Finally, your appearance may also affect the way that the judges view you. A professional appearance will reflect well on you and your project. You are not only trying to look professional, but you are trying to make your project look like the result of thoughtful, mature, and professional scientific research.

In summary, it's important that you have a professional-looking, well-organized science fair display board to make a good impression on the judges. It is also important that you appear relaxed and knowledgable while presenting your science fair report.

Science Fair Report & Presentation

Whether your teacher requires an in-class science fair report & presentation of your science project, or its just for the judges at the fair, you will probably have to give an oral presentation on the content of your science project. There may or may not be a time limit, but even if there isn't, it's important to keep your presentation short and to-the-point. Be sure that your science fair report touches on all of the elements of your project, including but not limited to the points of the Scientific Method.

Be sure to practice. Giving an oral presentation, and talking to the judges at the fair who may be teachers from other schools whom you've never met before, could end up being the hardest part of the science project. Practice will give you the confidence you need to sound like an authority in your area of research, and that's something that the judges like to hear. Points at a science fair are awarded for your ability to discuss the project clearly and to explain each stage of your research and every step of your experiment. The judges will ask you questions, and so practice will really help. Try to have someone ask you questions about your project. It might make you think about things that you haven't thought of before. An important thing to remember is to never make up answers to difficult questions. Instead of admitting that you don't know, tell the judges that you didn't discover the answer to that question during your research, and then present other, relevant information.

t's most important that you have a science fair display board that the judges will remember in a good way, and not just because it used bright colors and big letters. You want the science fair board to look professional and well-organized so that the judges aren't distracted. Make it look professional, and the judges will treat your project professionally.

The size and shape of science fair display boards can vary, so be sure to check the rules for your particular science fair. Some maximum sizes for most science fairs are 48 inches wide, 30 inches deep, and 108 inches from the floor. Generally speaking, no matter the size, a traditional science fair board is divided into three sections: the main center section, and two "wings" which are folded toward the front. These science fair boards can be made from scratch from heavy cardboard or wood, or can be ordered inexpensively over the internate.

Now, think about the things you'll want to attach to the science fair display board. Some science fairs, and most teachers, have rules or guidelines for what should be attached to the science fair board. These might include cut-out lines of text which detail your original question, which will be your project topic, your hypothesis, results, conclusions, and other information including charts and graphs. The title of your project should always go on the center panel at the top of your science fair display board and be large enough so that people can see it from about three feet away. The other pieces of text can be smaller, and should be placed in a logical order. In other words, let the judges read your hypothesis before they read your conclusions. Several years ago, it was common to use stenciled or cut-out letters mounted on the science fair display board, but now that most students have access to word processors and printers, it is more common for these lines of text to be printed in large letters. There is no rule about this, but be aware that looks do matter at the science fair, and a word printed on a laser printer looks a lot better than one drawn and colored with a marker.

Science Fair Display Boards

So how should you set up your science fair display?

Let's look at the basics. A science fair display should consist of a back board, sometimes sold specifically as a science fair display board, a project report, graphs and charts, and some representation of your experiment. Of course it would be great if you could bring your science fair experiment into the fair, but if it's too big, or if it was strictly observational, consider bringing in photographs or a part of the experimental apparatus. Some people even bring in a small television and show a video presentation of their science fair experiment. Whatever you choose, your science fair display has to represent your project in such a way that it holds the interest of the judges--so be creative, but keep it simple.

This is it - the big day is finally here! Everyone will be looking at your science fair display board, reading your science fair report, and listening to your presentation, which must all present your project in the best possible way.

All of your work must be summarized here. This is your chance to show the world the information that you've learned from your experiment. Your science fair display and report are the ways that the science fair judges will remember your project when they make their decision. It's important that your scientific work was good, but that's not everything....

Preparing a science fair display board & science fair report to highlight your project results

This is it - the big day is finally here! Everyone will be looking at your science fair display board, reading your science fair report, and listening to your presentation, which must all present your project in the best possible way.

All of your work must be summarized here. This is your chance to show the world the information that you've learned from your experiment. Your science fair display and report are the ways that the science fair judges will remember your project when they make their decision. It's important that your scientific work was good, but that's not everything....

If your original hypothesis didn't match up with the final results of your experiment, don't change the hypothesis. Instead, try to explain what might have been wrong with your original hypothesis. What information did you not have originally that caused you to be wrong in your prediction? What are the reasons that the hypothesis and experimental results didn't match up?

Remember, a science fair experiment isn't a failure if it proves your hypothesis wrong or if your prediction isn't accurate. No one will take points off for that. A science fair experiment is only a failure if its design is flawed. A flawed experiment is one that (1) doesn't keep its variables under control, and (2) doesn't sufficiently answer the question that you asked of it.

CONCLUSION

The final step in the scientific method is the conclusion. This is a summary of the experiment's results, and how those results match up to your hypothesis.

You have two options for your conclusions: based on your results, either you can reject the hypothesis, or you can not reject the hypothesis. This is an important point. You can not PROVE the hypothesis with a single experiment, because there is a chance that you made an error somewhere along the way. What you can say is that your results SUPPORT the original hypothesis.

EXPERIMENT

This is the part of the scientific method that tests your hypothesis. An experiment is a tool that you design to find out if your ideas about your topic are right or wrong. It is absolutely necessary to design a science fair experiment that will accurately test your hypothesis. The experiment is the most important part of the scientific method. It's the logical process that lets scientists learn about the world. In the next section, we'll discuss the ways that you can go about designing a science fair experiment idea.

PREDICTION

The hypothesis is your general statement of how you think the scientific phenomenon in question works. Your prediction lets you get specific -- how will you demonstrate that you hypothesis is true? The experiment that you will design is done to test the prediction.

An important thing to remember during this stage of the scientific method is that once you develop a hypothesis and a prediction, you shouldn't change it, even if the results of your experiment show that you were wrong. An incorrect prediction doesn't mean that you "failed." It just means that the experiment brought some new facts to light that maybe you hadn't thought about before. The judges at your science fair will not take points off simply because your results don't match up with your hypothesis.

Continuing our tomato plant example, a good prediction would be: Increasing the amount of sunlight tomato plants in my experiment receive will cause an increase in their size compared to identical plants that received the same care but less light.

Using the example of the tomato experiment, here is an example of a hypothesis:

TOPIC: "Does the amount of sunlight a tomato plant receives affect the size of the tomatoes?"

HYPOTHESIS: "I believe that the more sunlight a tomato plant receives, the larger its tomatoes will grow. This hypothesis is based on:

(1) Tomato plants need sunshine to make food through photosynthesis, and logically, more sun means more food, and;
(2) Through informal, exploratory observations of plants in a garden, those with more sunlight appear to grow bigger.

HYPOTHESIS

The next stage of the Scientific Method is known as the "hypothesis." This word basically means "a possible solution to a problem, based on knowledge and research." The hypothesis is a simple statement that defines what you think the outcome of your experiment will be. All of the first stage of the Scientific Method -- the observation, or research stage -- is designed to help you express a problem in a single question ("Does the amount of sunlight in a garden affect tomato size?") and propose an answer to the question based on what you know. The experiment that you will design is done to test the hypothesis.

For this stage of the Scientific Method, it's important to use as many sources as you can find. The more information you have on your science fair project topic, the better the design of your experiment is going to be, and the better your science fair project is going to be overall. Also try to get information from your teachers or librarians, or professionals who know something about your science fair topic. They can help to guide you to a solid experimental setup.

OBSERVATION

This step could also be called "research." It is the first stage in understanding the problem you have chosen. After you decide on your area of science and the specific question you want to ask, you will need to research everything that you can find about the problem. You can collect information on your science fair topic from your own experiences, books, the internet, or even smaller "unofficial" experiments. This initial research should play a big part in the science fair idea that you finally choose. Let's take the example of the tomatoes in the garden. You like to garden, and notice that some tomatoes are bigger than others and wonder why. Because of this personal experience and an interest in the problem, you decide to learn more about what makes plants grow.

The observation is done first so that you know how you want to go about your research. The hypothesis is the answer you think you'll find. The prediction is your specific belief about the scientific idea: If my hypothesis is true, then I predict we will discover..... The experiment is the tool that you invent to answer the question, and the conclusion is the answer that the experiment gives. Don't worry, it isn't that complicated. Let's look at each one of these points individually so that you can understand the tools that scientists use when doing their own science projects and use them for your project.

The steps of the Scientific Method are:
Observation/Research
Hypothesis
Prediction
Experiment
Conclusion

The Scientific Method is a logical and rational order of steps by which scientists come to conclusions about the world around them. The Scientific Method helps to organize thoughts and procedures so that scientists can be confident in the answers they find. Scientists use observations, hypotheses, and deductions to make these conclusions, just like you will use the Scientific Method in your science fair project. You will think through the various possibilities using the Scientific Method to eventually come to an answer to your original question.

Now that you have a pretty good idea of the question you want to ask, it's time to use the Scientific Method to design an experiment which will be able to answer that question. If your experiment isn't designed well, you may not get the correct answer, or may not even get any definitive answer at all.

In this section we will take a look at the method you should use to design your research. This method is the most important part of science--in fact, it's called the "Scientific Method." The Scientific Method is a way to make sure that your experiment can give a good answer to your specific question.

Understanding and using
The Scientific Method

If you changed the amount of light, AND changed the amount of water each plant received, you wouldn't know if the bigger tomatoes were because of the light, or the water! So it's absolutely important to have everything be as close to identical or "controlled" as you can get it.

Once you've done your science fair experiment, consider repeating it if you have the time! This is very impressive for science fair judges, and really helps to make your results convincing. If you conduct your experiment and the results just don't seem right, you might consider reviewing your experiment idea, and possibly even modifying your experimental design so that your science fair experiment will produce accurate results.

When you design your science fair experiment, you have to keep as many things identical as possible. For instance, the lights that you use to grow the tomato plants have to use the same light bulbs. The trays have to be the same, just like the soil has to be the same. The amount of water has to be the same too. You should think very hard about differences that might try to sneak by you. For instance, when planting the tomato seeds, did they come from the same package? They should if you want to keep things under control. The only thing that can be different between the two identical groups is the thing that you are testing - in this case, light. The exact nature of your variables will depend on your exact science fair experiment idea.

The Controlled Variables: these are the variables that are kept the same in Tray #2. In other words, when you turn the lights up in Tray #1, the lights in Tray #2 stay the same. So when the tomatoes in Tray #1 get bigger, you can say that the difference in size between the tomatoes in Tray #1 and Tray #2 is the result of the independent variable, or the light that you made brighter.

Tray #2 is called a "control group." This is an identical setup to Tray #1, but it is kept in its natural, unchanged state. Tray #1 is called the "experimental group." So when you change something in the experimental group (like the brightness of the light), the control group stays the same so that you can measure changes in you dependent variable (the size of the tomatoes).

The Independent Variable: this is a variable that you intentionally change. In the case of our tomato plant experiment, it would be the brightness of the light in Tray #1.

The Dependent Variable: this is the difference between the two parts of the experiment that happens when the independent variable is changed. In this case, it would be the size of the tomatoes in Tray #1. So you turn the up the lights in Tray #1 (the independent variable) and the tomatoes get bigger (dependent variabl

Design your science fair experiment
to get the best results

Now it's time to think about how best to set up your science fair experiment to give you accurate and trustworthy results. You should keep in mind both the Scientific Method and the question you are trying to answer.

An experiment is made up of two nearly identical parts--let's say, two trays of tomato plants. The tiny differences that will test your hypothesis are called "variables." Let's look at the three kinds of variables.

Animated Photo

Earth Science

Earth science (also known as geoscience) deals with study of the planet Earth. It uses an interdisciplinary approach, including aspects of physics, geography, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. Some of the specialized areas include: geology (study of the rocky parts of the Earth's crust), oceanography and hydrology (marine and freshwater systems), and atmospheric sciences (weather and climate).

Physics is very dependent on mathematics. Models and theories in physics are expressed using mathematical equations. However, while physics uses mathematics to describe the material world, mathematics may deal with strictly abstract concepts and patterns. There is a large overlap between the two fields, known as mathematical physics.

Physics is the science of Nature - of matter and energy in space and time. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena covering enormous scales: from the subatomic particles to the Universe as a whole. All laws and forces of nature originate from mathematical symmetries of space and time, so modern physics currently focuses on studying these symmetries.

Physics

Physics is the study of the natural world. It deals with the fundamental particles of which the universe is made, and the interactions between those particles, the objects composed of them (nuclei, atoms, molecules, etc) and energy.

Chemistry has many specialized areas that overlap with other sciences, such as physics, biology or geology. Scientists who study chemistry are called chemists. Historically, the science of chemistry is a recent development but has its roots in alchemy which has been practiced for millennia throughout the world. The word chemistry is directly derived from the word alchemy.

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter at or near the atomic scale. (Matter is the substance of which all physical objects are made.)

Chemistry deals with the properties of matter, and the transformation and interactions of matter and energy. Central to chemistry is the interaction of one substance with another, such as in a chemical reaction, where a substance or substances are transformed into another. Chemistry primarily studies atoms and collections of atoms such as molecules, crystals or metals that make up ordinary matter. According to modern chemistry it is the structure of matter at the atomic scale that determines the nature of a material.

Descriptions of the Fields of Science

Biology

Biology is the branch of science dealing with the study of life. It describes the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the environment. Biology has many specialized areas, covering a wide range of scales, from biochemistry to ecology.

EARTH SCIENCE

Environmental Science Geodesy Geography Geology Hydrology

Meteorology Oceanography Paleontology Seismology

PHYSIC

Acoustics Astrodynamics Astronomy Astrophysics Biophysics Classical mechanics Computational physics Condensed matter physics Cryogenics Dynamics Fluid dynamics

High Energy Physics Materials physics Mechanics Nuclear physics Optics Particle physics Plasma physics Polymer physics Quantum mechanics Solid State physics Thermodynamics

BIOLOGY

Analytical chemistry Biochemistry Computational chemistry Electrochemistry Inorganic chemistry Materials science Organic chemistry

Polymer chemistry Physical chemistry Quantum chemistry Spectroscopy Stereochemistry Thermochemistry

Natural Sciences

BIOLOGY

Anatomy Astrobiology Biochemistry Bioinformatics Biophysics Botany Cell biology Developmental biology Ecology Entomology Epidemiology Evolution (Evolutionary biology) Freshwater Biology Genetics

Immunology Marine biology Microbiology Molecular Biology Morphology Neuroscience Physical anthropology Physiology Population dynamics Structural biology Taxonomy Toxicology Virology Zoology

Natural Sciences

BIOLOGY

Anatomy Astrobiology Biochemistry Bioinformatics Biophysics Botany Cell biology Developmental biology Ecology Entomology Epidemiology Evolution (Evolutionary biology) Freshwater Biology Genetics

Immunology Marine biology Microbiology Molecular Biology Morphology Neuroscience Physical anthropology Physiology Population dynamics Structural biology Taxonomy Toxicology Virology Zoology

The Different Fields of Science

This is just a partial listing of some of the many, many different possible fields of study within science. Many of the fields listed here overlap to some degree with one or more other areas.

Most scientific investigations use some form of the scientific method. You can find out more about the scientific method here.

Science as defined above is sometimes called pure science to differentiate it from applied science, which is the application of research to human needs. Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
- Natural sciences, the study of the natural world, and
- Social sciences, the systematic study of human behavior and society.

What does that really mean? Science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge. This system uses observation and experimentation to describe and explain natural phenomena. The term science also refers to the organized body of knowledge people have gained using that system. Less formally, the word science often describes any systematic field of study or the knowledge gained from it.

What is the purpose of science? Perhaps the most general description is that the purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality.

Science Definition

The word science comes from the Latin "scientia," meaning knowledge.

How do we define science? According to Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, the definition of science is "knowledge attained through study or practice," or "knowledge covering general truths of the operation of general laws, esp. as obtained and tested through scientific method [and] concerned with the physical world."