Steps to Doing a Science Fair Project

The first step in the scientific method is to select a topic and gather background information on that topic. This is called Project Research.

For the best results you will want to complete three tasks during this step after selecting your topic.
Task 1: Research your topic
Task 2: Make observations in the field
Task 3: Complete or watch science experiments that explore concepts within your topic.

Before you can make any observations you will need to select a topic. Topic selection can be tricky, especially if this is your first science fair project or if this is your first science project in general. You can get ideas for selecting your topic by reading science news headlines, by exploring science topic databases and lists or by surfing the Internet for hot topics. You can also select a topic based on the prizes being offered by the science fair that you want to enter. For example, special prizes are offered in hot topics like environmental science, energy science and alternative fuel applications.

After you have selected a topic your next task is to conduct your background research. This research will need to gather information about research that has already been conducted on your topic, as well as the latest findings and problems related to your topic. Some resources you can use include science fair ebooks and science themed magazines and journals. As you conduct your background research you will want to start narrowing your topic to a specific question or component of that topic that interests you the most.

Your next task will be to make observations about your topic in the field. This task is optional, and in some cases it will not be practical. For example, if you are working on a science fair project topic like jet fuel alternatives, you may not be able to gain access to the materials needed to make field observations. However, you could complete this task by watching educational videos on the topic. When you make observations in the field you will want to take notes, pictures and record your data. You will be using this information later.

The final task for this step is to complete or watch science experiments that deal with your topic. You can use science experiment kits, or complete experiments that have been posted online. The point of this final task is to help you get an idea of what experiments have already been utilized to examine your topic and give you ideas for creating your own experiment.

The second step in the scientific method is to develop a hypothesis. A hypothesis is the heart and soul of your super science fair project. It will be used to design your experiment, evaluate the data that you collect and to mold your conclusions. Simply put, your hypothesis is going to be a statement or question that your experiment will try to answer, prove or disprove.

The first step in creating a hypothesis is to narrow down your topic to a very specific sliver. For example, a topic like renewable energy is far too broad to develop an experiment for. You will need to narrow down this topic significantly so that you can develop an experiment that will produce a useful result. To narrow down your topic simply look for subtopics that interest you and then start asking questions about that subtopic. For example, you can ask "which renewable energy source is the most efficient?"

Step two is to develop a hypothesis that (1) is interesting, (2) is specific enough to test and (3) is appropriate for your age and skill level. One of the biggest mistakes that first time science fair participants make is selecting a hypothesis that is too advance for their abilities or available resources. Judges will appreciate simpler projects that are well done more than complex projects that are incomplete.

The final step is to come up with the wording and format for your hypothesis. You have two main options. Your first option is to write out your hypothesis as a statement. In this case your experiment will need to be designed to either prove or disprove this statement. Your second option is to format your hypothesis in the form of a question. In this case your experiment will be designed to answer your question.

It is important to remember that a hypothesis statement or question needs to focus on only one thing. For example, your hypothesis can look at the relationship between ethanol and gasoline, but not between ethanol and gasoline and ethanol and solar panels. If you have a complex project that explores multiple relationships, then you will need to create multiple hypotheses to work with and to test.

Step three in the scientific method is make predictions about what your science fair project experiment will uncover. This may seem like a strange step to take, but it is an important one as it will help you to develop your experiment in step number four. To make your predictions you will need to take three steps.

The first step in making your predictions is to review your background research that you gathered during the observation step. You will want to look for what other research projects have discovered about your topic. You will also want to look at findings, theories and laws related to your topic.

Next you will want to identify data and findings that directly relate to the question that you are trying to answer, or to the statement that you are trying to prove or disprove. Create an annotated bibliography to help you remember what resources contained findings that you will use to develop your experiment and to support your findings. Finally, write out a prediction statement like: According to research conducted by [name your sources], ethanol will produce less greenhouse gases than alternative fuel #1.

Step four of the scientific method is one of the most challenging and the most fun steps in the entire science fair project process. This step will include two steps. Step one will be designing your science fair project and step two will be executing your project.

The first step is designing your science experiment. You will want to go back to your observation notes created during the first step of the scientific method, making observations, and look for ideas for your own project. Next you will need to brainstorm ideas for how to set up an experiment to test your hypothesis. There are a lot of different types of experiments that you can use including observational experiments that involve simply observing how things naturally interact with one another, chemical experiments that involve using chemistry products to test materials for chemical compounds and there are physical experiments that involve manipulating physical features and elements to test theories and hypothesis statements. If you have multiple hypotheses to test, you may need to use more than one type of experiment.

As you design your experiment make notes about your experiment's methodology. For example, if you are working on biology science fair projects then you will want to make a list of materials that you will be using, measurements of materials used in the experiment, the experiment's process and any other related information to the design of your experiment. This information will be used in your final report so make sure you include as many details as you can.

The second step is to execute your science fair project experiment. In this step you will follow your notes, set up the experiment and execute the experiment. If your experiment doesn't seem to be producing the data that you need to resolve your hypothesis, then you may need to tweak the experiment's design or start from scratch. Don't get discouraged if this happens to you. It is very common in the field of science to have to re-engineer an experiment. Again, take notes on every change that you make to your experiment so that you can update the methodology section of your report.

Step five in the scientific method actually has two parts. The first part is to collect data and the second part is to analyze that data. Both steps require accuracy and mathematic skills.

To complete the first part of step five you will need to simply record data from your experiment. The data will need to quantitative in nature in order for it to be useful. This means that you will need to be able to measure the data in numerical form such as length measurements, weight measurements or population counts. If you are working with qualitative data, or data that is descriptive in nature, then you will need to create a scale that assigns numbers to specific qualities before you move on to the next step.

To complete the second part of step five you will need to use statistics, tables and graphs. The purpose of this phase of your experiment is not to draw conclusions. The purpose of this phase instead is to simply describe what data you collected. To do this you will want to explain each set of data that you collected, talk about the statistical analysis findings that you came up with and talk about other objective findings that relate to your data. Again, do not make any conclusions during this step of your science fair projects, you will draw them in a later section.

Step six is the final step in the scientific method, well sort of. In step six you will identify relationships between your test subjects and you will explain what your data findings mean. This step will require that you not only make references to your own experiments, but that you also support your conclusions using authoritative research and findings conducted by other scientists.

The first step in writing out your conclusion is to explain the relationships that you discovered during the analysis phase and to explain what your findings mean. Next you will want to support your findings with data gathered during the research and observation phase of your experiment. For example, you may write something like, "the prevalence of green fruit flies in batch six who have the double recessive trait supports what [state resource] found in his/her research project." This link between what you have found and what others have found will add credibility to your project. However, if your findings differ from what others have reported then you will need to explain the difference and why you think it occurred in your report.

The next part of your conclusion will need to evaluate the design of your science fair project's experiment. In this section you will want to talk about the reliability and validity of your data. What this means is that you need to discuss how accurate your experiment replicated the conditions under which the test subjects you tested normally function in. You will also want to talk about possible confounds, which are factors that could have tainted or altered your experiment results unintentionally.

The final section of your conclusion needs to summarize your findings and make recommendations about what research still needs to be conducted in your topic area. Your recommendations can be related to what your experiment examined, or it can be a general recommendation about what information your topic could benefit from.