Science Fair Time!

It's finally here...Thursday and Friday are the in-class science fairs!

I wish everyone the best of luck in their final preparations for the science fair and I want to encourage everyone to participate in the evening science fair.

Where: Mid-Prairie Middle School’s Student Center

When: April 5^th – 3:30 – 5 p.m.

Who: All 8^th Graders are invited to share their science fair project & earn extra credit – we’d love to see all their families come out to support them!

Why: The students created their own projects and it’s important to support and encourage their curiosity about the world!

Conclusions...last, yet so important

The conclusion is the last piece of the science fair puzzle.  Yet, it is probably the component that we need to take the most time with because it accounts for 20 points of our science fair project!
The conclusion has three parts: claim, evidence, and explanation.
Let's start with the claim. In the most simple terms, the claim is what you learned from your experiment.  If you use your hypothesis (if you wrote a strong hypothesis), it should be easy for you to write.  Your claim needs to be a statement of fact about your experiment, relating to your variables - independent and dependent.
For the evidence section, think just the facts!  I don't want any speculation in this section.  I just want the specific and relevant pieces of data that support your claim to be explained in this section.  This is the section where you are building up the case for your claim (if you claim were ever to go on trial, you would want a lot of evidence to help it out).
The explanation section is where we are getting into the science behind your experiment.  This section will show me how well you researched your topic before you started.  You'll be bringing in prior knowledge, scientific principals and facts to back up your findings.  Did they match what laws of science say?  If so explain this link and continually support and connect to your claim and evidence.  If not, make connections to your experiment and procedure as to why they don't match and start to create your own reasonings to make connections with what happened.

Data, data, data -

What are the best ways to display data?
The data is really the meat of your project.  As an observer, I look carefully at the data to be able to ask intelligent questions about your project.
The data needs to be able to speak clearly, even if you are not there to speak for it.
In class today, we discussed ways to display data: graphs and data tables.  As a minimum, I expect one data table and one graph on your science fair tri-fold.
For assessment of data on your board:  I'm looking for:

• Data to be organized using a table AND a graph
• Graphs and tables are correctly titled and labeled
• The correct graph is used to display the information

Remember, when/if you decide to work in excel, no labels on your numbers, and highlight only the information you want to graph.  Your graphs need to have main titles, and titles for the x and y axis.

Procedures!

Yikes!
I saw a lot of mistakes when I reviewed the formal research proposals this weekend!  We need to get these corrected before we get to the science fair date.
The biggest mistakes that I saw were:

• Did not use numbered steps
• Did not include specific measurements
• Did not tell me what data you are collecting
• Left out steps
• Include "extra" information that was not relative to the experiment

A procedure needs to be:

• Step-by-step - numbered steps
• Clear and specific
• Each step is a simple sentence that is a command
• Easy to follow - your procedure needs to be able to be reproduced by another person
• Needs to include a diagram

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To help guide you...

If you missed yesterday, or in case you forgot, here is an outline of what we discussed in class to help you get set up for the first few steps of the science fair.
The most important place to start is to figure out your variables - Independent (what you change) and Dependent (what you observe or measure).  Once you have those figured out, you'll be in good shape for forming and creating the rest of your experiment.
Let's move on to your question.  Your question needs to be:

• Labeled
• Clear
• have your independent and dependent variable that you'll be testing

Your hypothesis is your prediction of what you think will happen in the experiment based on your knowledge about the subject.  Your hypothesis needs to be:

• Labeled 
• Clear
• Predicts the results based on your variables
• have an element of reason behind it

On the hypothesis, most 8th graders won't go far enough.  Look at this example hypothesis:

I think that the red truck will have the fastest speed because it is the lightest in weight.

Many students will stop with completing the orange writing, but you need to take it a step further to add in the reasoning behind your thoughts.

Finally, your procedure needs to be:

• in numbered, small and direct steps
• avoid using pronouns - it, they or thing if you don't know the name of something
• include all step, don't skip any no matter how tiny they might be
• A diagram of your procedure step-up, labeled to give people an instant visual

There are two goals for this week:

1. work on completing an easybib for your resources
2. complete the research proposal form, have it signed by your parents, and returned by Thursday!

Getting Started...

Getting started with the science fair project may seem overwhelming, but as a class we are going to take it in steps.  The most important part is to stay on top of it!  Last week, we began brainstorming different ideas and I asked the students to come up with two possible ideas that they were interested in.  This week, we are going to focus on morphing those ideas into projects that can be investigated to collect data an compare the impact of changes made to a setting.
Today, we are going to discuss that before you can create your question and hypothesis you have to know what your variables are.  Independent variable is what you change in the experiment.  Dependent variable is what you observe or measure.  Finally, your control variable is what stays the same to help you control your experiment.
You question and hypothesis needs to include your independent and dependent variable in some way.
Lastly, we are going to talk about appropriate ways to set up your procedures.  Procedures are the backbone of your science fair project.  They help to stabilize and give purpose.  Procedures need to be specific!!! Details, details, details.  Here are some things to think about:

1. Be specific with measurements or sizes.  If you are adding water to a cup, include exactly how much 20 mL for example
2. Each step should be a short complete sentence. (capital letters, periods)
3. Don't skip any step no matter how important you think it is.  You write a procedure so that someone else could complete your experiment without you being there to tell them or show them how to do it.
4. Finally, as an 8th grade science fair experiment, I require a diagram to be part of your procedure.  A diagram is a visual image that helps to give your audience and better understanding of what you are doing.  The diagram needs to be labeled.