examples of background research for a science fair project

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Vol. XXXVI, No. 3, Spring 2020

Reinventing Science Fairs

By Frederick Grinnell

Science fairs have a remarkable hold on the public’s attention. President Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union address, said, “We need to teach our kids that it’s not just the winner of the Super Bowl who deserves to be celebrated, but the winner of the science fair.” The 2018 film Science Fair won that year’s Sundance Film Festival favorite award. The 2018 book The Class chronicled a year in a classroom where science fairs are at the center of science education. And a recent GEICO “ Science Fair of the Future ” television commercial had more than 11 million views on YouTube in its first month.

As conspicuous examples of kids learning about science, science fairs ought to receive a lot of attention from the education community, but they do not do so as much as might be expected. For example, in three major National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) reports on science education— Successful K – 12 STEM Education (2011), A Framework for K–12 Science Education (2012), and Next Generation Science Standards for States by States (2013)—the term “science fair” appeared once, in a footnote.

One of three key dimensions of science education identified in the Next Generation Science Standards, which were developed in a partnership of states, NASEM, and other educational organizations, is experiencing the practices of science: “students cannot comprehend scientific practices, nor fully appreciate the nature of scientific knowledge itself, without directly experiencing those practices for themselves.” The question, though, of how to integrate the practice of science into science curricula is not new, and debates about how to do so permeate the history of science education. Science fairs would seem to be good vehicles for giving students the experience of the practices of science, both individually and combined. But to achieve this potential, science fairs must be reinvented.

Science fairs can take many shapes, and it turns out that the variables matter. Is the goal to reach eventual scientists and engineers, or to increase the knowledge of science of students on any career path? Should students be required to participate, or should science fairs be voluntary? Is it about winning and losing, or just participating?

Science fairs would seem to be good vehicles for giving students the experience of the practices of science, both individually and combined. But to achieve this potential, science fairs must be reinvented.

Science fairs began almost one hundred years ago under the auspices of a civic organization called the American Institute of the City of New York. At a 1932 meeting, the city’s science teachers and administrators discussed bringing after-school science clubs together into a federation. The organizing committee was led by Morris Meister (who would later found the Bronx School of Science). Meister’s ideas about science fairs evolved from his studies of after-school science clubs, which met in spaces that became known as science play shops. Following the philosophy of John Dewey, Meister focused on “the scientist at work rather than the work of the scientist.” Dewey strongly advocated for learning by doing, and Meister, extending Dewey’s ideas, saw the inventiveness and experimentation by students in the science play shops as analogous in an experiential sense to the playfulness of the scientist doing research.

The first science fairs consisted mostly of demonstration rather than discovery projects, but this changed after the 1939–1940 New York World’s Fair. In a science fair housed in the Westinghouse Company’s exhibit building, several thousand high school students from the American Institute’s science and engineering clubs displayed their projects and conducted live “experiments” for an estimated ten million visitors. A few years later, in partnership with Science Service (now the Society for Science and the Public), science fairs became the central feature of the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. After Westinghouse, Intel Corporation and, most recently, the biotechnology company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals became program sponsor. After the New York World’s Fair, science fairs increasingly became viewed as a means to encourage and help students find their way to science and engineering career paths.

Winners vs. learners

The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) has offered guidance about how science fairs should be conducted. According to NSTA, science fairs should be voluntary, with an emphasis not on the competition but on the learning experience.

Several years ago, I began a research program to study students’ experiences with high school science fairs, working in collaboration with Simon Dalley, president of the Dallas regional science and engineering fair; Karen Shepherd, science coordinator of the independent school district in Plano, Texas; and Joan Reisch, head of the statistics group at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. We looked at two major student groups: regional and national cohorts of high school students who recently had participated in science fairs, and college students on biomedical science trajectories who had or had not participated in science fairs during high school. Using voluntary and anonymous surveys, we have collected answers from more than 700 students about the types and sources of help they received with their science fair projects, the obstacles they encountered, the strategies they used to overcome obstacles, and the impact of science fairs on their interest in science and engineering.

Of respondents who had participated in a science fair, more than 60% of the high school students and 40% of the post-high school students had been required to do so, suggesting that NSTA’s guidance is widely ignored. By a four-to-one margin, the students overwhelmingly opposed the notion of being compelled to compete in a science fair, whether or not they personally had been required to do so. Moreover, the negative consequences of the requirement were tangible. When we asked high school students “did your science fair experience increase your interest in the sciences or engineering?” those who had chosen to participate reported a more positive impact than did students who had been required to participate. Of those who had been obligated to participate, only about 50% said the experience increased their interest in science and engineering, compared with 75% of those who chose to participate. Even worse, of the students who said they were not interested in a career in the sciences or engineering and who were required to compete in a science fair, almost 10% reported having engaged in research misconduct—fabricating data or copying their data from someone else.

We also learned that in competitive science fairs, the student focus was on winning rather than learning. It’s true that the competitive aspect can be positive or negative depending on the student’s personality: the most frequent negative comments fell into the category don’t like to compete and positive comments into the category competition provides an incentive . Less than 1% of the students mentioned science fairs as an introduction to the scientific process.

When asked about noncompetitive science fairs, student views were more nuanced. The high school students still were mostly negative about requiring participation, but the post-high school students now on a biomedical path were split evenly about whether the fairs should be required or optional. Of particular importance, we found that when students considered noncompetitive science fairs, their positive comments fell mostly in the categories of introduction to the scientific process and general learning —in short, their focus shifted noticeably from competition to learning. So our surveys suggest that if the goal is to increase a general interest and understanding of science and engineering among all students, requiring students to participate in competitive science fairs can be counterproductive, and offering students a noncompetitive science fair alternative could provide a way to change the focus of science fairs from winning to learning.

In what ways do competitive and noncompetitive science fairs differ? Criteria used to judge projects in the International Science and Engineering Fair competition include the project’s contribution to the field of study, new possibilities for future work, and the potential impact on science, society, or economics. To win, competitive science fair participants are subject to the same kinds of standards as working scientists and engineers.

Noncompetitive science fairs can provide a wide range of students with a broad appreciation of where scientific knowledge comes from and how it is used in the twenty-first century world.

In noncompetitive science fairs, students can be evaluated differently, with the focus on their understanding and implementation of individual scientific practices rather than their getting the “right” answer. The Next Generation Science Standards describe eight practices of science and engineering based on an analysis of what science and engineers commonly do on the job: ask questions and define problems (for science and engineering, respectively); develop and use models; plan and carry out investigations; analyze and interpret data; use mathematics and computational thinking; construct explanations and design solutions (for science and engineering, respectively); engage in argument from evidence; and obtain, evaluate, and communicate information. Students whose project includes all these elements will have learned a lot about science or engineering by bringing together problem selection, experimental design and implementation, data analysis, and communication of research findings.

Another important potential difference between noncompetitive and competitive science fairs concerns students’ posters. In real life, science is typically presented in one of three forms. Student textbooks offer a collection of facts with little if any explanation about how the facts were discovered. Scientific memoirs and biographies (along with journalistic, social science, and philosophical accounts of science) describe what happened in everyday practice—research adventures where the path to discovery can be highly convoluted with many dead ends, failure is frequent, and ambiguity ever present. And published research papers and conference posters, in which scientists recast these adventures as stories that follow a linear path from hypothesis to discovery, hide the real-world complexity of scientific practice. In competitive science fairs, students’ posters follow the same format as scientists’ research papers. In noncompetitive science fairs, however, students have no need to follow the linear format. Instead, they have an opportunity to describe what actually happened over the course of carrying out their project, including the failures or ambiguities that they experienced.

Noncompetitive and competitive science fair formats correspond to what the education literature characterizes as mastery-oriented and performance-oriented goals. Mastery means competition with oneself with an emphasis on understanding and improving skills and knowledge. Performance means competition with others to demonstrate one’s higher ability and capacity to win. Science and engineering are highly competitive careers. For those students already interested in a career in these areas, competitive science fairs may be valuable as an opportunity to experience that competition firsthand. For everyone else, noncompetitive science fairs provide an equally important opportunity to experience the practices of science with the focus on learning, precisely those practices described above. Consequently, noncompetitive science fairs can provide a wide range of students with a broad appreciation of where scientific knowledge comes from and how it is used in the twenty-first century world.

Science unfair?

Another important benefit of noncompetitive science fairs concerns fairness. Researchers who have studied what contributes to student success in science fairs (read: winning them) have identified several key factors: parental support and encouragement, access to social and research resources, and access to higher-level facilities outside school. Although many students are able to compete and succeed through their own sheer intellect and determination, students with the key resources will have a strong advantage. Consequently, some critics argue that science fairs are fundamentally unfair, and biased against students with fewer resources. In our study, one student put it this way: “The ceiling of the project mainly depends on how well you are connected to a researcher at a higher institution. Many participants had family members or good connections for them to work in their lab. As a result, the playing field felt unfair to those who were not well connected in science or who had families who didn’t have scientific backgrounds.” Indeed, our research found that students who had received help from scientists reported an easier time getting their project ideas and less difficulty getting the resources necessary to carry out their projects. In noncompetitive science fairs, where the goal no longer is winning, the fairness issue recedes.

Morris Meister’s doctoral thesis focused on the role of science toys, such as Meccano erector sets and Chemcraft chemistry sets, in informal science education. Students active in the science clubs that became part of the federation promoting science fairs were already engaged in competitive and noncompetitive activities centered on the use of science toys. On the competitive side, toy manufacturers offered generous cash prizes to winners based on original use of their products that would be of general interest to others and not simply variations of already published ideas. On the noncompetitive side, club members could win prizes based on their accumulative individual achievements.

In a May 22, 1932, article in the New York Times describing the meeting at which the after-school science clubs formed a federation, the group’s stated goals closely echoed those of today’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education—“to aid in the development of the scientific leaders of the next generation and at the same time foster a better understanding of science among its laymen.” Based on our research, we suggest that incentivizing voluntary student participation and offering students the choice of science fair formats—both noncompetitive and competitive—would best achieve these broad educational aims. Competitive and noncompetitive programs were part of science fairs at their inception. It’s time to bring both options back.

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Science Fair Projects Involving a Soccer Ball

A Lacrosse Shooting Science Fair Project

Science fair projects can be a drag for some students. Incorporate something that they're interested in, such as sports, to make the project less of a chore and more interesting. A soccer ball can become a part of science project through studying the way that it bounces on different surfaces, air pressure experiments, velocity and trajectory.

Surface Effect

A science fair project based on the effects of different types of turf on the bounciness of a soccer ball studies the physics and energy of the ball. Find three types of turf where you can perform your experiment. Select a field that's planted with Kentucky bluegrass, one with Bermuda grass and one that has artificial turf. Write a hypothesis as to which turf you think the ball will be the bounciest on. You will need to consider the energy of your ball when forming your hypothesis. You will be dropping your ball from six feet above the turf. When the ball drops, the potential energy converts to kinetic energy. After the ball hits the turf, the ball deforms upon impact. This converts the kinetic energy to compressed potential energy. When the air decompresses after impact, the potential energy will be converted to kinetic energy when the ball bounces upwards. Bring a friend with you to help with your testing. Have your friend climb on top of a ladder and drop the ball from six feet in the air. Count how many times the ball bounces on each type of turf. Drop the ball ten times at each field and use the average number of bounces of each field in your analysis. Write an account of your experiment for your project. Graph the data on a bar chart to show each type of field. Write a conclusion comparing your hypothesis to the results of the experiment.

Air Pressure

Study the relationship between air pressure and how far a soccer ball travels. Write a hypothesis with your opinion of what the optimum air pressure for a soccer ball is. The air pressure affects the ball because of the number of air molecules inside. When there are more air molecules inside the ball, the tension on the wall of the ball increases. This will cause the ball to bounce harder and affect the way the ball travels after hitting a surface. Build a slingshot or use a water balloon launcher to test the distance of the ball. Put two pounds of pressure in the ball and launch it with the slingshot. Measure how far the ball travels. Perform the experiment two more times by launching the ball from the same place. Repeat the test again by adding two more pounds of air pressure to the ball. Increase the pressure each time by two pounds until you get to twelve. Write an explanation of your experience including how far you pulled the ball back in the slingshot. Compare the distances of the ball to determine the optimum air pressure for performance. Show your results on a line graph. Write a conclusion evaluating your hypothesis in regards to the conclusion of your experiment.

Experiment with how the stitching of a soccer ball can affect the distance it travels. Write a hypothesis stating which ball you think will travel the farthest. The way the ball is stretched and stitched together along with the material makeup of the ball can affect the shape of the ball and the way it compresses the air inside. Even though all of the balls look round, there could be slight differences in them due to the amount of panels and stitches it took to make it. Bring a friend with you to the soccer field along with four soccer balls. Each soccer ball will have varied amounts of panels on the exterior, usually anywhere between 12 and 32. Have your friend kick each ball ten times using the same force. Measure how far the ball travels and take the average distance for each ball. Explain in your project your experiment and how you executed it. Compare the distances on a line graph and determine whether or not the panels affect the ball’s velocity. State in your conclusion whether the ball you chose in your hypothesis matched up with the results of the experiment.

Investigate the relationship between spin and trajectory of the soccer ball. When a ball is kicked straight on with the instep of your foot, it travels straight. If you kick the ball with the toe of your shoe at an angle, the ball can curve in flight from the applied force. The applied force acts as torque and causes the ball to spin. Select which angle you think will curve the ball the most and state it as your hypothesis. Take a video camera to the field with you. Set up the video camera on a tripod to record your experiment. Explore how you strike the ball with your foot in specific spots and how it spins the ball. Examine on the video where you struck the ball with your foot and the resulting path of the ball. Write an account of your experiment. Analyze the kick angles, point of impact and path of the ball by sketching them on a drawing. Use a different color ink for each kick on the drawing to show where each ball travelled. Write a conclusion comparing your hypothesis to the results of the trial.

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• University of Southern California: California State Science Fair 2005 Project Summary
• Supersciencefairprojects.com: Soccer Ball Design Science Fair Projects
• Science Buddies; The Science of Spin: How Does Spin Affect the Trajectory of a Kicked Soccer Ball?

About the Author

Caroline Baldwin, a corporate communications director located in South Carolina, began writing in 1998. Her work has been published in publications across the United States and Canada including Rolling Stone, Boating Life, Waterski and Wakeboarding magazines. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in communication studies from The College of Charleston.

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Writing adenine Research Paper available Your Science Fair Project

Year after year, college find that one report called the research paper is the part of the science fair project places they hear the most. So, take it from those who preceded you, the research paper you are preparing to write is super valuable.

What Is a Investigate Paper?

The small answer is that one research paper is a report summarizing the find to the research questions you generated in your kontext research plan. It's a review of the relevant publications (books, magazines, websites) discussing the topic yourself will on investigate.

The long answer is that which research paper summarizes which theory after your experiment. Research fair referee like to see that him understand why your experiment rotary exit the way this did. You do library and Internet research so that you can make a prediction of what will occur inbound own experiment, and then whether that prediction is right or wrong, you will have of knowledge to understandable what caused the behavior you observed. Theclassroom.

From a practical perspective, the research paper also discourse the techniques both equipment that are appropriate for investigating your choose. Some methods and techs are more reliable because they got come used many moment. Canned you employ a procedure for autochthonous science fair project that is similar to an experiment that possesses been done before? If you can get this request, your project will be find triumphant. As they speak, you don't want the reinvent the wheel! Learning Honest Take: Writing Your Gesamt Project Process After.

Are these reasons sound to him like the reasons we gave for doing experience research, you're legal! The research paper is simply the "write-up" of that research.

Special Details to Include in Your Research Paper

Countless science experiments can be explained using mathematics. Like you write your research paper, you'll want to make secured is you include as much related calculus as you understand. If a simple equation describes aspects in your science fair project, inclusive it. How toward Write a Discussion for an Science Fair Project.

Writing the Researching Paper

Note taking.

As him read the information in thine bibliography, you'll want for take notes. Some teachers recommend taking notes on mention cards. Anyone maps take an source by the top, with principal points listed or quoted underneath. Other prefer typing notes directly into a word converter. No matter how you seize notes, be sure to keep track of an sources in all your key facts. Are a project proposal, a research paper, part one of their final paper.

How to Organize Is Research Paper

The best way until speed your writing is to do a little planning. Before starting to written, think about the best order to discussing this larger cross of your report. Generally, you will want to begin with get science fair your question so that the reader willingness know the purpose of your paper. Thing should come next? Ask yourself where information the reader needs to learn first in order to understand the repose of the paper. A typical organization might look like this: How toward Write a Thesis Command for a Research Paper: Steps and.

When and How into Footnote or Reference Sources

When you writer own research paper you might require to copy words, pictures, plots, or ideas from one of your sources. Itp is OK toward mimic such information as long as you reference it with a mention. If the information can a phrase, punishment, button header, then you should also put it in quotation marks. A citation and quotation marks tell the reader who actually wrote the information.

With adenine science fair project, one reference mention (also known as author-date citation) is an accepts way to reference news you copy. Citation referencing is easy. Simply put the author's last name, an annum of publication, and page number (if needed) at parentheses to who information you copy. Place the reference citation at the end of the penalty but before the finish period. Scholarly Text Made Easy: A Step by Step How to.

Make sure that and source for everybody citations item copied appears in your literature.

Reference Citation Format

Examples of related citations using apa format.

Below are examples of methods reference zitations would look with your paper using the APA image.

Credit Whereabouts Credit Is Due!

When you function hard to write something, they don't want your friends until loaves and just copy it. Jede originator feels the same way.

Fraud exists when someone making the words, film, diagrams, or ideas away personage else and presents their because his other herr own. Available you find information in a book, on the Online, button from some other source, you MUST give that author of which information credit in a quote. If you copy a sentence or paragraph exactly, you have or use quotation marks around the text. Dr Michelle Harris, Dr Janet Batzli, Biocore This section provides guidelines on how to construct a solid introduction to ampere scientific paper including setting information, study question, biological rationale, hypothesis and general address Whenever.

An surprising thing to tons students is how easy it is for parents, professors, and science fair judges to detect also prove plagiarism. So, don't go there, and don't make us try for track you down!

Whereby to Format Your Research Paper

Click is information in like to sizing your research page.

Here your a sample research paper include MLA print.

Research Papers Checklist

Erforschung our science videos.

You may print and spreading up to 280 copies of on document annually, at no charge, for personal and klassenraum educational use. When printing this documentation, you might NOT modify it inbound any type. Since any misc use, please contact Science Buddies. Select out this cool and available middle school science fair project idea up how toward make ampere solar oven.

Science Fair Project Abstract

What's an theoretical.

An abstract is an abbreviated version of your science fair project final report. For most learning shows it is little to a maximum in 049 words (check the rules with your competition). The science fair project abstract show at the get of this reports while well as on your screen board.

Things for Avoid

Why is an abstract key.

Your science fair project abstract lets people quickly detect if they want to read the entire report. Consequently, at least ten times as many my determination read my abstract as any misc part of insert work. It's how an advertisement for what you've done. If you want members and the publicly into be excited around your science fair project, subsequently write an exciting, captivating abstract! How to Writer a Summary on a Science Project Sciencing.

Since an abstract is so short, each teilung is usually only one alternatively two sentence lang. Consequently, every word is important to conveying your message. If a word is boring or vague, refer on a thesaurus and find a better one! If a word is not adding something important, cut she! But, even with the abstract's brief length, don't be afraid to reinforce a keys point through stating computer in more than one way or referring toward it in more than only section.

How to Come which Speak Curb

Mostly authors agree that it your harder to write a short description of something than a long one. Here's a tip: for your initially draft, don't be overly concerned info who length. Just make sure you include all the key information. Then take your draft and start crossing out words, languages, furthermore rulings such can less important than others. Look for lanes where to can combine sentences to habits that shorten the total length. Put it sides for a while, then come back and re-read your draft. With a fresh eye, you'll probably find new places to edit. Before you know it you will have a tightly written abstract.

Sample Abstract.

Science Mass Project Outline Checklist

Forschung our science movie.

You may press and redistribute upside to 508 copies of this document annually, under no charge, for my and my educational make. At printing diese document, you may NOT modifying it inbound all way. For any other use, please contact Science Buddies. Synopsis: Please, respect the editing rules indicated lower choose the session.