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Project Guide: General Steps

Your science fair project must be in the form of an investigative experiment. No models or demonstrations will be accepted. It must follow the steps of the scientific method that includes both experimental and control groups. Your instructor must approve your topic. If not, you run the risk of a failing grade if your project is unacceptable. Lets say, for example, that you wish to explore the science of Genetic Manipulation, or gene therapy. Your mini-project would showcase this topic in as creative and interesting a way as possible. Parents: The mini-project choices outlined in these pages are accompanied with links to Web 2.0 tool websites.

This guide will help you steer your students through the process of coming up with a good question to investigate for an Earth science fair project, designing a way to test that question, and creating a display to share findings and conclusions. The process begins with each student deciding on what he or she finds really interesting in the natural world. Use the navigation bar, above to navigate your way through each step.

Step 1: Students pick a topic.

Help your students choose an Earth science topic they can't wait to investigate. Ask them to brainstorm about some interesting topics; first as individuals, and then in small groups. (Sample individual brainstorm pages) Make a list on the board or overhead of the topics your students generate. For example, students might want to learn more about:

1. Rocks
2. Soil
3. Water
4. Space
5. Stars
6. Planets
7. Erosion
8. Fossils
9. Dinosaurs
10. Ocean waves
11. Earthquakes
12. Hurricanes

The World Wide Web offers thousands of ideas and topics. The science fair topic generator at Science Buddies™ offers an excellent 'topic wizard' .

Ask students to choose their favorite topics and record the topic and the reason they chose it in their science fair notebooks or journal.

Science Journal Downloads:

Step 2: Students list their investigation questions.

Once your students have chosen their topics, ask them to generate a list of questions about the topics in their science fair notebooks or journals. For example, if they wanted to learn more about soil, they might ask:

1. Is all soil the same?
2. What lives in soil?
3. What soil is best for building on?
4. What soil is best for growing tomatoes?
5. What chemicals can I test for in soil?

As they record their questions, ask them to think about how they would test each question. Ask students to share their favorite investigation questions with the class and how they think they might test those questions.

Science Journal Downloads:

Step 3: Students create their science fair project plan.

Now that your students have generated their investigation questions, they need to plan how they will test those questions. The first step in the planning process is research.

Schedule a time to take your students to the library and/or the computer lab. Before you go, ask your students to make a list of the questions they would like to research and share these with you and their classmates.

Students might choose to research such questions as (Questions are linked to the science journal):

Science Fair Project Mr. Mac's Page Login

Guide students to appropriate books, journals and other resources as they research their project questions. They should record their findings in their science fair journals or notebook

Science Fair Project Mr. Mac's Page Search

Step 4: Students design ways of testing their science questions.

After students finish their background research, they will need to start designing ways of testing their science questions. There are a number of ways of doing this: building and using a model to study a natural process; designing an experiment; conducting a survey or making observations from a field study. It is better for younger students to test questions with direct observations or by using existing models. Older students may be able to create and use surveys or design and conduct controlled experiments.