A science fair is a presentation, which is often also a competition of student made projects demonstrating or testing a scientific method or theory.http://www.csun.edu/~lg48405/vsf/ch1/ch1_wha.html Science fairs have been around since 1828. The very first science fair was held to encourage and demonstrate new methods of industrial applications in the United States. It is suggested that one eight-year-old girl’s submission in this first fair may be the reason hundreds of students come home each year asking their parents for help on science fair projects. The idea that the youth of America may have the most creative and fresh ideas to help advance it was one educators embraced. Coupled with the fact science projects made good homework assignments, it’s no surprise science fairs became rather popular from the 1950’s on. http://www.abcarticledirectory.com/Article/A-History-of-Science-Fairs/97170 Even though some complain that science fairs in their competitive form discourage students that do not win from further scientific endeavors.http://www.csun.edu/~lg48405/vsf/ch1/ch1_wha.html

Why science fairs ended up a regular school event across the nation and whether you are the parent or the student is irrelevant. This page on how to do a science fair project will offer systematic instructions for the process of dreaming up and beginning what will hopefully be an award-winning science project.

The first step in doing a science fair project is to decide what you are going to do.

Finding an Idea:

Most everyone is familiar with the age-old model volcano science fair project, but pretty much anything in the universe can somehow be worked into a science fair project. What is important is you pick a topic that interests you. If you are already interested in your topic it will make the assignment far easier to do. For example, if you love music you could see if playing different types of music for plants alters their growth. If you like to ride motorcycles you could do a project demonstrating ways to save gas while riding motor cycles. Your experiment would be finding those ways. The trick is finding a way to turn what you love into science.http://www.scifair.org/articles/steps.shtmlhttp://www.all-science-fair-projects.com/

Planning Your Project:

The next step is to sit down and write out on paper what you plan to do.

• What are you testing?
• What are your variables?
• What do you expect to prove?
• What will you need for your project and how will you get those things?

Remember to time your project accordingly for your deadline. You don’t for instance with the music plant idea example, what to start your plants from seed if you need your project next week.http://www.super-science-fair-projects.com/

Once you have an idea and a plan, it is time to get to work! Begin by gathering your necessary items. This will naturally vary upon what your project is. One thing you will unquestionably need is a science notebook. This is used to record your findings during the course of your experiment or make sketches of your invention/demonstration. In the case of an experiment, you need to write down everything you discover so that when you come to actually assembling your science fair project presentation you do not miss any important data. You may even want to take photos or sketches depending on your project choice. Remember it is not enough to say you did something; the idea is to prove it in your presentation.http://www.sciencebuddies.org/

While it is okay to vary from your written plan a bit, try to stay on track. If you suddenly change something during your experiment, you may throw off your results. Keep in mind that a science fair project can be a presentation of an experiment, an invention or demonstration. In the later two you will not be taking photos and notes, you will be building your project.

The final step is to assemble your presentation. In the case of a demonstration or invention all your need to do is create a backdrop which explains what it is, and include a report which we’ll get to in just a moment.

If you have performed an experiment, you need to create a board that holds all your photos, data, and a report of your findings. All of the above include two things a display and a report.

The display

If you did an amazing science project and then display it badly, people are less likely to see how amazing it was. Be sure to create a well-organized yet inviting board. It should be easy to read and display all your findings, but be eye catching at the same time.http://www.scifair.org/articles/display.shtml

The report:

Your report should include the following:

• -A title page: This page has your name, contact information (teacher’s name and your grade for example) and the title of your project.
• -Table of contents: This page lets readers know what’s in your report and how to find it with ease.
• -Introduction: This page should include your hypothesis (your idea), what you expected to happen, what you hoped to achieve, what you planned to do, and why you did it.
• -Experiment: This page is a detailed explanation of your experiment, invention or demonstration.
• -Discussion: On this page you describe the process and how it went. Challenges you met, achievements, data, etc.
• -Conclusion: This is where you sum it all up. What did you find? What did you create? Etc.
• -Acknowledgments and References: This is where you give credit to any helpers (for instance your parents) and cite any references you used in your work.http://www.scifair.org/articles/reports/reports.shtml