Quarter 3 Project

Due ?
This project will consist of three parts based on an experiment done by the student and/or students, depending if they are working with a partner and/or partners from their own class period or from another period.  Follow the steps below to find your topic for the project, also you should discuss with your Parents/Guardians what project will best fit your families schedule and if they prefer you to work alone.This project follows the LA County Science Fair Guidelines.
This project will be worth 150 points which will include 3 parts based on an experiment.
  1. Written paper – 50 points (Written Paper Guidelines)
    1. Formatting your research paper 
      1. Bibliography use MLA Formatting Guidelines, this is what you learn in English and use in High School
      2. For the Research Paper portion look at the sample projects because in science we use APA Style which can be difficult to transition to  since in school you are taught MLA Style. Just make sure you have all the major endings on separate pages for me and the page numbers. You should also have a table of contents and a title page.
        1. 1. Abstract
          2. Introduction
          3. Literature review
          4. Experimental Procedures and Materials
          5. Results
          6. Discussion of Results (Conclusion)
          7. Work Cited (Bibliography)
          8. Appendices
  2. Display board – 50 points
    1. Display Guidelines
  3. Presentation   – 50 points
    1. Presentation Guidelines
  4. Experiment will follow the Scientific Method based on your topic you find from http://sciencebuddies.org 
    • The projects will require the research skills you learned in English class. 
    • The scope of the projects may or may not require the same amount of work so choose one that interests you the most.
    • The details for the project will be located here on this blog and please use http://sciencebuddies.org for project ideas and help to create the best science fair research project you can.
    Step 1.
    Create a Laboratory Notebook for all of your notes and data. It can either be an actual notebook or an electronic version , like Google Docs. You can upload photos, write your notes, create data tables and charts, etc.

    Step 2.
    Go to http://www.sciencebuddies.org and find a project you wish to do. Click on tab that says Project Ideas. Once you are on the page you can scroll down and look at your options or Go to the Topic Selection Wizard

    Step 3.
    Go to Science Fair Research Project Form and Fill it out.

    Step 4.
    Make sure you can access Google Docs and use the Word Processing option to create a new Document and save it with your first name, last name, and class period. Share the document with Mr. St. Peter, jstpeter@hartdistrict.org

    Step 5.
    Find your Sources. You should have at least 6 sources to create your Bibliography (Work Cited Page).
    • 2 book sources
    • 2 Internet Sites (Do Not use sites like Wikipedia, it is not reliable enough)
    • 2 other sources of your choice, like Magazines, Periodicals, etc
    Step 6. Write the Research Paper (also called Literature Review Section) This section will be the background Information about your topic.
    •  (2 to 3 pages)
      This section is the background information about your topic. For example if I am looking at how
      plants change based on the soil I would find resources about soil and the type of plant I want to use in my experiment. Include everything you can find that relates to your question and hypothesis from biological literature, such as books, articles, Internet, etc. This section can give you ideas about what to do your experiment on.
    Step #7
    Finalize your question and hypothesis about your topic (Example: What makes bubbles large?) (Hypothesis should be an IF/THEN statement based on your research and question, IF I use orange soup, THEN the bubbles will be larger.)

    Step # 8
    Design an experiment and write the Experimental Procedure to test your hypothesis. Decide what Variables you are going to use. We will help you in class on this part.( Example based on the above question would be orange soup, green soup, and clear soup.)

    Step # 9
    Get your materials you will need for the experiment

    Step #10
     Conduct your experiment, REMEMBER to document everything that happens, even the mistakes.

    Step #11 
    Analyze your data and write your conclusion based on your results of your experiement


    Step # 12
    Put the final report all together to communicate what you did.

      Communicating Your Results
      • Final Report
      • Abstract (Write this section last even though it will go first in your Final Report)
      • Display Board
      • Prepare a 3 to 5 minute presentation to share with your peers
    Samples of what your project should look like when you are finished with the written portion. Samples #1 and #2 were written by 7th graders from Rio Norte JHS that were in my science class a couple of years ago.
    1. Sample Project #1
    2. Sample Project #2
    3. Sample Project #3
















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