Choosing a Topic
When you chose a topic for your project, it is important to remember that you must be doing an experiment and not a display. For example, creating a volcano does not use the scientific method (more on this later) and therefore is not a good topic for a science fair. However, you can use the scientific method to answer questions like these:
Which environment causes bananas to ripen the fastest?
Which brand of toilet paper is the strongest?
Which brand of microwave popcorn pops the most kernels?
Does the length of or the weight on the pendulum affect the number of swings it taks in a minute?
View a pendulum [kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-4869848416140195611" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]
The site below is a great one to help you chose a topic.
Choose the area of science that is of most interest to you, and then chose a more specific area that interests you on the next page. The web site will then give you many options. Remember you don’t have to use those; they may spark an idea of your own!
Scientific Method
Image Source:
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentoring/project_scientific_method.shtml
The steps of the scientific method:
1) Ask a question
Think about things that you wonder about the world, and topics that you explored in the previous posting. Now ask a question that you will be able to test by experimenting.
2) Do Research
Before you actually experiment, find out everything that you can about your topic. For example, if you want to find out which popcorn pops the best, find out a little about popcorn and how and why it pops first. That might help you to make an educated hypothesis and to understand your results.
3)Make a Hypothesis
A hypothesis is an educated guess. Based on your research of your topic, and your background knowledge, write what you think will happen. Make sure you not only tell what will happen, but why you think it will happen.
4)Test with an Experiment
Making sure that you control your variables (more on this in the next post), conduct your experiment. You may want to test it more than one time to see if you get the same results. While you are conducting your experiment, be sure to make accurate observations so that you can make your conclusions. Making a table is a great way to keep all of your information straight. You also might want to take some pictures to document what you see. They also look great on your display board.
5)Draw a conclusion.
At this point, you should have data from your experiment to answer your question. Now check it against your hypothesis. Was your hypothesis correct? Scientists will then go back and recheck their experiment if their hypothesis was incorrect. Since you are only an elementary school scientist, don’t worry about that part!
6) Communicate your results. You will now create a display board like the one below to show others what you have learned. The last post will tell you more about how to do this. Graphs, pictures, tables, and reports will help to show what you have learned.
I have a project, now what about my variables?
Now that you have an experiment, you need to start thinking about your variables. Variables are the changing factors in your experiment.
When you conduct an experiment you need to do something called controlling your variables. To make sure that your test is fair, you need to keep all the factors except the one that you are testing the same.
Watch the video below. This is an experiment to test which of four toilet papers are the strongest when wet. In this experiment, I changed only one factor, and kept all the rest the same. That way, I knew that I could conclude fairly which toilet paper was the strongest when wet.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=1281585345504454070" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]
After watching the video, think about what you saw, and answer these questions:
What was the one variable that was changed in each experiment?
What were the variables that could have changed the experiment, but were kept the same so that the experiment was fair?
Click here for the answers:
Answers
Making Observations
I know you can’t wait to start your experiment, but WAIT! Do you have an organized way to record and keep track of all your data(information that you gather while carrying out your experiment)?
There are two kinds of data: qualitative (description) and quantitative (data that involves numbers).
For example, with the toilet paper experiment that you just observed, quantitative data would be the number of gems that the paper would hold before breaking, and qualitative data would be a description of each piece of toilet paper after it finally tore.
Look at the flower below:
What is one quantitative observation that you can make about the flower?
What are two qualitative observations that you can make about the flower?
Once you have written down your results, compare your observations to the ones below:
Putting it all Together
Now that you’ve finally finished the first steps of the scientific method, you’re ready to share your results and what you’ve learned with others.
You want to make sure that your board is attractive and neat. Messy displays can make people focus their attention away from what is really important, your project!
Take a look at this display board below. It is an excellent example of a neat display board that will help people to learn more about the project. Make a mental list of all the great things that this person has done on their display board. Try to include many of his/her great ideas in your own display board.
Did you notice that…
- the title was catchy and written in letters that could be seen from a distance?
- the graphs were in color to help others to understand the results?
- all the information was typed so that it could be clearly read?
- there were colorful backings on the paper so that the words stand out?
- the board is colorful, but doesn’t contain so many colors or patterns that they take away from the information?
Here are a few different ideas for how to display your board. Before using one of these ideas, check with your teacher to see if your school has specific guidelines.
