This year we have changed the guidelines for Science Fair exhibits based on grade level.
Third, fourth & fifth grade participants are required to present "investigative" exhibits complete with tri-fold display board detailing their hypothesis, evidence, use of the scientific process, etc. (See details below.)
Kindergarteners through second graders may perform an "investigative" project using a tri-fold display board and follow a more simplified approach to the scientific method than the older grades (see below). They may also choose to submit a model or diorama of some kind, such as a volcano, a leaf collection, or environmental system. It must still demonstrate scientific discovery and learning, with proper classification and labels, and not simply be an art project. The primary students will be scored differently than the older participants, being assessed on creativity, color, evidence of independent work, and so on. You can look at the scoring rubrics on this site for more details.
Guidelines for grades K-2 who DO conduct an investigation and choose to use a display board:
1. What is my topic? (Title of my Science Project)
2. What do I want to learn? What information do I want to find out about? Or what does my project demonstrate? (Question or Problem)
3. What did I use? (Materials, tools, equipment, supplies)
4. What did I do? Describe your process or experiment step-by-step. How did you do it? (Experiment or Process)
5. What did I learn? What happened? Why did it happen? If you made a model, how or why does it work? (Conclusion and Results)
Guidelines for grades 3-5: Conducting an Investigation
A science experiment is an attempt to answer a question or learn something new. The scientific method makes it easier to organize an experiment and record the results. Scientists, engineers, and doctors use this method when making important discoveries. We recommend using the scientific method when doing your experiment. Here are the steps:
1. State the Topic.
(What is the title of your science project?)
2. State the question or problem.
(What do you want to find out?)
3. State the hypothesis.
(What you think the answer to your question is?)
4. State the materials, tools, equipment and supplies used.
(What did you use to do your experiment?)
5. State your variables.
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Control variables – what are you controlling or keeping the same.
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Manipulated variables – what are you changing?
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Responding variable – what are you measuring? What is the result?
6. State the procedure.
(What process or steps did you use?)
7. Conduct tests, experiments and research.
(Learn about your topic and answer your questions. This can be
done by experimentation, testing, simulations.)
8. State your observations and results.
(What did you see? Record the data for what happened in your experiment.)
9. State your conclusions/summary.
(Record what you learned from your experiment. Compare the
Results with your hypothesis)