SCIENCE FAIR HINTS AND TIPS Charlotte Rodeen-Dickert St. Jerome School October 29, 2013 1.

1

SCIENCE FAIR HINTS AND TIPSCharlotte Rodeen-Dickertwww.crdesqwriter.com

St. Jerome School

October 29, 2013

Why is Ms. Fiedler-Ross making you do this???

A. It’s the most fun she has all year

B. She really enjoys grading projects

C. She lives to torment you with endless work

D. She wants you to learn valuable skills and information, as well as to have the satisfaction of a job well done

E. All of the above

3

Why?????

SKILLS!!!

Experimental Design

Experiment – “the systematic procedure carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to illustrate a known effect.” (https://www.moresteam.com/toolbox/design-of-experiments.cfm)

Not just the PROCEDURE!

Needs to be tied in to the Scientific Method…

Components of Experimental DesignFACTORS

Variables What are you changing? What else is possibly changing?

LEVELS

Settings How much are you changing it?

RESPONSE

ResultsWhat happened?

PURPOSEHYPOTHESIS

PROCEDURE

DATA OBSERVATIONS

RESULTS CONCLUSIONS

6

General Organization and Layout• Make sure it all connects.• Lead the audience through the project with clear headings.• Consider font and image size.

Purpose…

Hypothesis…

Procedure…

Data and Observations Results

Conclusion

Why?

How? What happened?

Explain what happened

Were you correct?What?

7

Presenting Information

TEXT NUMBERS IMAGES“The object accelerates with time.”

0 1 2 3 4 50

50

100

150

200

Time (s)

Accl.(m/s^2)

Time (s)Acceleration

(m/s^2)

0 0

1 10

2 40

3 90

4 160

5 250

**Make sure all tell the same story!

8

Some specifics…• In the Hypothesis, “testing” is not an independent

variable.

• Sources of Error includes things that actually did happen in the experimental proceedings to impact the data, as well as potential things (whether or not they actually occurred).• How did you eliminate these?

• If something goes awry, discuss it and explain how it may have affected the results.

Don’t fudge the data!!!

9

Spellcheck vs. Proofreading

TRIAL vs. TRAIL

10

Spellcheck vs. Proofreading

Effect Affect/əˈfekt/Verb

1.Have an effect on; make a difference to: "the dampness began to affect my health".2.Pretend to have or feel (something): "as usual I affected a supreme unconcern".

Noun

Emotion or desire, esp. as influencing behavior or action.

/iˈfekt/Noun

A change that is a result or consequence of an action or other cause.

Verb

Cause (something) to happen; bring about.

(Grammar Girl: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/affect-versus-effect.aspx)

11

Data Collection and Measurement

• Be clear about the accuracy of your measurement.

(e.g., 6.31 cm)

• Measure the appropriate variable for the experiment.

ALWAYS USE THE CORRECT UNITS!

h

ΔhThat’s 0.01 cm!(thickness of a piece of paper)

12

Using Excel• Organize your data in the worksheet.• Use color and highlighting to help keep track of things.• Use built-in functions when possible.• Always do a “sanity check” of calculations.• Critically evaluate your numbers when troubleshooting.• Choose the right chart for the job.• Watch out for “chart junk”!

13

“Chart junk”

12

34

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

4.3

2.5

3.5

4.5

2.4

4.4

1.8

2.82 2

3

5

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

(http://junkcharts.typepad.com)

14

Calculations• Excel is a great tool for performing calculations, but it’s

only as good as the user.

• Just like spellcheck in Word, Excel will only catch errors in syntax (i.e., proper use of mathematical rules and symbols)

→ Be careful translating expressions

from “standard” to “code” notation!

15

Example – Averaging Data

Equation not entered correctly (order of operations)!(B2+B3+B4+B5+B6/5)

Correction:

→→ = ((10+12+10.5+13.2+11.2)/5)

Note decimal places! (should not be more than those in the measurements!)

16

Averaging Data cont’d

Can also use Excel functions:=(SUM(B2:B6)/5)

or=AVERAGE(B2:B6)

17

Data Presentation• Chart Wizard provides a good start, but make your own

modifications to best present the data…• Choose the most effective type of graph.

• Use an appropriate scale.

• Properly label the data.

• Choose a suitable color scheme.

• Use correct units.

• If producing multiple graphs, be consistent with all of this between graphs.

18

So many choices…• Choose the chart that best presents your data:

• Discreet measurements• Quantity changing over time• Part of a whole

19

Axis Scaling

Smaller scale makes changes appear larger.

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

5

Larger scale diminishes apparent magnitude of changes.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

20

Graph Labelling

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 30000

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

FT vs. Tg for H2O2 Microthruster with Material Temperature Limits

(To = 200K, Re = 1000)

Gas Temperature, Tg (K)

Thrust,FT (mN)

Si

Si3N4

SiC

Variable, symbol, and units

Title explaining dependent/independent variables, with constants used in calculations

Color-coded materialsScale clear

enough to show differences

21

Consistency

Si SiC Si3N40

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Mass Comparison for 2x10x10-mm Microthruster

Material

Mass (g)

22

“Insert Chart”

23

Add Titles…

24

Re-label x-axis…

25

And add a little color…

26

Summary for Fixing Up Charts• Click on the chart to bring up Chart Tools:

• Design →Select Data →Horizontal (Axis) Labels

• Layout →Chart Title

→Axis Titles

• Format →(select column/line on graph)→Shape Fill

27

Any Questions?????