SCIENCE PROJECT STUDENT HANDBOOK COLMS 2010-2011

SCIENCE PROJECT STUDENT HANDBOOK COLMS 2010-2011 SCIENCE PROJECT DATES TO REMEMBER December 3, 2010 Science Fair: Top Two Choices (Form 1) December 10, 2010 Research your topic. You will need 3 resources that provide you with background information on the subject of your experiment. The project registration form is due to your science teacher. (Form 2) January 21, 2011 The written procedures (typed!) are due to your science teacher. Begin projects after conference with your science teacher. March 11, 2011 Experiment Finished March 18, 2011 Finish the project. Rough draft written report due to your science teacher. (Form 3) April, 2011 Class presentations begin. The final project is due to your science teacher. Science Fair Projects will be narrowed by class. (Form 4 & 5) April 27, 2011: School Science Fair will be held at Chain of Lakes Awards and Prizes will be given to the winners of each grade level!

TABLE OF CONTENTS Visual Display 1 Display Board Setup and appearance 2 Graph Tips/Procedures 3 Oral Presentation 4 Project Report 5 Bibliography Reference Formats 6 Form 1- Science Fair: Top two Choices (Due 12/3/10) 7 Form 2- Science Project Registration (Due 12/10/10) 8 Form 3- Written Report Rubric (Due 3/18/11) 9 Form 4- Oral Presentation Rubric (Due 4/15/11) 10-11 Form 5- Display Board Rubric (Due 4/ /11) 12

VISUAL DISPLAY **** Refer to FORM 5 for grading rubric! ***** Every student must have a visual display to accompany his/her project. Begin by making a small sketch of what you want your display to look like. Things to remember about your display: 1. Your own display board should be a self-supporting two- or three-sided display. (See the RULES section for size.) It may be constructed of poster board, tagboard, corrugated cardboard, plywood, paneling, or pegboard reinforced to stand securely on its own. 2. Lettering should be clear and legible. Stencils, pre-cut letters, or large computer lettering are good choices. 3. The display should include the title of your project. Note: the title of your project should not be the experiment question! Be creative! 4. Graphs, charts, photos, and/or drawings must be included on the display. 5. Use attractive attention-getting colors. Be neat and be orderly, following the steps of the scientific method in your display. 6. Do not clutter your display with unnecessary information. Tell a story. Start with the question, followed by the hypothesis, equipment and procedure used, and end with results and conclusions. 1

Title (Font: size 80, creative and unique, legible, 2-3 colors) Name Grade (Font: size 48, black or dark blue) Other section headings (problems, hypothesis, introduction, etc.) font size 48 Text: Professional fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Verdana, Georgia. Blue or Black Ink Fonts to avoid: any script or decorative font, any font that is to intended to look like it was handwritten (example: Comic Sans, Lucinda Calligraphy) Limit fonts to 2-3 styles (chose one font for Title/Headings, and another for text and stay with those throughout the board) Be creative with title/ headings Print your text on colored paper. color the background of your board. use colored paper as a backdrop behind the text and graphs, etc. Problem/Question Hypothesis Data Observations, Pictures, Graphs, Charts, etc. 2

GRAPHS TIPS/PROCEDURES CREATING A CHART/GRAPH Choosing which type of graph to use: Line Graph: When you have something that is measurable and scalable on the x and y-axis. Example: plant height vs. fertilizer amount. Fertilizer amount might go on the x-axis and plant height would go on the y-axis. Bar Graph: When you have something that is measurable on one axis (usually the y-axis) and something that is absolute on the other axis (usually the x- axis). Example: M&M color vs. Number of M&M s. Fertilizer vs. Plant Growth Amount of M&M's per Color Growth 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 0 10 20 30 40 Amount of Fertilizer Amount 20 15 10 5 0 Yellow Orange Green Brown M&M Color Red Blue M&M Bag 1 M&M Bag 2 M&M Bag 3 Link and or Websites for graphing: http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/createagraph/ http://www.chartgo.com/ http://www.onlinecharttool.com/graph.php http://www.amblesideprimary.com/ambleweb/mentalmaths/grapher.html 3

SCIENCE PROJECT ORAL PRESENTATION **** Refer to FORM 4 for grading rubric! ***** Every student must give a short oral presentation to the judges. The talk should be a few minutes long (5 minutes maximum). When you give your presentation you should include the following information: 1. What is the title of your experiment? 2. What is the question you wanted to answer? (Purpose) 3. Before you did the experiment, what did you think would happen? (Hypothesis) 4. Mention any books or articles you may have read. 5. What materials and equipment did you use? 6. What did you do to answer your question? (Procedure) Be sure to tell the judges what thing you changed (manipulated variable), and what thing changed as a result (responding variable). Also mention those things you kept the same throughout the experiment (controls). 7. What happened, and what is the answer to your question? (Results and Conclusion) 8. Be prepared to answer questions from the judges. Here is a list of the type of questions the judges may ask you: 1. Please describe your project. (Give your oral presentation.) 2. Did you get the results you expected? 3. What caused the results that you found? 4. Would you expect me to get the same results if I built this experiment and performed it at my house? 5. Why did you build the equipment this way? 6. Did anything change besides the manipulated variable? 7. What might happen if you changed? 8. If you did this project over, what would you do differently? 9. Did you do the project yourself? If someone helped you, what did he or she do? 10.Could you do other things with this project next year? 4

SCIENCE PROJECT REPORT **** Refer to FORM 3 for grading rubric! ***** PROJECT REPORT: An important part of doing any science project is documenting the information so that others may use it and learn from it. One way of making your findings available to others is through the writing of a project report. This report is what the judges will read about your project. It is similar to your laboratory reports at school and can be as long or short as you like (three to four pages is fine). You must include pictures/drawings, and graphs. Your report should have the following sections: Title Page: The title of your project should appear in the center of the paper. Your name, school, and grade should be placed below the title. Introduction: Research: Summary of information found about the specific topic and or concepts. To complete this section use the 3 resources that you found on your topic. Purpose: Describe why you decided to do this project and what question you were trying to answer. Hypothesis: What did you think will happen? Materials: List the materials you used to do the project. Procedure: Explain in a step-by-step way just what you did in your experiment. Remember, you want to describe what you did so that another person could repeat it. You may include drawings if they will help you describe what you did. Results and Discussion: Tell the reader what happened as the result of the procedure you used. You may use graphs, charts, tables or a daily log to help the reader understand what you found out. This is where you discuss and interpret your results. Look over your results, and write what you think the data show or seem to indicate. How things change and what caused the results? Conclusions: What is the answer to your question? Does it agree with your hypothesis? Can you conclude anything in general from your experiment? For example, if a battery temperature experiment produced the specific result that a D-size battery lasted one hour longer at a refrigerator temperature of 40 F, you might come to a general conclusion that common battery sizes MA, AA, and C would also be expected to last longer at a colder temperature because they are all similar batteries (how much longer would require testing of the smaller-sized batteries). Conclusions may include your opinions based on measurements. 5

BIBLIOGRAPHY REFERENCE FORMATS Your references need to be in alphabetical order. The first line of each reference begins at the margin. Indent all additional lines (called a hanging indent). Book by one author Last name of author, First name of author and middle initial. Title of Book. City of Publisher: Name of Publisher, copyright date, pp. # s. Example: Zambroski, Robert N. The History of Bumble Bees. New York: Five Lakes Publishing, 1997, pp. 59-63. Book by two or more authors Last name of first author alphabetically, First name of author and middle initial alphabetically, First and last name of next author alphabetically, repeat until all authors are named. Title of Book. City of Publisher: Name of Publisher, copyright date, pp. # s. Example: Abbar, Brian E. Maria N. Rodriguez, and Mark Tripp. Photography of the 20 th Century. Atlanta: Southern Publishing, 1998, pp. 17-21. Internet Sources Last name of author, First name of author and middle initial. Title of Article, Name of Website. Website s date (the copyright or last updated date). Name of institution/organization affiliated with the site. date you visited the website <website address>. Example: Johnson, David W. The Capybara, San Diego Zoo. 2004. San Diego Zoological Society. June 15, 2004. <http://www.sandiegozoo.org> Encyclopedia Last name of author, First name of author and middle initial. Title of Article, Name of Encyclopedia copyright date, Vol. #, pp # s. Example: Smith, Sarah L. Bats, World Book Encyclopedia, 2002, Vol. 2, pp. 35-37. Magazine Article Last name of author, First name of author and middle initial. Title of Article, Name of Magazine, Month Day, year of issue, pp # s. Example: Chavez, Eduardo M.The Effects of Sunlight on Venus Fly Traps, National Geographic, January 2006, pp. 56-62. Newspaper Article Last name of author, First name of author and middle initial. Title of Article, Name of Newspaper, Month Day, year of issue, pp # s. Example: Parnell, Julie A.The Best Science Experiments, San Diego Union Tribune, December 14, 2007, pp. F4. Acknowledgements: Often scientists thank others who have helped them with their research project. This is the place to do so. It is required that Project Summaries and Reports are typed. Ask someone else to read your paper before you submit it. Ask that person to look for ideas that may not be clear and suggest changes that will make your paper easier to read (spelling, capital letters, and so on). 6

FORM 1(p.1/1) Science Fair: Top Two Choices Directions: Complete this form with your top two choices for your science fair project. Please list choice number one as your top choice and choice number two as your alternative. This form is due December 3, 2010. Choice Number 1: 1. State your key question 2. State your hypothesis in relationship form. (ex. If changes, then what happens to? ) 3. List the following variables: a. Manipulated (independent): b. Responding (dependent): c. Controlled: 4. How do you plan on completing this experiment (procedure)? Choice Number 2: 1. State your key question 2. State your hypothesis in relationship form. (ex. If changes, then what happens to? ) 3. List the following variables: a. Manipulated (independent): b. Responding (dependent): c. Controlled: 4. How do you plan on completing this experiment (procedure)? 7

FORM 2 (p.1/1) YOUR STUDENT IS READY TO PERFORM THEIR SCIENCE PROJECT EXPERIMENT Chain of Lakes Middle School requires advanced science students to individually plan and conduct a teacher approved science fair experiment. This requirement is a significant part of the advanced science class curriculum. Even though students will receive teacher guidance during each step of the process, the science project experiment must be conducted outside of class. After doing their experiment, each student must complete an experiment lab report, project display board, and give a class presentation about their chosen science experiment. STUDENTS NEED TO FINISH CONDUCTING THEIR EXPERIMENT BY MARCH 11 th STUDENTS MUST TURN IN THEIR FINAL DRAFT LAB REPORT BY MARCH 18 th This timeline will ensure that students have enough time to organize their experimental results, draw conclusions, complete their lab report, and create a project display board. At this point, students should have already bought or collected any necessary materials for their science experiment. As their guardian (and trusty science project assistant ), please make sure your child has indeed done so, and is ready to conduct their experiment. Your signature on this paper to verify that you understand the requirements of COLM s advanced science class students, will help get the chosen experiment materials ready, and will supervise the timely completion of the science fair experiment outside of science class. STUDENT NAME PROJECT CHOICE ----------------------------------------------cut here---------------------------------------------- YOUR STUDENT IS READY TO PERFORM THEIR SCIENCE PROJECT EXPERIMENT Chain of Lakes Middle School requires advanced science students to individually plan and conduct a teacher approved science fair experiment. This requirement is a significant part of the advanced science class curriculum. Even though students will receive teacher guidance during each step of the process, the science project experiment must be conducted outside of class. After doing their experiment, each student must complete an experiment lab report, project display board, and give a class presentation about their chosen science experiment. STUDENTS NEED TO FINISH CONDUCTING THEIR EXPERIMENT BY MARCH 11 th STUDENTS MUST TURN IN THEIR FINAL DRAFT LAB REPORT BY MARCH 18 th This timeline will ensure that students have enough time to organize their experimental results, draw conclusions, complete their lab report, and create a project display board. At this point, students should have already bought or collected any necessary materials for their science experiment. As their guardian (and trusty science project assistant ), please make sure your child has indeed done so, and is ready to conduct their experiment. Please sign this paper to verify that you understand the requirements of COLM s advanced science class students, will help get the chosen experiment materials ready, and will supervise the timely completion of the science fair experiment outside of science class. STUDENT NAME PROJECT CHOICE PARENT SIGNATURE DATE 8

FORM 3 (p.1/1) SCIENCE FAIR EXPERIMENT LAB REPORT GUIDE Name: Period: You must use a computer to write your lab report and to produce your data tables and graphs. These are all the sections you must include in your project lab report. Place them in this order. Start each section with a separate, underlined title. Most of your lab report must be typed in size 12 font. Make sure to spell check your lab report paper, and have an adult proof read it for you before turning it in. 1. LAB REPORT TITLE /5 Your title should be in all capital letters, and in a larger font. It does not need to be on a separate paper, but should grab your reader s attention 2. RESEARCH QUESTION- (PURPOSE) /5 State the research question you attempted to answer by doing an experiment Be detailed and specific, and mention the independent and dependent variables 3. YOUR HYPOTHESIS /5 State your hypothesis by using the IF THEN format. Make it very specific! IF (the independent variable), THEN (the dependent variable) with reasoning 4. BACKGROUND RESEARCH /20 You should include all the useful information from your background research here This section should include helpful, detailed information and be at least 1 page long in your own words. 5. MATERIALS LIST This should include every little thing you used to perform the experiment State exactly how much you used of each item (in metric units) 6. PROCEDURE Make a numbered list of each step done to perform your experiment Must be very detailed so that another scientist could repeat it Always mention exact quantities of materials used in the procedure /5 /15 7. RESULTS /20 This is where you display your experimental results by using data tables and graphs Must be computer generated, with proper labels and metric units 8. CONCLUSIONS /20 This detailed section should be 2 or 3 lengthy paragraphs long at least 1 page long Restate your hypothesis, decide whether it was correct or not, and explain WHY Use your collected data as evidence. Explain the patterns you noticed in your data Make sure specific measurements are mentioned quite often to support your ideas Discuss if anything went wrong, what was interesting, or what to change next time 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY /5 You must also include a detailed bibliography at the end of your lab report It must include at least 3 reliable sources of accurate information that you used (Books, magazines, good websites, and newspaper articles are acceptable sources) FINAL GRADE /100 9

FORM 4 (p.1/2) Name: Period: Project Title: 1. Title 6. Procedure 2. Question 7. Results/Conclusion 3. Hypothesis 8. Answering Questions 4. Research 9. Voice Quality 5. Materials 10. Presence 1. Title Title is not mentioned. 0 1 2 3 Title is mentioned during the presentation, but not at an ideal time. Title is mentioned at the beginning of the presentation. Title is mentioned at the beginning of the presentation and creates a good starting point for the oral presentation. 2. Question Question is not mentioned. Question is mentioned during the presentation, but not at the appropriate time. Question is mentioned at its appropriate place in the presentation. Question is mentioned at the correct time and given appropriate emphasis. 3. Hypothesis Hypothesis is not mentioned. Hypothesis is mentioned at an inappropriate time. Hypothesis is mentioned at the correct point of the presentation. Hypothesis is mentioned at the correct time and is explained well including variables and reason selected. 4. Research Research is not mentioned. Research is mentioned, but is not fully addressed or is not in an appropriate spot. Research does not pertain to the subject. Research is mentioned in the appropriate point in the presentation and is appropriate. Research is mentioned at the appropriate spot and is fully explained by the presenter. 5. Materials Materials are not mentioned. Materials are discussed only briefly and do not include all important information. Materials are discussed at the appropriate time and all materials are included. Discussion is limited. Materials are discussed in detail at the appropriate time. Explanations are given for the selection of the materials for the project. 10

FORM 4 (p.2/2) 6. Procedures Procedures are not mentioned. 0 1 2 3 Procedures are mentioned in a limited and unorganized manner. Procedures are not mentioned at the correct time. Procedures are mentioned and explained in an organized manner. Procedures are discussed in a logical and organized manner. Student discusses important factors in their procedure. 7. Results/ Conclusion Results and conclusion are not mentioned. Results and conclusion is mentioned very briefly and is not explained. Student discusses results and conclusion with the class. Student's conclusion makes sense. Student discusses results and conclusion in depth. Student discusses how charts and graphs relate to conclusion. Student's conclusion makes sense. 8. Answering Questions Student is unable to answer questions about the project. Student answers questions with minimal thought. Answers don't make sense. Student answers questions correctly, but with minimal information. Student answers questions with knowledge and confidence. Answers all questions asked about the project. 9. Voice Quality Student doesn't present. Student does not speak loudly or clearly during the presentation. Student can be heard. Student still needs to speak a little louder for the class. Student speaks in a loud and clear voice. Student looks comfortable during his/her presentation and speaks with confidence. 10. Presence Student doesn't present. Student shows discomfort and uncertainty during the presentation. Student demonstrates the ability to appear in front of a group. Student may still show signs of discomfort. Student presents with confidence and comfort. Shows no signs of nervousness. Total Oral Presentation Points 11

FORM 5 (p.1/1) Name: Period: Project Title: 1. Display Board Used 2. Lettering 3. Title of Project 4. Graphs, Charts and Photos 5. Attention Getting; Neat 6.Organization 1. Display Board 0 1 2 3 4 NO Display Board. 2. Lettering Lettering is not used. Display board is small or not the appropriate size. Lettering is small, hard to read, or messy. 3. Title No title. Title is not eligible. 4. Graphs, Charts and Photos 5. Attention Getting; Neat No graphs, charts, or photos. Colors are not used and poster is messy. Charts, graphs and photos are included, but are of poor quality. Colors are used but may not be easy to read. Poster is not Neat. Display board is not in good condition. Lettering is appropriate, but all headings are not included. Title is able to be read, but is not large and eye catching. A few charts and graphs are included, but not enough to provide a good idea of the project. Poster uses some good color choices, but display could be used to better please the audience. Display board is in good condition, but could be used to better display information. Lettering is appropriate, and all headings are included. Title is readable and large, but not eye catching. Charts and graphs are included and explain the data well. Poster uses good color choices and is neat and orderly. Display board is the correct size, in good condition, and used wisely. Lettering is appropriate. All headings are included and used to their best advantage. Title is large, easy to read, and captures the viewers attention. Charts and graphs are included. They explain the data well and are of excellent quality. Poster display is of good color choice and is neat. The poster quality is excellent! 6. Organized; Order Poster is not organized. Poster is neat, but does not seem to flow in an organized manner. Poster is neat, but some components are out of order. Total Project Display Board Points Poster is neat and organized. The board is organized to explain the order of the project. Poster is neat and organized. The poster's flow and content is of exceptional quality! 12