Brainstorming Ideas

Brainstorm ideas of interest:

• What ideas, topics, or projects in science interest you?

• What problems do you see around you that could be corrected, made better, etc.?

• Write a list of ideas. They do not need to be in sentences, but write enough so you remember what you were thinking about!

• You may spend a few days on this process.

• Eventually, you will need to select an idea that can be tested using the Scientific Method. 

• Science Fair projects must be about something worth studying.

• Exploding Mentos in Coke is a fun experiment but it does not require a lot of time to study. 

• Science fair projects are about finding the whys, the how comes, observing, testing trials, changing one variable and seeing the results. If you can do your ENTIRE project in a day, it may not be a true science fair project.

• Elementary Science Fair Project Ideas

• Discuss with your teacher before committing a lot of time

• NO projects on MOLD, BACTERIA, MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES.

• The safety form has to be signed before you begin your project. 

• Middle School Science Fair Project Ideas

Start Here - Your Log Book!

1/31/23

Your log book is the major source of points for your science fair project. It holds your ENTIRE project!  Include as much as you can!  If information is on your display board, it better be in your log book.  However, your log book should contain a lot MORE information than your display board.  Your log book is NOT a printout of your display board.  It includes your thoughts from the beginning when you were brainstorming, all the way to the very end.

Safety Form - must be filled out and signed before you begin your project
Brainstorming
Research
Background
Problem Statement
Hypothesis
Variables
Materials List
Procedure
Data Chart
Observations
Results
Conclusion
Bibliography (This link will take you to a site that will assist you in creating citations for your bibliography.)
Display Board
Scoring Guides(This link will take you to the St. Louis Regional Science Fair site containing the scoring guides.)

Display Board

1/31/23

E-Fair Submissions:

Since COVID, the St Louis Regional Fair has been requiring E-Fair submissions. Only 10 pages can be submitted. Powerpoint, or a PDF of Google Slides, is required. As you can see, the project has be to be quite condensed. 

Students will need to fit as many parts of the project onto each page. 

Title

Background

Problem Statement

Hypothesis

Variables (IV, DV, CV)

Materials

Procedure

Observations (data chart, written observations, pictures)

Results - graph

Conclusion - 

Acknowledgements

Log Book

Safety form (not considered one of the 10 pages)

Please review the St. Louis Regional Fair for guidelines.

Please review score sheets to see how your project will be judged. Did you include everything?

We will have a school fair in March, date yet TBD. Honors projects from the St. Clement Fair will advance to the St. Louis Regional Fair. We follow the regional fair guidelines so the honor winning projects can be submitted ASAP to the regional fair. 

__________________________________________________________________________________

For Display Board Fairs only:

Here is one way you can display your work!  Word processing is great, just make sure you select the largest font possible for ease of reading.

Headings:

You can use this site, or other font sites,  to make headings:
https://flamingtext.com/


If that is not working for you, use MS Word and make your own. Type in the following headings all at once before making any font changes:

Background
Problem Statement
Hypothesis
Variables
Materials
Procedure
Data
Results
Conclusion

Then SELECT ALL to make the same changes to all of the headings so that the match.  Make sure the headings appear the way you want them to appear BEFORE printing.

Once things are printed, come see me and I will use the paper chopper. Then you can put together your display board.

For FREE clip art, you can use this site:
https://www.teachervision.com/teacher-resources/clip_art_image/61542.html

Start Here! Your Log Book!!!

Your log book is the major source of points for your science fair project. It holds your ENTIRE project!  Include as much as you can!  If information is on your display board, it better be in your log book.  However, your log book contains MORE information than your display board.  Your log book is NOT a printout of your display board.  It is your thoughts from the beginning when you were brainstorming, to the very end.

Brainstorming
Research
Background
Problem Statement
Hypothesis
Variables
Materials List
Procedure
Data Chart
Observations
Results
Conclusion
Bibliography (This link will take you to a site that will assist you in creating citations for your bibliography.)
Display Board
Scoring Guides (This link will take you to the St. Louis Regional Science Fair site containing the scoring guides.)

Data Collection Chart & Observations

Data Collection Chart:

You need to make a data collection chart, a large rectangle divided into smaller parts, for recording what happens in each trial of your experiment.

T1, T2, T3, etc. stands for Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3, etc.
You should do more than 3 trials. Five is recommended.

TAKE PICTURES OF EACH TRIAL!

Measurements are made in metrics

While you are conducting your experiment, making observations. When viewing your project, you must write down what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, and sensing!  Observations are more than just filling in the data collection chart. The chart includes the measurable observations. Observations are the OTHER things, the ADDITIONAL things you see.
WRITE IT ALL DOWN!

YOUR LOG BOOK - READ FIRST!

You must use a log book - a spiral dedicated to your project. 

You write everything you do in your log book, in the order you do it. 

Always date and time each entry. Underline the date and time so it stands out.

It is ok to enter information on the same day but at different times.

Make sure your log book contains your brainstorming, research notes, background, problem statement, hypothesis, variables, materials list, procedure, data table, observations, results, conclusion, bibliography, graphs, tables, pictures, photographs, and diagrams.

Your log book is the major source of points for your science fair project. It holds your ENTIRE project!  Include as much as you can!  If information is on your display board, it better be in your log book.  However, your log book contains MORE information than your display board.  Your log book is NOT a printout of your display board.  It is your thoughts from the beginning when you were brainstorming, to the very end.

Brainstorming
Research
Background
Problem Statement
Hypothesis
Variables
Materials List
Procedure
Data Chart
Observations
Results
Conclusion
Bibliography (This link will take you to a site that will assist you in creating citations for your bibliography.)
Display Board
Scoring Guides (This link will take you to the St. Louis Regional Science Fair site containing the scoring guides.)

Research

Once you select your project idea, you need to research! This can be a lot of fun!

List topics that relate to your project.

For instance, if you are doing a project with anything to do with a motor, you might want to research:

Motors - what are they? How do they work?
electric engines - what are they? How do they work?
Who studied motors and what did they discover, find out, create, design, etc.
What do motors do for people?
How do motors run?


If you are studying anything to do with plants, you may want to research:

What is a plant?
What do plants need to survive?
How do plants acquire their nutrients?
How does water travel through the plant?
What role does water play in the growth of the plant? light? soil?
Who has studies plants? What did they find out?

You should use at least 3 resources. Using 5 resources or more would be best.

When you use a resource, write down the name of the book, author, copyright date, page #, publisher,
web address, web page title, date and time accessed, author/creator - or enough information so that you can locate the resource later to document it in your bibliography