You must complete a Science Fair Project as your honors project for third quarter. The final project will be due at the end of January. Although the final grade will be averaged into your 3rd quarter grade, you will receive grades along the way by following the timetable below. Make sure you visit http://www.risef.org/ for all of your science fair needs.
Steps 1&2: December 3rd
You must pass in the topic of your project and include a two page word processed paper showing research on your topic. Include sources of information.
Steps 4&5: December 10th
You must pass in a timetable showing the course of your experiments. Allow time for mistakes. Include in your timetable what forms will be required and when you will have them completed. Also include the time frame for writing your research paper and for putting together your poster board.
You must also plan your experiment and pass in a research plan showing how you will do your experiments and exactly what it will involve. Make this very detailed.
Step 6: December 10th
Consult your adult sponsor and get approvals. You need to get a signature of approval. Pass in completed forms. Remember any experiments involving human subjects, the forms must be completed before December 21st.
Steps 7, 8, & 9: January 4th
You must pass in detailed notes of your experimentation. Make sure that you have controlled experiments in which none of the variables have changed. Include also any analysis of your data. Examine any errors and determine if you got the desired results. Include your conclusions. Make sure you include data tables and graphs. Pay attention to labels and units. Be neat and complete.
Steps 1&2: January 14th
You must prepare a project data book. Put this in a notebook and keep it until the fair. On January 28th pass in an abstract which should include the purpose of the experiment, the procedures used, the data, and the conclusions. It may also include any possible research application. This is a maximum of 250 word, one page abstract.
Step 3: January 21st
A research paper should be prepared. It should include:
Title Page and Table of Contents.
Introduction which includes your hypothesis, problem goals, an explanation of what prompted your research, and what you hoped to achieve.
Methods and Materials. This should be very detailed in showing how you collected data, designed apparatus, etc. Someone should be able to use this information to repeat the experiment. Include photographs or diagrams.
Discussion. This should show results and conclusions. Compare with theoretical values or published data. Compare also with expected results and show possible sources of error. Show how the data may have varied between repeated observations of similar effects. How would you have done the experiment differently and what other related experiments should be conducted should be included in this part of your paper.
Conclusion should be brief but specific.
Acknowledgements should give credit to those who assisted you.
References/Bibliography should include documentation that is not your own.
Step 4: Visual display completed by January 29th.
Bring entire project for February 4th.
There will be letter grade deducted for each late date.