Pitner Science Fair: Perform a science-based investigation and share the results!
This handout is intended to help our young Pitner scientists begin planning for their project.
The Pitner Elem competition will be held February 23rd.
The county level competition will be held on Saturday, March 19, 2016 at Walton High School. Please visit the Cobb site for more
county competition info at http://ccsdscience.weebly.com/k-5.html
Schools are strongly encouraged not to allow students to experiment with molds or bacteria of any kind, as these can be particularly
hazardous to student health.
Models, including volcanoes or robots, will not be accepted as experiments because they do not involve the scientific method. A
science fair project should test an idea / question and display the results.
Keep in Mind -- Parents are encouraged to guide students but not build the project. Remember, a good project is planned and
developed over a period of time.
Fair participants are reminded to bring both their project tri-fold board AND their research journal
How to Compete in an Elementary Science Fair
Question –Ask yourself: “What would happen if _______?” (For example, what if I gave a plant chocolate milk instead of water?)
1. Research – Read about your subject. Youtube and Google how other students have already experimented with the same question. Do their experiments
provide clear and interesting results? Can you learn from their mistakes? Can the project be attractively presented on a tri-fold? (See images below.)
2. Hypothesis – Make a prediction of what you think will happen when you perform the experiment. Being correct in the end means you did your
homework. But being wrong may be even better – because it means you have learned something new!
3. Prepare – Write down your thoughts and experiences in a journal. This will be presented with your trifold. If necessary, record the ‘before’
measurements of your experiment. Include a clock or tape measure in photos to show change over time.
4. Experiment – Let’s do this thing! Time to perform the experiment. Reminder: models should help display the results of your test.
5. Analysis – This is the ‘after’ part. Observe what happened. Take notes / measurements / illustrations /photographs.
6. Conclusion – Eureka! My prediction was correct. Or even better, “What?! Wow! I learned something new!”
7. Publish – Make a trifold poster to share steps 1–9 of your experiment at the Science Fair & maybe even win a prize!
Topic suggestions: Grow conditions (giving plant Sprite vs water), Battery endurance (Energizer vs Duracell), Absorption (Huggies vs Pampers), ice melting, etc.
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Example of data survey for Clear results