Kossuth Elementary Science Fair

The words in bold face type need to be on your backboard as subtitles with corresponding information. See www.sciencebuddies.org for more information on how to prepare the project. 

1. Purpose - What exactly are you trying to figure out with your project?  What is the scientific question you are trying to answer?  What is your goal?

2. Hypothesis – Make a prediction regarding the outcome of your experiment.  Based on what you know, try to make an answer for your question before you do your research or try your experiment.  As you do your project, you will try to find out if your hypothesis is true.  A hypothesis is a statement.

3. Procedure - Give a detailed explanation of how you will conduct the experiment to test your hypothesis.  Design an experiment to test your hypothesis to see if your guess was right or wrong.  It is okay if your project does not turn   out the same as your hypothesis.  Be clear about the variables (elements of the experiment that change to test your hypothesis) versus your controls (elements of the experiment that do not change).  Be very specific about how you will measure results to prove or disprove your hypothesis. You should include a regular timetable for measuring results or observing the projects (for example, every hour, every day, every week).  Your procedure should be like a recipe - Another person should be able to perform your experiment following your procedure. Test this with a friend or parent to be sure you have not forgotten anything.

4. Materials - List the items used to build your project and complete your experiment.

5. Results - Explain what happened at the end of your experiment.  You may use a notebook, charts, graphs, pictures, etc.  Be clear!  Give facts, not opinions. Explain your observations, data, and results. This is a summary of what your   data has shown you.

6. Conclusion - Answer your problem/purpose statement.  What do the results mean?  Was your hypothesis correct?  Did your experiment prove or disprove your hypothesis? This should be explained thoroughly.  Why did the results occur? What did your experiment prove? Explain some interesting findings.  Can you compare the results to anything else you know?  Do your results give you any ideas for future research?  What did your project teach you?  What might you do differently if you repeated this experiment?  Give recommendations and suggestions for others who may want to experiment with your topic.  Even if your hypothesis did not match the results of your experiment, you've learned something.