Science Fair Success!Tips for an awesome science fair project…

Prepare a short explanation or “speech” to effectively communicate your project to judges and attendees

Important info:- How did you get your idea?- How did you do your experiment?- What were your main findings? - What did you learn from your results

and could you have done differently to reduce error?

Communication is Key…

Background research: What is the question you are trying to answer? What kind of info would be useful in trying to answer it?

Why should people care about what you’re doing?

How does the topic you’re studying affect everyday life? How can it be applied?

Introduction

What is it? An educated guess about how you think your project will turn out. (NOT a question!)

Express your hypothesis using your dependent and independent variables.

For example: Adding fertilizer (independent variable) to plant pots will result in faster plant growth rate (dependent variable) compared to plant pots that do not receive fertilizer.

Hypothesis

Make sure your hypothesis is TESTABLE, meaning that both your variables can be easily measured!

Avoid vague hypotheses!For example: Adding plants to an

aquarium makes fish healthier. Better: Adding plants to an aquarium

increases fish growth rate (or reproductive success)

Hypothesis

Include a materials list How will you change your independent

variable? How will you measure the impact this will have on your dependent variable?

Make sure you only manipulate your independent variable and that all other control variables stay constant.

For example: How does temperature affect running speed in lizards?

same species, same sex, same size, same age for all experimental lizards…

Methods

Make sure to include information about sample size (n) or the number of trials used in your methods.

When appropriate, distinguish experimental groups from control groups.

Methods

Analyzing your data: Review your data; Is it complete? Do you need

more trials or replicates? Mistakes? Calculate an average for different trials of your

experiment, when appropriate. Alternately, you could use ratios, proportions or

individual data points…depends on the data! Become familiar with Microsoft Excel if necessary.

Results

Graphs:- Include a descriptive title.- Place independent variable on x-axis and dependent

variable on y-axis.- Label your axes! - Units of measurement (cm, °C, mL, etc.) - Use a different color for each data series and include a

legend. Bar graph: comparing different trials or different experimental

groups independent variable non-numerical XY-Line graph: relationship between dep. and indep.

variables both numerical Pie graph: shows proportions/percentages of a whole

Results

Bar Graphs

synthetic organic control0

5

10

15

20

25

Effects of fertilizers on plant growth

fetilizer type

aver

age

plan

t he

ight

(cm

)

XY-Line Graphs

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 350

2

4

6

8

Lizard Speed as a Function of Temperature

Temperature (C)

Spee

d (k

m/h

r)

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 1405

10152025

Effect of aphids on plant height

BasilRadish

# of aphids

plan

t he

ight

(cm

)

Pie Chart0.04

0.580.12

0.09

0.17

Proportion of insect visitors to P. parryi

WaspsBeesFliesHummingbirdsButterflies

Summarize your results. Does your data support your hypothesis? If your results DON’T support your

hypothesis, you are NOT wrong! Don’t change your hypothesis!

Instead present what your next steps would be and what kind of error you may have encountered.

*Don’t use the word “prove”…data only supports or doesn’t support your hypothesis.

Conclusions

Make a list of questions that you think the judges will ask and practice answering them.

Use bright and colorful photos/drawings to catch audience’s attention

Place your sections in order from left to right and focus on images/figures in the center.

Additional Tips…