should be able to talk about the following:

• why you did the experiment
• the hypothesis that was tested
• the data results
• the conclusions.

It’s totally OK to not know an answer.  Just remember this is the fun part!

And that’s it!  YOU DID IT!! 

Science fair projects have been great opportunities for our kids to not only learn more about science, but to also be challenged and push themselves.  Independent projects like these are usually a great learning opportunity.  Has your child completed a science fair project that they are proud of?  Include a pic in the comments – we love to share science!!  Please also check out our STEMium Resources page for more science fair project tips and tricks .

STEMomma is a mother & former scientist/educator. She loves to find creative, fun ways to help engage kids in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math).  When she’s not busy in meetings or carpooling kids, she loves spending time with the family and dreaming up new experiments  or games they can try in the backyard.

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VFM 8th Grade Science Fair Project: Step 4: Background Research

• Step 1: Find a Project Idea
• Step 2: Formulate a Research Question & do a Project Proposal
• Step 3: State the Purpose
• Step 4: Background Research
• Free Web Search
• Step 5: Bibliography
• Step 6: Identify the Variables in your Experiment
• Step 7: Form a Hypothesis
• Step 8: Materials
• Step 9: Design & Write the Procedure
• Step 10: Perform the Experiment
• Step 11: Record your Data and Results
• Step 12: Analyze your Data & Results
• Step 13: Make a Conclusion
• Step 14: Write the Abstract
• Step 15: Acknowledgments
• Step 16: Title Page and Table of Contents
• Step 17: Proofread!
• Step 18: Write a Final Copy of your Lab Report
• Step 19: Create your Display Board
• Step 20: The VFMS Science Fair
• Oral Presentation
• Lab Journal/Notebook
• Schedule and Due Dates

In-Text Citation

• [APA] How do I write an APA parenthetical (in-text) reference? Give Credit to your website or author in the body of your research.

Background Research

Background research should help you to educate the reader of your project about important aspects of your topic.  

Using multiple resources, students should learn about past results of other experiments that are similar to theirs. Students should know how and why previous experimenters arrived at their conclusions. The background research should help the students give the “because…” in the “if… then… because…” section of their hypothesis.

20 - 30 facts from 3 sources  is a reasonable expectation for this section. In the final paper, this background research will be put into paragraph form.

Use the  Background Research Planning Worksheet  to help you formulate questions that you need to answer for your topic.  Each student should become an expert on anything that is closely related to their area of research. 

• Background Research Worksheet Complete this worksheet prior to beginning your background research for your project.
• Fact Collection Worksheet Collect 20-30 facts from a minimum of 3 sources: one source must be from Gale Science in Context
• Sample of Background Research Paragraphs Here is a sample of what your background research paragraphs might look like. Sample found on the web here: http://www.oncoursesystems.com/images/user/2162/302482/img074.jpg

Why You Should Use Databases

Databases are sometimes called the "deep web" or "invisible web" because their information is usually only accessible through paid subscriptions using passwords and isn't usually found (indexed) by search engines such as Google.

Database records are organized using a variety of indexes such as author and subject but are keyword searchable as well. 

Databases are either subject specific such as World History in Context or content specific such as the newspaper and magazine database through EBSCO. 

Databases contain information that has been checked for the  ABC's   of  authority  &   accuracy, bias, and content  &  currency . You can trust the information you find in databases, not like on the web or through Google searches. Sometimes it's accurate, but many times it isn't. 

Library Databases: Start your Search Here

What is Research?

Research is: 

• Driven by a question that guides the process.
• Seeking information with a clear goal.
• A process, which works best when done step- by-step. The steps may need to be repeated.
• Collection and interpretation of data in an attempt to resolve the problem.
• Going beyond facts and old ideas.
• Taking a new look at the information and taking a stand.

Research is not:

• Copying and pasting information you find through a Google search.
• Combining a paragraph from one article with a couple of paragraphs from websites. That's plagiarism.
• Rearranging facts
• Rewording each phrase and citing each source. That's just a summary of facts with someone else's name on them and still can be classified as plagiarism.

Words for the wise student: 

• Remember, begin with a "wide net" and then narrow your search results.
• If you only look for specific information to answer a specific question, you may miss many opportunities to broaden your understanding .
• Allow for surprises- you may find your views on your topic will change and take you in an entirely new direction.
• Remember that research is searching again and again.
• In the process of doing research, you will be looking at information that others have looked at before, trying to see something that they have not seen.
• << Previous: Step 3: State the Purpose
• Next: Free Web Search >>
• Last Updated: Jan 27, 2016 2:09 PM
• URL: https://tesd.libguides.com/VFMScienceFairProject

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Teaching Resources & Guides > How to Teach Science Tips > Writing a Science Report  

Writing a Science Report

With science fair season coming up as well as many end of the year projects, students are often required to write a research paper or a report on their project. Use this guide to help you in the process from finding a topic to revising and editing your final paper.

Brainstorming Topics

Sometimes one of the largest barriers to writing a research paper is trying to figure out what to write about. Many times the topic is supplied by the teacher, or the curriculum tells what the student should research and write about. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes the student is given a very broad concept to write a research paper on, for example, water. Within the category of water, there are many topics and subtopics that would be appropriate. Topics about water can include anything from the three states of water, different water sources, minerals found in water, how water is used by living organisms, the water cycle, or how to find water in the desert. The point is that “water” is a very large topic and would be too broad to be adequately covered in a typical 3-5 page research paper.

When given a broad category to write about, it is important to narrow it down to a topic that is much more manageable. Sometimes research needs to be done in order to find the best topic to write about. (Look for searching tips in “Finding and Gathering Information.”) Listed below are some tips and guidelines for picking a suitable research topic:

• Pick a topic within the category that you find interesting. It makes it that much easier to research and write about a topic if it interests you.
• You may find while researching a topic that the details of the topic are very boring to you. If this is the case, and you have the option to do this, change your topic.
• Pick a topic that you are already familiar with and research further into that area to build on your current knowledge.
• When researching topics to do your paper on, look at how much information you are finding. If you are finding very little information on your topic or you are finding an overwhelming amount, you may need to rethink your topic.
• If permissible, always leave yourself open to changing your topic. While researching for topics, you may come across one that you find really interesting and can use just as well as the previous topics you were searching for.
• Most importantly, does your research topic fit the guidelines set forth by your teacher or curriculum?

Finding and Gathering Information

There are numerous resources out there to help you find information on the topic selected for your research paper. One of the first places to begin research is at your local library. Use the Dewey Decimal System or ask the librarian to help you find books related to your topic. There are also a variety of reference materials, such as encyclopedias, available at the library.

A relatively new reference resource has become available with the power of technology – the Internet. While the Internet allows the user to access a wealth of information that is often more up-to-date than printed materials such as books and encyclopedias, there are certainly drawbacks to using it. It can be hard to tell whether or not a site contains factual information or just someone’s opinion. A site can also be dangerous or inappropriate for students to use.

You may find that certain science concepts and science terminology are not easy to find in regular dictionaries and encyclopedias. A science dictionary or science encyclopedia can help you find more in-depth and relevant information for your science report. If your topic is very technical or specific, reference materials such as medical dictionaries and chemistry encyclopedias may also be good resources to use.

If you are writing a report for your science fair project, not only will you be finding information from published sources, you will also be generating your own data, results, and conclusions. Keep a journal that tracks and records your experiments and results. When writing your report, you can either write out your findings from your experiments or display them using graphs or charts .

*As you are gathering information, keep a working bibliography of where you found your sources. Look under “Citing Sources” for more information. This will save you a lot of time in the long run!

Organizing Information

Most people find it hard to just take all the information they have gathered from their research and write it out in paper form. It is hard to get a starting point and go from the beginning to the end. You probably have several ideas you know you want to put in your paper, but you may be having trouble deciding where these ideas should go. Organizing your information in a way where new thoughts can be added to a subtopic at any time is a great way to organize the information you have about your topic. Here are two of the more popular ways to organize information so it can be used in a research paper:

• Graphic organizers such as a web or mind map . Mind maps are basically stating the main topic of your paper, then branching off into as many subtopics as possible about the main topic. Enchanted Learning has a list of several different types of mind maps as well as information on how to use them and what topics fit best for each type of mind map and graphic organizer.
• Sub-Subtopic: Low temperatures and adequate amounts of snow are needed to form glaciers.
• Sub-Subtopic: Glaciers move large amounts of earth and debris.
• Sub-Subtopic: Two basic types of glaciers: valley and continental.
• Subtopic: Icebergs – large masses of ice floating on liquid water

Different Formats For Your Paper

Depending on your topic and your writing preference, the layout of your paper can greatly enhance how well the information on your topic is displayed.

1. Process . This method is used to explain how something is done or how it works by listing the steps of the process. For most science fair projects and science experiments, this is the best format. Reports for science fairs need the entire project written out from start to finish. Your report should include a title page, statement of purpose, hypothesis, materials and procedures, results and conclusions, discussion, and credits and bibliography. If applicable, graphs, tables, or charts should be included with the results portion of your report.

2. Cause and effect . This is another common science experiment research paper format. The basic premise is that because event X happened, event Y happened.

3. Specific to general . This method works best when trying to draw conclusions about how little topics and details are connected to support one main topic or idea.

4. Climatic order . Similar to the “specific to general” category, here details are listed in order from least important to most important.

5. General to specific . Works in a similar fashion as the method for organizing your information. The main topic or subtopic is stated first, followed by supporting details that give more information about the topic.

6. Compare and contrast . This method works best when you wish to show the similarities and/or differences between two or more topics. A block pattern is used when you first write about one topic and all its details and then write about the second topic and all its details. An alternating pattern can be used to describe a detail about the first topic and then compare that to the related detail of the second topic. The block pattern and alternating pattern can also be combined to make a format that better fits your research paper.

Citing Sources

When writing a research paper, you must cite your sources! Otherwise you are plagiarizing (claiming someone else’s ideas as your own) which can cause severe penalties from failing your research paper assignment in primary and secondary grades to failing the entire course (most colleges and universities have this policy). To help you avoid plagiarism, follow these simple steps:

• Find out what format for citing your paper your teacher or curriculum wishes you to use. One of the most widely used and widely accepted citation formats by scholars and schools is the Modern Language Association (MLA) format. We recommended that you do an Internet search for the most recent format of the citation style you will be using in your paper.
• Keep a working bibliography when researching your topic. Have a document in your computer files or a page in your notebook where you write down every source that you found and may use in your paper. (You probably will not use every resource you find, but it is much easier to delete unused sources later rather than try to find them four weeks down the road.) To make this process even easier, write the source down in the citation format that will be used in your paper. No matter what citation format you use, you should always write down title, author, publisher, published date, page numbers used, and if applicable, the volume and issue number.
• When collecting ideas and information from your sources, write the author’s last name at the end of the idea. When revising and formatting your paper, keep the author’s last name attached to the end of the idea, no matter where you move that idea. This way, you won’t have to go back and try to remember where the ideas in your paper came from.
• There are two ways to use the information in your paper: paraphrasing and quotes. The majority of your paper will be paraphrasing the information you found. Paraphrasing is basically restating the idea being used in your own words.   As a general rule of thumb, no more than two of the original words should be used in sequence when paraphrasing information, and similes should be used for as many of the words as possible in the original passage without changing the meaning of the main point. Sometimes, you may find something stated so well by the original author that it would be best to use the author’s original words in your paper. When using the author’s original words, use quotation marks only around the words being directly quoted and work the quote into the body of your paper so that it makes sense grammatically. Search the Internet for more rules on paraphrasing and quoting information.

Revising and Editing Your Paper

Revising your paper basically means you are fixing grammatical errors or changing the meaning of what you wrote. After you have written the rough draft of your paper, read through it again to make sure the ideas in your paper flow and are cohesive. You may need to add in information, delete extra information, use a thesaurus to find a better word to better express a concept, reword a sentence, or just make sure your ideas are stated in a logical and progressive order.

After revising your paper, go back and edit it, correcting the capitalization, punctuation, and spelling errors – the mechanics of writing. If you are not 100% positive a word is spelled correctly, look it up in a dictionary. Ask a parent or teacher for help on the proper usage of commas, hyphens, capitalization, and numbers. You may also be able to find the answers to these questions by doing an Internet search on writing mechanics or by checking you local library for a book on writing mechanics.

It is also always a good idea to have someone else read your paper. Because this person did not write the paper and is not familiar with the topic, he or she is more likely to catch mistakes or ideas that do not quite make sense. This person can also give you insights or suggestions on how to reword or format your paper to make it flow better or convey your ideas better.

More Information:

• Quick Science Fair Guide
• Science Fair Project Ideas

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How to Write a Convincing Science Fair Research Proposal

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For students interested in the STEM fields, there are many extracurriculars to choose from. You might join the Math or Science Olympiad team, you could join the Computer Science Club, or you could even volunteer as a naturalist at a local conservation area.

If you are interested in scientific research, you might pursue the opportunity to secure a research assistant position or shadow various scientific researchers. But if you truly want to take the helm and guide your own research, your path may lead you to participating in the science fair.

The science fair is a traditional component of many high school science programs, with participation ranging widely from school to school and science fair to science fair. At some schools, the science fair might be a rite of passage expected of every student. At others, it attracts a handful of dedicated science die-hards.

Regardless, most science fairs feature presentations by students who have completed experiments, demonstrated scientific principles, or undertaken an engineering challenge. Participants are judged by a panel of experts who score each presentation according to a rubric. Traditionally, awards are presented for the top-scoring projects. 

There are many science fairs beyond school-sponsored fairs, too. Regional, state, national, and even international fairs are open to students who qualify through their schools and work their way up through the science fair circuit. Others, like the Regeneron Science Talent Search, are open through an intensive application process.

If you are considering entering a project in the science fair, you will need to think carefully about your subject matter, your experimental design, and the relevance of your work before committing to a project. Many science fairs will even require that you complete a formal research proposal to demonstrate the level of thinking you’ve put into your experiment before beginning it.

In this post, we will outline the purpose of a research proposal for the science fair, the common elements of such a proposal, and how you can go about writing a comprehensive research proposal that is sure to impress.

What is the Purpose of a Research Proposal?

A research proposal has three primary purposes. The first purpose is to explain what you intend to do. This is essentially what you will do in your experiment or project, summarized into a basic overview.

The second function of a research proposal is to explain how you intend to accomplish this. You will give a brief summary of the methods and techniques that you intend to employ, and list the materials that you will need to do so.

The final point of a research proposal is to explain why this project should be done. Here, you will discuss the important or relevance of this study. Basically, in this portion of your proposal you’ll answer the question, “so what?”

Now that you know the aim of a research proposal, you can begin to prepare to write one. -->

Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Research Proposal

1. narrow down the subject area..

Before you go into your project in any sort of depth, you’ll need a fairly good idea of what your project’s focus will be. In order to narrow this down, you should consider a few different angles.

First, ask yourself what you’re interested in. You will be more likely to feel engaged and passionate about a project that is genuinely interesting to you, so take some time to carefully consider the areas of science that you find the most fascinating. Even if they don’t seem particularly well-suited to a science fair project at first, you never know what you might be able to come up with through some collaboration with mentors or through some background research. Keep a running list of areas of science that sincerely fascinate you.

Next, consider any specialized labs or equipment to which you might have access. Does your best friend’s mother work in a lab with highly specialized tools? Does your school have a state-of-the-art wind tunnel or fully equipped greenhouse? These are all possible resources you can utilize if you want your project to truly stand out. Of course, it’s completely possible to choose a project that shines on its own without any specialized equipment, but if you’re looking for every boost you might get, having access to specialized technology can be a great advantage to make your project truly unique.

Finally, consider if you know a teacher or other professional who might be willing to mentor you. You can also seek out a mentor specifically if you can’t think of anyone obvious. Having a mentor in your field will provide you with invaluable insight into practice and past research in the field.

In the ideal world, you would find a project that maximizes all of your resources, including your interests, access to equipment, and an enthusiastic mentor. Don’t worry if you can’t secure all three, though. Plenty of science fair participants go on to do quite well relying on only their own dogged determination and commitment to their subject matter.

2 . Decide How Your Experiment Will Be Done

If you have a mentor, teacher, or adviser willing to consult with you, schedule a time to sit down with them and discuss what you’d like to do. If you can’t find someone more experienced than you, even discussing your ideas with a trusted classmate, parent, or older sibling is a good idea. Sometimes the outside perspective will help to fine-tune your design or identify areas for improvement.

You should also begin some research at this stage to learn how similar projects have been conducted in the past. Use the results and limitations from these experiments to help guide your own experimental design.

As you do so, keep in mind any limiting factors. Remember to consider what equipment you have at your disposal, the time commitment you’re able to make, and the materials that you’ll need to acquire.

In addition, be sure to check the rules of the specific science fairs you’ll be attending. Some have strict regulations designed to keep you safe, like limiting the ways in which potentially hazardous chemicals can be used. Other rules are designed to keep the environment safe, like placing restrictions on how you dispose of foreign substances or non-native species. There are also ethical rules that govern the use of human participants or vertebrate animals in your studies. Make sure to check which rules govern the fair in which you’re participating and how they might impact your ideas before you put any more thought into your project.

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3. Background Research

Your background research should be fairly comprehensive at this point and will be the single largest component of your research proposal. You should focus on your research on relevant past studies that inform your work either by identifying areas for future research or by identifying limiting factors in their own research. You should also research past experiments that support or attempt to disprove your working theory.

Finally, your research should clearly show why the project is relevant. What is important about it? What does it add to the field? Why should we care? Make sure that you can communicate the scientific value of the project you’re proposing.

4. Write Your Proposal

Once you’ve chosen a project, decided how you’ll undertake it, and done the relevant background research, you are finally able to begin drafting your research proposal. Check with your school or science fair to see if there is a specific format or form that you’re required to adhere to. If not, and you are producing a general research proposal, follow this format:

This should be a one-paragraph description of the project, your hypothesis, and the goals of your experiment. Here, you provide a brief overview of your project for anyone who is skimming your work.

Introduction/Literature Review:

This is the bulk of your proposal. In your literature review, you present what is currently known about your project’s focus and summarize relevant research that has been done in the field. You will discuss previous discoveries in your field, including how they were made and what they lend to your current work.

You will also show what is interesting and ground-breaking about your research idea. In this section you will need to summarize why your project is relevant, what makes it important, and how the field or current base of knowledge could change or be improved due to your project’s results.

As you write your literature review, you’ll need to be sure that you’re using high-quality, accurate sources. It’s best to rely on scholarly journal articles or reference books. Be wary of using the Internet, as many sources are unverified. If you are using online resources, be sure to verify their source. Published, peer-reviewed scholarly articles are best.

It’s also important to include proper citations for every source cited. You’ll need to list all your sources in the appropriate format in your bibliography along with citing them in the text of your proposal when you quote directly or reference specific data. If you aren’t sure how to cite properly, check out the Scientific Style and Format page.

Hypothesis:

This is the working theory that you are testing and what you expect the results will be, based off what you have learned through your background research.

Materials and Methods:

In this section you’ll provide a precise, in depth description of how you plan to test your hypothesis and what tools or materials you’ll need to do so. Summarize your experimental design, specifically referring to how you will control and replicate the experiment. Also list the equipment and materials that you will need for undertaking your experiment.

Conclusion:

Here, you will reiterate how your proposed research will advance knowledge in the scientific field and outline any potential longterm impact that your work could have on theory or practice within the field.

Bibliography:

List all sources used in appropriate format. Refer to the Scientific Style and Format page if you aren’t sure how to do so.

What Happens After I Submit a Research Proposal?

After you submit the research proposal, it will be reviewed by your teacher or a science fair administrator or adviser. It will be approved, rejected, or returned for revisions based on its feasibility, value to the scientific field, and adherence to the science fair rules and regulations.

While larger, more selective science fairs will have to select only a limited number of candidates based on the merits of their research proposals, it is fairly uncommon for a science fair research proposal to get completely denied at the school level. Usually, in these cases, your proposal will be returned to you with requests for edits or further clarification. You have most likely consulted with your teacher or adviser throughout the process of developing your proposal, so nothing should come as a complete surprise when you receive feedback.

If your proposal is rejected and you don’t receive constructive feedback, don’t be shy about respectfully requesting some feedback to help you shape a better, more effective proposal in the future.

If your proposal is returned for revisions, you should feel encouraged. While you still have some work to do, this is generally a sign that with a few tweaks, your proposal will be accepted. Meet with a teacher, mentor, or adviser to review the revisions requested and address each thoroughly before returning the proposal for another round of review.

If your proposal is accepted, congratulations! It’s time to get to work. While your proposal itself was probably a time-consuming endeavor, your research will ultimately be easier for having taken the time and care to craft a precise proposal. Your research will be more focused and likely a smoother process due to all your careful planning, and you will be able to use large chunks of your written work in your final scientific report.

Don’t be intimidated if you’re getting ready to write a science fair research proposal. It can be a long process to fine-tune your project and focus your proposed research, but the work that you put in now ultimately makes your job easier in the long run.

Looking for help navigating the road to college as a high school student? Download our  free guide for 9th graders  and our  free guide for 10th graders . Our guides go in-depth about subjects ranging from  academics ,  choosing courses ,  standardized tests ,  extracurricular activities ,  and much more !

For more information about the science fair and opportunities for students interested in the STEM fields, see these valuable CollegeVine posts:

• How to Spend Your Summer As a Prospective Math Major (And Why Math is a Great Career Path)
• A Guide to STEM Scholarships
• Summer Activities for the Future BS/MD Applicant
• Ultimate Guide to the AP Research Course and Assessment
• How to Choose a Project for Your AP Research Course
• How to Get a Research Assistant Position in High School
• An Introduction to the AP Capstone Diploma
• How to Choose a Winning Science Fair Project Idea
• How to Plan and Implement an Independent Study in High School
• A Beginner’s Guide to the Science Fair
• Guide to National Youth Science Camp

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How to Do a Science Fair Project

Science fair projects are a wonderful opportunity to go beyond the knowledge you learn in a textbook. Through independent research, a science fair project allows you to explore any scientific or engineering topic that interests you, study a subject in depth and come up with a hands-on experiment that investigates a question you have about the world around you.

Let’s walk you through the complete process of how to do a science fair project. Including, coming up with an idea, creating a testable question, conducting the experiment, recording and examining your results and even preparing your presentation. Make sure that when you conduct any project, you follow all safety procedures and have adult supervision.

Science Fair Project Expectations

The expectations for varying ages will be different. Although all the steps for a science fair project are covered in the video below, you’ll want to note these average expectations by grade level:

1 -3 rd grade: What I Did and What I Learned

• Younger elementary students would explore a science topic that reflects their current interests, as well as share what they did and what they learned in the process.

4-6 th grade: Simplified Scientific Method

• Older elementary students would explore a topic more in-depth by creating a simple hypothesis and going through a simplified version of the scientific method.

7-8 th grade: Scientific Method

• Middle school students should follow the scientific method; however, their background research and future studies would be brief.

9-12 th grade: All Portions, Including Research, Conclusions and Future Studies

• Finally, high school students would complete all portions of the process covered in the video, including in-depth research, conclusions, and future studies.

Ultimately we want you to have fun exploring and experimenting in a safe manner, experiencing the joy that comes from discovering something new.

Brainstorming an Experiment Idea

The first thing you need for a science fair project is an idea, and the key to a successful science fair project begins with you. What are your interests? What questions do you have about the things you like to do every day? Because you are going to spend lots of time researching, experimenting, and presenting, make your topic something you are excited about. If you choose a project idea that interests you, then you’ll be more motivated to complete it, do it well, and, most importantly, have fun learning!

A good science fair project goes beyond the classic volcano model (unless you absolutely love studying volcanoes). You want your project to stand out as you share your newfound knowledge with others.

Now there are some topics that are not a good choice for a science fair project. For example, don’t pick any topics that include hard-to-measure data, such as how a person’s feelings or memory would be affected by certain foods, music, or other stimuli. If you are comparing products, try to avoid results that are open to personal opinions. You want results that are measurable. Do not choose a topic that requires dangerous materials, and please don’t pick a topic that could cause injury or pain to a living animal or human!

A traditional science question may come about like this:

• Let’s say you enjoy baking bread- you have always been fascinated to watch the loaves grow as you stare through the oven window. This might start you thinking about how yeast causes the bread to rise.
• Or perhaps you have a garden that is constantly bothered by ants. You might start to wonder what structural barriers you could test that would keep them out.
• If you like to play sports, perhaps you could test what types of shoe treads would make you run faster.
• If you’re considering an engineering design project, look around at designs and technology around you to see if there are ways to improve them. Maybe you want to make something stronger, faster, or smaller. For this type of project, you’re basically looking for ways you can improve existing designs.

These are all great topics to start with, but you need to think about that subject a bit in order to come up with a testable question. So the next step involves doing some research to gather background information on your topic.

Doing Some Background Research

Once you’ve come up with an idea, gather some library books and research internet sources on the subject. If you know a professional in the area of your study, they might be helpful to brainstorm ideas with, too. For older students, it’s important to learn what research has already been completed about your subject. This way, you can create an intelligent experiment. Particularly for high school students, background research (called a literature review) is an important part of your project- taking up a good portion of your efforts.

Let’s say that in reading about yeast and its role in bread, you learn that yeast is a type of single-celled fungus. When yeast cells are activated (by placing them in warm water), they feed on sugars and release carbon dioxide, which forms bubbles that become trapped in the dough, causing it to rise. That background information might cause you to ask some questions:

You might ask, “Does yeast do better with warmer or cooler oven temperatures while baking?” “Are there certain acidic materials that affect yeast, such as lemon juice or vinegar?” “How much sugar do yeast cells need?” “What type of sugar works best to get the most even rise?”

Make sure to write your research discoveries and all of these questions in your lab notebook. That way, you can refer back to this information when you need to.

This brings us to the next step in the process.

Choosing a Testable Question and Formatting it as a Hypothesis

In looking over your questions, you should now try to identify which of them can be tested. Which questions might be easy to explore and measure? You want to pick one thing to test in your project, and don’t forget to identify which one of the topics is interesting to YOU!

A helpful way to format your questions is “How does (something) affect (something)? That way, you are setting yourself up to create an experiment to answer that question. You might ask, “How does tail length affect a paper airplane’s distance of flight?” Or “How does fertilizer affect the growth of a tomato plant?”

In reviewing your background reading and research on baking bread, you might wonder what type of sugar is best to produce the greatest bread rise. Your question might be, “How does sugar type affect bread rise?” You imagine trying a bread recipe using white granulated sugar, unbleached sugar, honey, agave syrup, maple syrup, or stevia. Then, you can discuss this thinking process with your parents, a science teacher, or a professional baker.

Is this a good, testable question? Can you easily measure bread rising? Yes, you can use a ruler to measure the height of each loaf after it is baked. So this looks to be a good science fair topic – it’s testable, it’s measurable and you are interested in exploring the outcome!

Don’t forget to write this thought process in your notebook. If you discuss your idea with a professional, make sure to write down what you talked about. Again, this will be helpful for later reference.

Once you come up with a good question, it’s time to reword it into a statement called a hypothesis . A hypothesis is a testable statement – not a question – that is based on some observed situation or the relationship between elements in a situation. To say it more simply, you are making an educated guess based on the information you have observed and researched. You want to try to answer the question you have and then conduct an experiment to see if the results will either support your hypothesis or reject it.

So, if your question is, “How does sugar type affect bread rise?” you need to predict which sugar type YOU think would work the best. After doing some reading on the subject, you might notice that most yeast bread recipes call for white sugar. So your hypothesis might be, “If I use white sugar in yeast bread, then it will rise higher than other sugars.” Now THAT is a statement you can test.

One of the easiest formats for a hypothesis is called an If-then statement . It is worded in an easy-to-test way. Some examples include,

If a paper airplane is made of heavier paper, then it will fly farther than paper airplanes made of lighter paper. If disinfecting wipes are used on a cell phone daily, then the cell phone will have fewer bacteria on it compared to a cell phone that is not disinfected daily.

At this point, you have chosen your topic, done some background research on it, chosen a testable question and formed a hypothesis. All of these should be listed in your notebook. Now it’s time to set up your experiment.

Planning Your Experiment to Test One Variable

When setting up your experiment, it’s important to make every component the same, except the one you want to test. Each changeable element in an experiment is called a variable. It can vary within the experiment. For example, in varying the sugar type for the bread baking example, there are other things that could possibly change. You could bake your loaves in different types of bread pans. You might use different recipes for each loaf. You might bake the loaves at different time periods or cook them at different heights within the oven. All these variables – these things that can vary – can have an effect on your result – which is how high the bread rises. So, in order to make sure that ONLY sugar type changes, you should reduce or remove all the other variables as best as possible.

That means you should use the same type of baking pans, and bake them in the same oven on the same oven rack. And to make it even better, bake each of the loaves in the center of the oven. That might mean you have to bake them one at a time, but oven temperatures vary around the inside. You should follow the same recipe for all your loaves, using the same quantity of sugar, but the ONLY thing you vary is the type of sugar. That way, any differences in rise will most likely be due to the sugar type the yeast fed on.

Ideally, you also should conduct this same experiment more than once for each sugar type – preferably at least three times. These are called trials . You should conduct several trials so that you have more than one set of results to analyze. Each trial will include the use of the same bread pans, the same recipe, the same placement in the oven, etc. The only variable that should change is the sugar type.

If you are doing an engineering project, your experiment might look a bit different. Say you are designing a machine or device to do a task, such as exploring the best wing design for a paper airplane glider in order to make it travel the farthest. You come up with a design, create a model, test it, and then refine the design. In this case, you’ll be making several illustrations in your notebook that you can refer to. Engineering project design is more of a cyclical process. You create a design, test it several times, make a design adjustment, retest it again several times, and so on until you find the design that works best. However, just like the bread-baking example, you should still keep all the other variables, besides wing design, the same. Variables such as the height you release the plane from, the way you release the plane and the location in which you perform the experiment (which would preferably be indoors, so there is no wind variable) should all be kept constant. Once you discover the best wing length, for example, you could continue the process of keeping that best wing length and then varying another aspect, such as adjusting wing width or bending the wings upward on the tips.

As you plan your experiment, make a list in your notebook of all the materials you are going to use and write out your planned procedure. Make sure your notebook is neat and easy to read.

Now it’s time to do the actual experiment.

Conducting Your Experiment and Recording Your Observations

When conducting your experiment, measure the data carefully, record it in your notebook and include any units. In the bread-rising example, you might measure how many centimeters high each loaf of bread is, once it is removed from the loaf pan. Whenever possible, use the metric system of measurement. If you’re testing the speed of a wooden car, you could use meters per second by marking off the number of meters in the car’s path and using a phone stopwatch. When you record your data, you might want to use a chart or table to keep everything organized.

Along with your data, include photos or illustrations of your experimental setup.

Make a note if you have to change your procedure at all. Sometimes once you begin conducting an experiment, you notice new variables or other issues that need to be adjusted. That is perfectly fine, as long as you make a note of what you actually did and include that in your final report.

Examining Your Results and Making a Conclusion

The purpose of examining the results of your experiment is to look for any trends from your data and come up with conclusions based on those trends.

In the bread-baking example, you might have observed that using honey produced the highest rise. Compare that result to your original hypothesis. In our example, the hypothesis was, “If I use white sugar in yeast bread, then it will rise higher than other sugars.” Was the hypothesis correct? Did you discover a different result?

In this case, the hypothesis was not supported. Now, it’s perfectly OK if your results do not support your hypothesis. In your discussion about your experiment, you can explain what you learned from the data you collected and add the new result as your conclusion.

The most important part of this step is that you understand your subject well and can use the data you collected to come up with a conclusion – even if it is a conclusion you were surprised to get. If you hypothesized that white sugar would produce the highest rise, and your results demonstrated that honey produced the highest rise, then you’ve learned something by conducting this experiment (and you can adjust how you bake in the future!).

Some experiments will produce data that can be graphed. This is the time to do that. Analyzing data can include creating a pie chart, a bar chart, a line graph, or tables. These are great ways to present your data in an easy-to-read manner. Add these graphs or charts into your notebook, if you haven’t already.

A final part of this step includes identifying any data that were way outside of the expected findings. Perhaps one of the loaves of bread using white sugar didn’t rise at all. If something like this happens, think about what might have caused it. Maybe in this one case, the yeast was dissolved in water that was too hot, and perhaps they didn’t survive. Or perhaps the electricity went out during a portion of your cooking time, and the oven may have cooled down a bit. Although both the water temperature and the baking temperature should be variables that are controlled, sometimes there are circumstances that cause one of these variables to change, causing an unexpected outcome.

Creating a Science Fair Display Board and Report

Now it’s time to take your scientific process, findings and conclusions and create a display board and project report.

It’s best to write a report first so you can chronicle the entire process of your project. The format of a science fair report is basically the same as a lab report. You can find helps in writing a lab report by watching our “How to Write a Lab Report” YouTube video. Younger students, of course, are not expected to write as much as older students. For example, early elementary students should write or dictate a sentence or two for each of their steps.

The display board is a way people can tell at a glance what your project was all about. It is typically a three-sided corrugated board that presents all the elements of your science experiment. It has a clear title at the top center, of the board that is a form of your original question. As a general rule, the display board has your Problem, Purpose, and Hypothesis on the left side of the board, your Procedure and Materials – diagrams, graphs, and/or pictures go in the center of the board and your Results and Conclusion (along with any other images) go on the right side of the board.

Keep everything clear and simple – not cluttered. Don’t include too much text, and add clear graphs or tables in coordinating colors.  Add pictures of you conducting your experiment and close-ups of some of your results. The goal is to make your display board pleasing to the eye – not too flashy, and not too plain – but you want to include all of the major elements.

In your conclusion, tie the new information into a bigger-picture statement. In our bread-baking example, you might say that producing higher-rising bread would create more delicious bread and larger-sized sandwiches. Think about why people should care about this particular issue. Make it something they will be happy they learned about – something they can relate to. How can this information help in other areas? You can suggest how this information might benefit other types of baking, improving the texture and rise of cookies and cakes.

Preparing a Short Presentation

One of the unique things about a science fair is that students get to present their work to others. Presentations might sound a little scary, but you are basically describing how you chose your project, what you did, and what you discovered. It is a good way to teach others what you learned!

You can discuss how you came up with the idea for your project, whether it was a question you had or a problem you wanted to try to solve. Make sure you can explain the experimental process and the results you collected. Note whether your experimental results supported your hypothesis or not, and what you learned from this process. If something surprised you, include that as well. Finally, it’s always good to include how your results might be a springboard to future experimentation on your topic.

Practice your presentation for your family or friends to get some feedback and encouragement.

Wrapping Up

Science fair projects help you better understand a STEM topic and see its real-life application. Plus, they build creativity and can be both interesting and fun. You can immerse yourself in an experiment, exploring the answer to a question you have and eventually becoming an expert on the subject.

There are lots of potential experiments to choose from, but the best ones come from your own ideas. You might be way more excited to test “Do video games really rot my brain?” versus “Do plants need sunlight?” Both involve critical thinking and creativity and yet when the exploration comes out of something you enjoy, the fun – and greater learning – begins!

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How to Write a Science Fair Project Report

Lab Reports and Research Essays

• Projects & Experiments
• Chemical Laws
• Periodic Table
• Scientific Method
• Biochemistry
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• Famous Chemists
• Activities for Kids
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• Weather & Climate
• Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
• B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College

Writing a science fair project report may seem like a challenging task, but it is not as difficult as it first appears. This is a format that you may use to write a science project report. If your project included animals, humans, hazardous materials, or regulated substances, you can attach an appendix that describes any special activities your project required. Also, some reports may benefit from additional sections, such as abstracts and bibliographies. You may find it helpful to fill out the science fair lab report template to prepare your report.

Important: Some science fairs have guidelines put forth by the science fair committee or an instructor. If your science fair has these guidelines, be sure to follow them.

• Title:  For a science fair, you probably want a catchy, clever title. Otherwise, try to make it an accurate description of the project. For example, I could entitle a project, "Determining Minimum NaCl Concentration That Can Be Tasted in Water." Avoid unnecessary words, while covering the essential purpose of the project. Whatever title you come up with, get it critiqued by friends, family, or teachers.
• Introduction and Purpose:  Sometimes this section is called "background." Whatever its name, this section introduces the topic of the project, notes any information already available, explains why you are interested in the project, and states the purpose of the project. If you are going to state references in your report, this is where most of the citations are likely to be, with the actual references listed at the end of the entire report in the form of a bibliography or reference section.
• The Hypothesis or Question:  Explicitly state your hypothesis or question.
• Materials and Methods:  List the materials you used in your project and describe the procedure that you used to perform the project. If you have a photo or diagram of your project, this is a good place to include it.
• Data and Results:  Data and results are not the same things. Some reports will require that they be in separate sections, so make sure you understand the difference between the concepts. Data refers to the actual numbers or other information you obtained in your project. Data can be presented in tables or charts, if appropriate. The results section is where the data is manipulated or the hypothesis is tested. Sometimes this analysis will yield tables, graphs, or charts, too. For example, a table listing the minimum concentration of salt that I can taste in water, with each line in the table being a separate test or trial, would be data. If I average the data or perform a statistical test of a null hypothesis , the information would be the results of the project.
• Conclusion:  The conclusion focuses on the hypothesis or question as it compares to the data and results. What was the answer to the question? Was the hypothesis supported (keep in mind a hypothesis cannot be proved, only disproved)? What did you find out from the experiment? Answer these questions first. Then, depending on your answers, you may wish to explain the ways in which the project might be improved or introduce new questions that have come up as a result of the project. This section is judged not only by what you were able to conclude but also by your recognition of areas where you could not draw valid conclusions based on your data.

Appearances Matter

Neatness counts, spelling counts, grammar counts. Take the time to make the report look nice. Pay attention to margins, avoid fonts that are difficult to read or are too small or too large, use clean paper, and make print the report cleanly on as good a printer or copier as you can.

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Every great science project includes the same basic activities:

• Identifying a testable question . The question should be answerable, using affordable materials and methods that are both safe and feasible.
• Testing each variable  in an experiment more than once. Repeated testing will ensure you have enough data to make valid conclusions.
• Testing only one variable at a time . This approach allows you to identify and measure the effect of each variable individually.
• Data gathering and recording . Data include measurements and observations.
• Graphing data , and then identifying trends in the data. That will help support your conclusion.

This  science fair project guide  published by Science Buddies can help you get started. This 15-minute  animated video , by a young artist named Kevin Temmer, provides a great introduction to preparing for a science fair.

Now that you know what to do, choose a topic and then:

• Research the topic . This means becoming a mini-expert on the topic.
• Organize . This includes stating the question you want to answer.
• Create a timetable . Research takes planning, pacing and usually much more time than you expect.
• Make a research plan . This is a roadmap of the questions you will have to answer as you design, conduct and interpret your experiment.
• Review rules , and have an adult review and approve your experiment if necessary. Every science fair requires students to follow a set of rules. For example, here are the rules for Regeneron ISEF competition for high school students. Some projects also require the review and approval of an adult. These can include projects involving hazardous or potentially hazardous substances and devices, or live animals (including people).
• Construct a hypothesis.  This is an educated guess about how something will work. An experiment will test your hypothesis.
• Conduct the experiment . You will have to repeat it multiple times, following the same procedure each time.
• Record results . This means collecting your measurements and observations.
• Analyze results . Review your data, using charts and graphs to help interpret them.
• Draw conclusions . Your data will either support or refute your original hypothesis.
• Present results . You can share the results of your experiment through an abstract, or brief summary. You may also present your results in a research paper or on a presentation board.

Project Timing

Each of the above steps will take time — more than you may think at first. Making a timetable will help you plan. Be ambitious but realistic. That means making sure that the topic you choose not only interests you but also can be researched in the amount of time you have. Once you have identified your testable question, next develop a timeline to manage how you will test it. Build into your project some extra time to accommodate unexpected problems. These might include taking a big test, getting the flu or having to leave town for a family event.

If you will be taking part in a large science fair, you may have to fill out entry forms and review your research plan with your sponsor. Allow time for that. Certain projects will require more time because they need prior approval from a Scientific Review Committee (SRC) or an Institutional Review Board (IRB). Budget time for that. And allow plenty of time to experiment and collect data. Sometimes experiments don’t work. Sometimes experiments raise more questions than they answer — and require even more experimenting. This all takes time. Finally, you may have to write a paper that pulls together your findings. Or you may need to create a display or poster that presents your data and findings.

Project Support

Creating an independent research project doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help. Parents, teachers, experts and other students may offer to help you on your project. Figuring out what kind of help is fair — and what type of help is not — can be tricky. Below are several stories from  Science News for Kids  that help offer guidance on that issue.

Many students find a mentor to help them refine what questions to ask and how to answer them. Ideally, a mentor should never tell you what to do (even if you ask). Instead, a good mentor will help you find information that will inform your decisions on what to do and how to do it. For example, this story from Science News for Students gives examples of the proper roles played by mentors. This  article discusses the advantages of working with a mentor. Meanwhile, we feature in this story  the rewarding example of a young student who had the courage to contact an outside expert in the topic he was researching.

Parents and teachers can play a role too. Parents and teachers may offer advice and give assistance, but they must not do any of the actual work on a research project.. For instance, they may help you map out the time you have available to do your work. Parents and teachers also can evaluate whether the project you want to do can be done in the time available. They also can help determine whether supplies will cost more than you can afford, or whether what you plan to do might be dangerous or require approval from others. Here are two links to SNK stories that expand on this topic.

This Science News for Students article  features what parents learned about their role in helping on science fair projects. And this story  highlights teachers sharing the roles they played.

Presentation and Competition

Once you have completed your experiment, analyzed your results and drawn your conclusions, there is still more to do: You must communicate your findings. You also should be prepared to discuss your project, answering any questions that judges, teachers or others might have about how and why you tested or developed something the way you did and how to interpret your findings.

There are many different ways to present the results of your research. Remember: Presenting results doesn’t mean performing, demonstrating or repeating your experiment. Instead, you should prepare:

• A research paper. This gathers in one document all the work you have done on your project. The contents will vary, but should include a title, table of contents, hypothesis, background research, materials, procedures, data analysis, conclusions and a bibliography. You might also include ideas for future research and acknowledgements.
• An abstract, or brief summary of your research paper. An abstract typically includes the purpose of the experiment, procedures used, results and conclusion. You also may want to include an introduction. Science Buddies offers this concise guide to writing an abstract .
• A project or display board .  The board includes much of the same information as in your research paper. However, it is designed for display and brevity. That means it must be organized and laid out in a way that makes it easy to read — even by someone standing a short distance away. Again, Science Buddies provides some clear  guidelines for preparing a board. For most science fairs, there are complex and strict rules that govern what a board must (and cannot) include. For example, review the  Regeneron ISEF Display and Safety Regulations .

When presenting your work, it can be helpful to keep in mind what judges look for in reviewing the entries in a science fair. Even if you don’t plan to compete, these criteria can help you focus in creating a presentation of your work. Some of the criteria include originality and creativity, design and methodology, knowledge achieved, and clarity of expression.

For more examples of what judges look for, review the Regeneron ISEF Judging Criteria .  You can also try searching on the Internet for “science fair judging criteria.” You can narrow your search by adding, for example, the name of your state. SSP-Affiliate Fairs are listed in a Find-A-Fair index by state; many have websites with details about registration, judging and past winners.

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What Is Background Research For Science Fair

The Scientific Method: Background Research for Science Fair Projects – Last week we talked about developing your science fair project’s hypothesis and this week we will be discussing how to conduct the background research for you.

After you have finished both parts of your research you will need to compose a short essay which summarizes what you have learned so far. This “essay” will be part of your Project Research Report. A simple way to do this is to write a short paragraph on each resource or topic that you researched. Remember to create a bibliography for your project.

Video advice: Science Fair 105 Background Research

Science Fair 105 Background Research

Video advice: Science Fair Explanation – Question & Background Research

Explanation of how to get started on your Science Fair project.

How do you write a background for a science fair project?

The research paper should include:

• The history of similar experiments or inventions.
• Definitions of all important words and concepts that describe your experiment.
• Answers to all your background research plan questions.
• Mathematical formulas, if any, that you will need to describe the results of your experiment.

How do you do background research for science?

The six steps of the scientific method include: 1) asking a question about something you observe, 2) doing background research to learn what is already known about the topic, 3) constructing a hypothesis, 4) experimenting to test the hypothesis, 5) analyzing the data from the experiment and drawing conclusions, and 6) ...

What is background information for a science project?

Definition. Background information identifies and describes the history and nature of a well-defined research problem with reference to the existing literature .

Why is background research important in science?

Background research is really important. Scientists read to find out what has already been done in experimenting with their topic . ... You need to find whatever evidence you can (backgound research) before you make an accusation (hypothesis) and then present it to the jury (your experiment).

What is an example of background information?

Background information is often provided after the hook, or opening statement that is used to grab the reader's attention. ... Examples of Background Information: In his inaugural speech at Rice University, John F. Kennedy spoke about the space race and going to the moon.

Video advice: Science Fair Friday Week 7: Writing a Research Plan

Week 7: Writing a Research Plan

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A Survival Guide to Summer Research

Let’s face it. The idea of conducting research for the first time can be simultaneously one of the most terrifying and exciting prospects in one’s college career. Whether you plan to pursue a career in research and development, industry, or something completely different, the skills gained through undergraduate research are invaluable. But where do you start?

This is exactly what I was asking myself after my Research Experience and Apprenticeship Program (REAP) proposal was accepted last year. My project involved the conversion of carbon dioxide into methane through catalysis. My job was to synthesize different catalysts containing varying nickel, titanium dioxide, and varying weight percentages of heteropoly acids to determine its effect on increasing the amount of carbon dioxide converted. Despite having done hours of research to understand the topic enough to write a proposal essay, I still had some doubts about whether I was truly qualified. After completing my project, I can safely say that any similar thoughts you may be experiencing are unfounded.  There were several things that made the learning curve much smoother for me. . While not required, these steps may be beneficial to keep in mind as you begin to embark on your own summer research experience.

Prior to research:

If commuting to campus, get a summer parking permit. It can provide peace of mind to not worry about getting a parking permit at the last second. There are also options for summer on-campus housing if that is preferred.

Clearly outline what your goals are. Depending on the type of research project, this could include minimum amounts of data collected, a certain number of experiments run, the hours you plan to work, etc. Ask your mentor what their expectations are to ensure your goals are aligned.

Create an organizational system. For me, this was one of the first times I had to juggle multiple projects simultaneously outside of school. This can quickly become overwhelming. It is important to organize your time and materials in a way that makes sense to you. For me, this involved a research folder for physical documents and a research computer file with Word documents and Excel sheets. Create backups of any files if possible.

Continue learning. Before your project begins, continue to educate yourself as much as possible on your topic of choice. The UNH library has countless databases filled with scholarly articles that likely align with your research topic. They may provide useful insight on how other professionals explore these ideas or what questions are pertinent.

During your research:

Now for the exciting part. Here are the practices I found most useful for efficient research.

Plan each week. This is a 10-week process. It can be very difficult to utilize your time effectively if you are figuring it out as you go. Once you have a solid understanding of the tasks you do, write down what you hope to accomplish before beginning each week.

This is an example from one of my own weekly plans. Even writing a simple plan made me more motivated to complete tasks. I also used a weekly planner to mark important dates, created folders on my computer to make files easy to retrieve, and backed up my files as much as possible. If you ever need to revisit your work months or years later, it is extremely helpful for it to have its own reliable spot.

Document everything. This goes along with planning to some degree, but write down everything you do, even if it seems inconsequential. There are several reasons for this. First, it will greatly help diagnosing errors if results do not make sense or do not meet expectations. When I was having a problem getting my catalyst to form properly, being able to review every step of the process was invaluable to determine the issue, which was slightly too much deionized water being added. Second, if your results are statistically significant, or if you publish your results, understanding exactly what you did to achieve certain results is crucial. Finally, it will assist with writing your project summary once your summer is complete.

Communication is key. If ever you feel stuck or have concerns about anything related to your project, express them to your mentor. No one expects you to solve every problem alone, and whether it be by email, zoom, or in person, mentors are usually happy to assist in any way they can.

Once your research experience is over:

Congratulations! Hopefully you found the process to be as valuable and rewarding as I did. Besides wrapping up final details, many opportunities can be built off your project if want to continue your work.

Tie up loose ends. While you write your research summary and polish any results, I recommend backing up files, organizing and digitalizing documents, and most importantly, thanking everyone who helped you along the process and expressing appreciation for the opportunity.

Consider publishing your research. Did you know the University of New Hampshire has a research journal? Inquiry is an excellent spot to complete the final step of research, which is publication. If written well, the research summary in your final report can be converted to a research brief with minimal work, or you may choose to undergo a longer writing and revision process to publish a full-length research article.

Update your resume and share your experience on LinkedIn. This project likely taught you countless invaluable skills that employers would love to see from prospective employees.

Hopefully these tips help you feel more confident throughout your summer and prove to be as useful as I found them. Anyone can conduct research and there are countless resources available to those ready to utilize them. Good luck and happy researching!

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