Preparing Your Science Fair Presentation
The Scientific Method is the procedure used to investigate and then explain experiments. The steps of the Scientific Method are outlined below.
As you select what you want to do for the Science Fair, you will go through some trial and error trying to formulate your question and develop a prediction (hypothesis). The key is to carefully define your question and identify the important variables so that your experiment stands a good chance of testing what you expected to test.
When you finish your experiment, you need to condense all you have learned into a display space, such as a standard tri-fold board. When folded to self-stand, this 48" display board should fit into an area 30" wide, 36" tall, and 14" deep.
The important things to document on your display are:
Display Board
The display board should be easy to read and should clearly illustrate what you have learned. Pictures, graphs, and samples all help to convey clearly what you have accomplished.
For those classes where participation in the STEM Fair is part of the science grade, your teacher will provide guidance for what s/he requires and how they will grade. Regardless of whether you are doing this for a grade or for fun, remember that neatness, organization, and clarity are all important. For those being graded, difficulty and depth of investigation also should be considered.
Method for Scientific Investigation
1. Ask a Question. (Why? What?)
2. Make a Prediction for what you think will happen (your Hypothesis).
3. Identify the Materials needed to run your experiment.
4. Plan the Procedure for your experiment.
5. Identify the Variables important to the investigation.
6. Data and Results
7. Conclusions
As you select what you want to do for the Science Fair, you will go through some trial and error trying to formulate your question and develop a prediction (hypothesis). The key is to carefully define your question and identify the important variables so that your experiment stands a good chance of testing what you expected to test.
When you finish your experiment, you need to condense all you have learned into a display space, such as a standard tri-fold board. When folded to self-stand, this 48" display board should fit into an area 30" wide, 36" tall, and 14" deep.
The important things to document on your display are:
Display Board
- Title - Identifies your subject area
- Question - What do you want to know?
- Prediction (Hypothesis) - Make a statement predicting what you think will happen
- Materials - Document everything used so that someone else could repeat your experiment
- Procedure - Document every step so that someone else could repeat your experiment
- Variables - Document what variables were in your experiment. Which were controlled (what stayed the same) and which were manipulated (things you changed)? What variables were responding (what you are measuring)?
- Data and Results - Observations, charts, graphs, pictures, diagrams, tables, models, etc.
- Conclusions - Did you prove or disprove your hypothesis? If someone were to repeat your experiment, what recommendations can you give that person? What could they do to learn more?
- Your name, teacher, and grade
The display board should be easy to read and should clearly illustrate what you have learned. Pictures, graphs, and samples all help to convey clearly what you have accomplished.
For those classes where participation in the STEM Fair is part of the science grade, your teacher will provide guidance for what s/he requires and how they will grade. Regardless of whether you are doing this for a grade or for fun, remember that neatness, organization, and clarity are all important. For those being graded, difficulty and depth of investigation also should be considered.
Method for Scientific Investigation
1. Ask a Question. (Why? What?)
- Choose a subject area and formulate a problem: What do you want to explore? Is there a problem you want to try to solve?
- Make it something that interests you.
- What do you want to know about the subject you selected?
- Find a question you do not know the answer to!
- Visit the library, look in books, get advice, research your question.
2. Make a Prediction for what you think will happen (your Hypothesis).
- Use the words if and then in a statement to predict the answer to your question.
- Your hypothesis must be very specific and clear so you can test it.
3. Identify the Materials needed to run your experiment.
- What will you need to perform the investigation?
- List all materials so that someone else could duplicate your experiment.
4. Plan the Procedure for your experiment.
- What will you do to test your prediction (hypothesis)?
- Identify the steps.
- Is there anything you have not considered that could affect your experiment?
- Identify which data you will collect - the data is what will prove or disprove your hypothesis.
- Make sure that you are testing your hypothesis.
- Document your procedure so you know what to do at each step and so someone else could repeat your experiment.
5. Identify the Variables important to the investigation.
- Controlled variables are the things that stay the same.
- Manipulated variables are the things that you change.
- Responding variables are the things that you measure.
- In your experiment, your controlled variable should be the same each time you test. The manipulated variable will change with each text.
6. Data and Results
- Keep a log as you run your experiment, make observations, and collect data.
- Be honest as you record your data. You may discover unexpected surprises!
- Make tables, charts, and/or graphs. Draw pictures, take photographs.
- Write a summary.
7. Conclusions
- What happened? Did the results support or refute your prediction?
- Was it what you expected? Were there any surprises? What did you learn?
- It's OK to find your experiment did not do what you expected! But when writing the conclusions, tell what should be done next time to make the experiment work. For example, did you miss a variable? Did a controlled variable go uncontrolled?
- If you or someone else ran this experiment again, would you do anything different?
- Do you see where there is something more to investigate? Can you recommend steps how someone might go farther to learn more? Can the project help solve a problem?
