STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This is a statement of what you hope to discover. What you have learned through your research, and what problem you hope to solve.
example: How does changing the concentration of aspirin administered to developing plants affect their growth. This is what my experiment hopes to determine.
example: Does 2 pound test fishing line REALLY hold 2 pounds of fish. I want to be sure and use fishing line that won’t break! Which 2 pound test fishing line holds 2 pounds?

HYPOTHESIS

- A HYPOTHESIS is an EDUCATED GUESS about the outcome (results) of your experiment. It is what you think might happen when you do your experiments... what effects or results do YOU expect, based upon your BACKGROUND RESEARCH?
- The hypothesis usually is in the form of a brief statement.
- Hypothesis usually include a number or percentage.
example:
Plants grown in green light will be 15% taller than plants grown in other colors.
Bubbles made with Factor X will have an average diameter of 5 cm greater than bubbles made with Factor Y
- NOTE: A hypothesis does NOT have to be RIGHT or WRONG... your grade does NOT depend on your guess... just collect experimental evidence to determine if your guess is correct... report the results honestly!!! Sometimes the greatest knowledge COMES from “wrong” hypothesis!
- Record your hypothesis in your Science Project Log. You will also need a TYPED copy for your notebook.

 

PROCEDURES & DESIGN

Procedures are the step by step recipe of how you will perform you experiment! Be very complete. Could someone in another state perform you lab EXACTLY as you did?
Your procedure is one of the most important parts of your project! The way you plan and design your experiment will make or break your project. Judges look closely at procedures to see if EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN really answered the QUESTION that was set out to be solved.
In complete sentences, written in past tense, write a minimum of a 15 step procedure. Be specific, use diagrams, sketches, or photos if necessary. Do not include steps involving library research, obtaining materials, writing reports, etc. Start with the experiment itself. Tell how often and what you will be measuring. BE DETAILED!! The procedures are so detailed that anyone reading them could perform your experiments EXACTLY as you did them with EXACTLY the same size, quantity, brands of equipment, subjects, etc.
-Make sure you use a LARGE number of subjects/test runs in your experimentation or the results will not be believable leaving the experiment useless.

VARIABLES AND CONTROLS:

Type in outline form, not sentence form :
I) VARIABLE TO BE CHANGED:
example: The amount of aspirin to plants: 0 mg, 2 mg, 5 mg, 10 mg, 20 mg, 40 mg, 80 mg, 100 mg; amounts administered twice each day at the same time, after dissolving in 25 ml of water.
II)VARIABLE TO BE MEASURED:
example: Resulting average growth following aspirin administration and 3 weeks of growth time.
III) CONTROLS:
example: a) Type of plants are all the same. 5 plants for each category.
b) Age of plants: all started at the same time
b) Same water and amount administered at the same time of day
c) Room temperature, amount of light, and soil the same for all plants
The control group would be : The group which never receives aspirin

-A VARIABLE is either one factor YOU CHANGE in an experiment or is one factor you are trying TO MEASURE in an experiment which results from that change.

-A CONTROL GROUP is a separate experimental group which is in a "normal" condition in which you do NOT apply the VARIABLE YOU ARE CHANGING IN THE OTHER EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS.

-Most experiments need a CONTROL GROUP, A SINGLE CHANGED VARIABLE, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROLS.

(be as specific as possible-- list everything you will change including amounts, intervals, conditions,-- everything!)
-the VARIABLE you are studying and the one item you are CHANGING in your experimental to find it's effect on your subjects.
example: In our experiment with plants the ONE VARIABLE you would CHANGE could be different amounts of aspirin your different plants are given in water. All the plants would receive the same amount of water and light. However, you would list the actual aspirin concentrations to be given to the different plants

-Write down the VARIABLE you are MEASURING, the specific effect you are trying to determine as a result of changing the VARIABLE . The MEASURED VARIABLE would be the growth rate of the plants.

-Write down HOW you will establish a CONTROL GROUP... a group of subjects under "normal" conditions. The CONTROL group is used for a standard, for comparison with the experimental subjects. Our plant experiment would have to contain 1 group of plants given NO ASPIRIN... this group would be our CONTROL GROUP.

-Write down a list of all those factors which must NOT BE ALLOWED TO CHANGE... factors which must remain the same in ALL GROUPS during the experiment... these factors are known as VARIABLES TO BE CONTROLLED, or simply, "CONTROLS"

-Don't get "CONTROLS" mixed up with the term "CONTROL GROUP". In our plant experiment, we would make sure ALL PLANT GROUPS were given the same type and amounts of water at the same time of day; they would be exposed to the same controlled temperatures, provided identical environments, lighting would remain the same, etc.

MATERIALS

In a numbered list, describe every item you will need to run this experiment. Include quantities, sizes, brands, colors, shapes, tools, volumes. Use metrics when possible. Use diagrams or sketches if needed.

THE EXPERIMENT

KEEP A SCIENTIFIC LOG OF EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS WITH YOUR EXPERIMENT!!

A log is like a diary- it is your day-to-day notes on how things are going. It includes your observations, measurements, ideas learned from books, how your procedures change, ideas you've learned from talking to various people, tables and charts, sketches, and photographs. DATE every entry in your log. EXAMPLE: 10/01: Received permission from teacher to test all 8th grade students in her science classes... she has 80 girls and 75 boys... how convenient! Also, I was able to obtain the 150 50 mI beakers needed for the experiment..." This will be placed in the appendix sections of your science fair notebook.

RECORD ALL MEASUREMENT DATA in TABLES AND CHARTS. Never lose this information - it must be included in the final paper! Include EVERYTHING in your log -- all data, even if the experiment does not come out the way you expected! Be honest please -- even negative results are useful! Make accurate measurements! Take photos as you perform your experiment!

 

RESULTS

In this section of your Science Project Notebook, you will write out what happened during your experiment. Tables, graphs, charts, photographs, sketches, statistical analyses, and general descriptions of observations are included. This written description of the outcome to your experiments will require at least two pages.

CONCLUSIONS

In this section, you will draw your conclusions based upon the experimental collected data in your log and analyzes the results. Conclusions are usually at least two double-spaced pages in the Science Fair Notebook with the original hypothesis restated and what conclusions were discovered through the experimentation. Conclusions also discuss of what use the experiment might be to humankind.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Recommendations analyze strengths and weaknesses of the student's experimental design, gives possible explanations as to why the results occurred, and suggests future improvements on the experimental design.