Steps to Prepare Your Science Fair Project
PHASE I
1. Choose a Topic and partner and hand in permission slip
A. Your topic should be...
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something you’re interested in learning more about
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something you can investigate yourself
B. Your partner should be…

someone you could work well with for a long time

someone you can meet up with outside of school

someone your parents give you permission to partner with
2. Background Research/Introduction Essay
A. Cover Page
B.

Science Fair Assignment Title:

Picture

Project Title:

Author Information
Essay

Must be at least three (intro, body and conclusion) paragraphs

Must cite sources/websites and use quotes when copying information
C.
Resources/Bibliography
***BE SURE TO KEEP A RECORD OF ALL RESOURCES YOU USE
You must use at least three resources/articles and you must keep a record
of the following information for each resource
1. Website
2. Author/Expert
3. Title of Article
4. Publishing Date or Copyrite
The Following page contains an example of this assignment…..
Science Fair
Background Research/Introduction/Resources
Evaporation
Presented by: Jane Someone
Presented to: Ms. Stanowski
Presented on: 09/26/10
Introduction
Have you ever wondered about how temperature could affect water’s evaporation rate? Well, me
and my partner Jane did and that’s why we decided to do our science fair project on this topic. One
day Jane noticed that it took five days for a cup of water she left on her nightstand to completely
evaporate. She wondered if it would take the same amount of time to evaporate if the temperature of
the room was different. When she told me about this, I thought what a great idea for a science fair
experiment. We decided to work together to design a controlled experiment to test this awesome idea
of hers.
First we needed to do some research to find out more about the evaporation of water and what
things might affect how quickly this happens. Our first stop was to the encyclopedia on the internet.
(http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/evaporation.aspx) We never would have guessed it but we found
all three of our resources in one place on the internet. Encyclopedia.com even had more articles to
read than we needed and the best thing about using this site was that there was a bibliography at the
bottom of each article for us to copy and paste later in our acknowledgements. The three resources we
used were from “The Oxford Companion to the Earth”, “UXL Encyclopedia of Science” and “The
World of Science.”
In The OxFord Companion to the Earth, we learned that evaporation is the process by which a
liquid is transformed into a gas. This article also reminded us that evaporation happens to water in
oceans, lakes, and rivers. The water escapes into the atmosphere. The UXL Encyclopedia of Science
helped us understand why evaporation occurs. Molecules of water are constantly moving and when
they are at the surface they move so fast that they end up escaping into the air. The World of Science
reminded us that evaporation is part of the hydrologic (water) cycle and the cause of most
precipitation. It also explained that the sun provides the extra energy for the molecules to move faster.
This important fact helped us develop our hypothesis. Lastly, we read an article in The Columbia
Encyclopedia which really helped us come up with our hypothesis. It stated that “At higher
temperatures the number of energetic molecules is greater, and evaporation is more rapid”.
In summary, my partner and I found out a lot of useful facts while reading our research. We now
feel confident that we are ready to write our hypothesis and design a controlled experiment that will
prove that temperature does affect how quickly water evaporates.
Resources:
1. PAUL HANCOCK and BRIAN J. SKINNER. "evaporation." The Oxford
Companion to the Earth. 2000. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Aug. 2011
<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
2. "Evaporation." UXL Encyclopedia of Science. 2002. Encyclopedia.com. 4 Aug.
2011 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>
3.
"Evaporation." World of Earth Science. 2003. Retrieved August 04, 2011
from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G23437800203.html