Oyster Science Fair and Science Projects

Oyster-Adams Science Fair 2008-2009

General Information for Students and Parents

The Oyster-Adams Science Fair is scheduled for Tuesday, February 24, 2009. It will be held at the Adams campus, in the gymnasium. At the Oyster Science Fair, students will present their science projects, in the form of a display describing a study they have done, using the scientific method. Projects will be judged by a panel of invited judges from the community who will look at the students' projects, talk to the students, and give them feedback based on several criteria. Science projects are mandatory for 4th through 8th grade students. These projects require a lot of preparation, so students should begin planning as early as possible. This year, early preparation is especially important, because students will be required to register their projects in mid January. Students in younger grades are welcome to participate if they choose, and teachers from K-3rd grades will organize class projects.

How to Do a Science Fair Project

1. Pick a topic and question?be original Science fair topics can be on anything from physics to psychology, from building things to observing nature, but ask your teacher if you should work on something you are learning in class. Whatever the topic, your project should be guided by a question with independent and dependent variables. Questions like "Is it warmer when it is cloudy?" "Which parts of my house have more germs?" or "What kind of paper airline flies farthest?" have variables. Questions like "What is the temperature today?" "What does a germ look like?" or "How far can a paper airplane fly?" do not have variables. It should be something you understand, so don't try anything too advanced. If you get your idea from a science fair project book or web site, you should make it your own by changing the question. Be original. Purchase a composition notebook for your observations and experimentation.

Each Science Fair project will be entered into one (1) of the following categories to be judged: (note that the list is tentative and may change based on project ideas)

• Consumer Science - Earth Science - Behavior and Social Science - Chemistry - Physics - Engineering - Environmental Science - Health Science - Astronomy - Biology

1. Write an Introduction with References and Acknowledgments Read up on your topic in books, magazines and the internet. Use at least two published (non-internet) sources. Talk to people who know about the topic. Use the school library and public libraries. Take notes in your observation journal on what you find out and where you found it. Use your notes to write an introduction that tells people why the question is interesting and important. Use your notes to make a reference list of the sources you used and an acknowledgement list of the people who helped.
2. Make a hypothesis you can test Make a hypothesis (or several), which is your guess about what the answer to your question will be. Write your hypothesis in your Science Notebook. Decide how you will test your hypothesis and how you will measure your results. Parents: this means a test that an elementary school child can mostly do by themselves.
3. Plan your procedure or experiment Think it through carefully. Is it safe? Is it too complicated? Do you have the materials? What hypothesis will it test? What are the independent and dependent variables? How will you gather or measure the data? What controls (positive or negative) should be included? (A positive control tests whether your procedure can actually get positive data for something. A negative control makes sure the procedure doesn't get positive data for everything). How many times should you do the procedure to get a sample size that is large enough to make you sure about the results? Check your plan with a few people, like your parents, teachers, and other kids. If somebody gives you an idea that you use, make sure to acknowledge her or him. Write the entire rough draft scientific investigation in your observation journal.
4. Do the procedure and collect the data Write down the data in your observation journal. Make sure to collect all the data, not just the data that you like or that agrees with your hypothesis. Also make sure to write down any ways you changed the procedure, whether on purpose or by accident. Many important scientific discoveries are made by people trying to figure out data that doesn't fit their hypothesis, or by thinking about data from "goof ups" in the procedure that actually changed the variables and hypothesis being tested!
5. What happened? Now you need to summarize (present) and analyze (think about what it means) your data, so you can understand it and so other people can. It is OK to only show the data from when the procedure was done well enough to test your hypothesis. Make drawings or photos to show your "raw" data. Drawings can be better than photos, because it shows that you looked carefully. Make graphs, tables and charts to summarize and analyze the data. You don't need a computer for this either! Graphs, tables or charts can be drawn by hand. If you do use a computer, make sure that you still understand what is being shown and can explain it.
6. Conclusions - what did you learn from your experiment? Was your hypothesis correct? If it wasn't correct, how do you explain your results? Remember, your hypothesis was only a guess and we learn a lot from wrong predictions.
7. Discussion What is the greater significance of what you learned? Can you think of any follow-up questions you might want to ask or studies you might want to do?
8. Construct a Display Materials: Poster board, glue stick, construction paper, printer paper and printer, pens and/or pencil. Poster boards will be available from the school. Content: You want to be sure that people can understand your experiment. Include a title, question, introduction, hypothesis, a description of your procedure including materials, observations (explain what happened with words and illustrations), a summary and analysis of your data, a conclusion that relates to the hypothesis, a discussion, references and acknowledgements. Neatness and clear language is important! Use headings, graphs, pictures, construction paper, and add color to make your project stand out. Hand-illustrated work, instead of computer-generated, is encouraged. Because we are a bilingual school, the following sections are required to be in Spanish: Pre and Post Investigations ONLY. Data such as graphs and tables do not need to be bilingual. Your name(s) and classroom should be clearly written in the upper right corner.
9. Practice your presentation Practice explaining your project to someone (parent, friend, grandparent, etc.) This will help you to be calm on Science Fair Day. The judges are very nice and will be interested in what you did and what you learned. The judges will give written feedback for every display, and will also award ribbons for 1st place and honorable mention projects. The judging is going to take place at the beginning of the fair this year. If your project does not win a ribbon, be sure to take a careful look at the projects that do and see if you can figure out why. This may give you some great ideas for next year's fair and how to make your project even better.
10. Come to the fair and have fun!