In order to participate in the Science Fair, one parent must attend one of the two workshops and register through the form:

 

Science Fair Guidelines🚀🧪

The Scientific Method

1. Purpose – What is interesting to you and what do you want to learn?
2. Research – Find out as much about your topic as you can. 
3. Question- What is it you are still trying to find out? Ask a question.
4. Hypothesis – Predict the answer to your question.
5. Experiment – Design a test to confirm or disprove your hypothesis.
6. Results- What happened? What did you observe?
7. Analysis – Record and analyze what happened during the experiment.
8. Conclusion – Was your hypothesis correct or will you plan more testing?

Presentation Board Label: We will provide you with a presentation label that needs to be filled out, cut out, and glued to the back of the presentation board.  No names on the front of the presentation board. 

Create a Log Book to record everything you do from the first day you brainstorm ideas for your Science Fair Project to the last day when you present your project on Science Fair Day.   Use a spiral notebook or journal and date every entry. This will prove that you worked on your project over time and not last minute.  It also helps you find errors or helps you restart your experiment should something happen unexpectedly.  Remember if you don’t get the answer you expected, this kind of failure is priceless.  It means you found what doesn’t work. 

Five Kinds of Science Fair Projects Explained ~ for students, teachers, and parents 

(Choose 1)

Collection -create a collection of items and then sort and compare them in insightful ways.  This can be done by categorizing and classifying the items.  Items must be labeled and put into categories of similar characteristics.  For example using the five senses, color, shape, texture, or size are some ways to sort items.  Write up your observations and give a short description of the category rules (names) and how the objects were classified (or sorted) into the groups.  Note any items that pose a problem in your classification system. 

Here are some suggestions to help guide the completion of a collection project.

• collect information by counting objects, taking part in surveys, and measuring
• categorize and classify objects
• Students may use the words never, sometimes, and always to describe the chance of things happening. (eg. Sentence Frame:  ______ would never go in _____ category because…)
• Describe observations, I see... I hear… I can smell…
• Gather information using student’s five senses
• Know what body part is used to gather specific sensory information
• Identify, with help, the shape, texture, hardness. etc. of an object
• Relate what student has learned to other areas of learning
• Ask questions about the information student gathered (data)
• Compare data using measurement terms – bigger, smaller
• Draw a picture of the student’s data using one-to-one correspondence

Some examples:

• Leaf rubbings to categorize and classify shapes of leaves
• Collect items with different textures to touch
• Use sense of taste to classify foods as sweet, sour, salty, bitter
• Categorize and sort:  Shells, rocks, stamps, doll shoes, leaves, flowers, grasses, wood, plastic types, marbles, vegetables, Lego pieces, Minecraft resources, anything your student scientist is interested in. 
• Display the collection in a well-organized, creative, artistic way

Model- A model shows how something works.  It doesn’t test anything.  It may be a working model with moveable parts or it may be a stationary model just to show how it is made and its parts.  Either way the model needs to be labeled with all the parts, using the domain vocabulary appropriate to the topic with definitions of the parts and what they do. Give an explanation of what the model represents.  Since a model is either smaller or larger than the actual object, it is a good idea to have a scale to explain the real size.  

Here are some examples:  Volcano, solar system, Moon, solar powered car, engine, air plane, wing and lift, insect and its parts, skeleton of a dinosaur, flower and its parts, etc....  

More examples of models from Science Buddies: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/search?v=pi&d=2&x=diff2,0,0&s=models 

Demonstration:  Is the act or process of showing a scientific process, concept or truth.  It also doesn’t test anything.  Students will perform the demonstration for others at the science fair.   It may answer a simple question without manipulating a variable, such as Can I grow sugar crystals?  Some examples are:  1. a student exhales through a straw into a solution of tap water and aquarium pH indicator. The changing color demonstrates that increasing the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide causes water to become more acidic. 2.  A simple demonstration explains why ABS makes modern cars safer to drive.  3.  What does it take to become truly invisible? This disappearing trick separates fact from fiction. A Pyrex bowl submerged in vegetable oil completely disappears from view but try it with water or a different type of glass and it won't work.

Explanation: Difference between model/demonstration and an experiment https://youtu.be/csJ3saTBWbM?si=QnYVkAtsV5K51Cly  

Another explanation of Five Types of Projects  

Experiment:   Design and develop a device or process.  The key is to refine your engineered project and record the data and use the data to make the design better. Here are the key points to think about while engineering something as stated in the VCOE Handbook:

1. Identify the potential user’s needs and state the objective(s) clearly.  
2. Research what has already been done.
3. Prepare preliminary designs and a materials list considering costs, manufacturing, and user requirements.
4. Build and test a prototype.  Consider reliability, repair, and servicing.
5. Analyze the performance and compare it to the original objectives.
6. Improve design or construction and retest as necessary.
7. Document the results of each step and compile a report.

References:

Ventura County Office of Education (VCOE) Science Fair Handbook

Science Buddies - Science Fair Projects Science Projects

Science Fair Collections/ projects for Kindergartners 

1.  http://www.kindergarten-lessons.com/science-fair-projects/ 

2.   http://www.education.com/science-fair/kindergarten/