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Book Chapter
Making Sense of Your Results: Charting Your Data
Can you imagine the world without clocks? It was 400 years ago that Galileo got his idea for the first pendulum clock by watching the lamp in the dome of the cathedral swing back and forth with an even rhythm. The task in this chapter is for student...
Book Chapter
Explanations: Looking for Patterns and Trends: Generalizing
This chapter features projects where you look for patterns and trends. The success of a project depends on whether or not the findings are valuable—whether you have discovered some generalizations—in addition to its being well done scientifically...
Book Chapter
Sharing Your Findings: Displaying Your Project
This chapter provides a simple pattern for making display boards and pictures of displays are found in the book. There is no recipe for a great display because every project is different. It’s a real challenge to find an attractive, clear, and conc...
Book Chapter
Judging Projects: Checking for Quality
It’s not easy to judge projects. Every project is different and must be judged on its own merits. Some projects are straightforward, while others are demanding. This chapter asks that students be the judge by carefully reading the actual accounts ...
Book Chapter
Generating Ideas for Projects: Ideas From Previous Science Fairs
This chapter shares a list of titles of projects at a national science fair to give students some indication of the range of topics. A good way to explore a topic is to discuss it with a friend. When exploring a topic, remember it’s okay to choose...
Book Chapter
It’s not easy to tell what science fairs and science projects are all about. The best way to find out is to do a project and take it to a science fair. This chapter provides “starting points” for projects and these “starting points” have be...
Book Chapter
An Overview of the Nature of Scientific Inquiry: What Do Scientists Do?
This chapter explores the question, “What do scientists do?” A good way to find out what scientists do is to try being a scientist. The chapter presents a challenge to students with an exercise on falling objects. It isn’t easy to make sense of...
Book Chapter
Science Without Numbers: Looking for Similarities and Differences
This chapter presents the task of students finding out all they can about the soil by looking for similarities and differences. This task allows students to experience a little of the difficulty and puzzlement the early chemists faced centuries ago a...
Book Chapter
Variables and Their Controls: Finding Out How Much It Matters
In this chapter, students are asked to be a ramp design consultant and to devise a test rig using a toy racetrack and a ball. They need to determine the best angle for the ramp and think about what makes a fair test. The angle could be difficult to ...
Book Chapter
Experiment Design: Designing Good Apparatus
This chapter presents the task of judging bubble solutions to see which makes the biggest bubbles and the longest-lasting bubbles. Students design and carry out a scientific experiment to decide which bubble solution is better. This is a real challe...
Book Chapter
Sources of Error: Searching for Errors
This chapter investigates suffocating candles and how long a candle stays lit in jars of different sizes. The students’ task is to try to find out what the uncontrolled variable is and how to control the variable, while using their knowledge and ex...
Book Chapter
Making Sense of Your Results: Graphing Your Data
This chapter features two projects—one on the science of table tennis and one on exploring the best way to stop needles from falling off Christmas trees. The focus is on “graphing the data,” and the decisions that need to be made, such as bar ...
Book Chapter
Explanations: Getting Explanations That Fit
This chapter deals with “getting explanations that fit.” When scientists do experiments, they try to explain their findings by connecting the results to what they already know. When they encounter a new happening—or phenomena—they try to fit ...
Book Chapter
Sharing Your Findings: Writing Your Report
After scientists have done an experiment or a series of experiments, they usually take time to write their reports. This not only gives them a chance to get their thinking together but also—and even more important—enables them to share their wor...
Book Chapter
Judging Projects: Suggesting Improvements
This chapter focuses on “suggesting improvements.” When a scientist sends a report of an investigation to a journal for publication, the editor consults experts on whether the investigation was done well and if the findings are valuable. The expe...