Science Fun Fair

This is your source for updates & information about the upcoming Wood Lake Nature Center Science Fun Fair.  If you have questions or comments that can't be answered from this site, please contact Wood Lake. 

Science Fun Fair Basics
The Science Fun Fair is an optional science fair for homeschoolers attending Wood Lake's classes.  Projects are not judged or graded; they are just set up and displayed for other homeschoolers and the public to see.  Projects can be completed individually, in partners, or as a group/family.  This is an informal event- no presentations or anything; but if you set up a project at the fair, you need to be willing to stand by your project for the entire time and explain your experiment to other attendees. 

Date: April 25, 2008
Time: 2:00-3:30 pm (presenters set up 10 minutes early)
Cost: Free for both visitors and presenters
Sign-up: Please sign up for the fair by April 11 and include your name and experiment question.  Contact Leah for more details.
 

Getting Started
The first step in starting a science fun fair project is to figure out what kind of question you'd like to answer by doing an experiment.  A science fair project shouldn't be just to prove how much you already know... it should be to help you try to discover something that you've been wondering about.  Of course, that's easier said than done because nature and science are such huge topics- it's hard to know where to begin.  So here are a few pointers.

1) Start early!  A science fair project can probably be done in a minimal amount of time, but anyone interested in the Science Fun Fair should start working on their projects early.  That way, if something doesn't go as planned or if you change your mind about your project, you still leave enough time to finish your project. 

2) Pick something you're interested in.  If you like learning about animals, pick a project that has to do with animals.  Don't just do an experiment because it looks easy to do or because you read it in a book.  Your project should answer a question you have.  Just remember, your question should be quantitative.  In other words, it shouldn't really be a 'do', 'how', or 'why' question... it should be more like a 'how many', 'how much', or 'which' question.  You shouldn't be able to answer your question with yes or no.  For example, "How do birds perch on trees?" would be a good research project to look up in an encyclopedia, but you know the answer to your question once you look it up.  But once you found out the answer, you could ask a quantitative question like "How many birds that sit at my feeder at home have adaptations for tree perching?" 

A great website to help you pick a topic or even give you ideas of projects based on certain topics is http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ .  Feel free to check it out for ideas of specific projects, or to give you ideas to make your own projects.

3) Just ask.  If you're stuck on something or need help figuring out any part of your project, please ask!  Contact Wood Lake or stop in to ask questions.  Your family and fellow classmates are also a good resource.  This project is supposed to be fun, so if you need help, don't stress out about asking for it. 

4) Use other resources.  There are many books and websites that have information on the steps to picking a science fair project as well as ideas to get you started on thinking of a topic.  Just remember that this isn't a formal science fair, so don't worry about judging or having a certain type of presentation or anything.  Listed below are some sources that could be helpful with either science fair basics or sample experiments.

http://www.woodlakenaturecenter.org/programs/homeschool.htm -Look over past topics from classes you've attended at Wood Lake to jog your memory of a topic you enjoyed that may have raised some questions for you.
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/ -asks you questions to give you ideas of both topics and projects that may interest you.
http://www.cool-science-projects.com/Science-Fair-Project-Ideas.html -Great advice for doing a science fair project based on your own interests.
http://www.pgjr.alpine.k12.ut.us/science/whitaker/fair/FairHelp.html#Success -Gives examples of all science fair details.
http://www.sciencefaircenter.com/science_fair_planning.tpl?cart=1128008351173624 -Great for helping you pick a project and understanding the process for finishing it.
http://pbskids.org/dragonflytv/scifair/index.html -Gives ideas for science fair projects, listed by topic.


Research
You may need some extra background information before you make your hypothesis and do your experiment.  It may even help to create a question you can base your project off of!  Any research you do for your project should be listed at the end part of your project, on your display.  Because this is an informal science fair, no specific format needs to be used; just make sure you include as much information as possible and give credit where credit's due. 
 

Display
At the very least, you should have these things on display for the science fair.  How you display them is up to you.
1) The process for your project (the first six steps of the scientific method and what you did at each step).
2) A bibliography or list of any resources (book, webpage, video, etc.) you used to help you do your project.
3) Any data you found out during your experiment, put into easy-to-understand charts, graphs, or pictures.
4) Your (and your partners') name(s) and how/why you decided on your project.  (Take pride!  You just finished an awesome project and get to share it with people who are as interested in science and nature as you are!)

It is strongly recommended to include something active for people to look at/do as they see your project.  It makes it more interesting both for you and for the people looking around!  If you need recommendations, feel free to ask.

 

Scientific Method Review
1)  make an observation (something noticed in nature)
2)  ask a question (what does the observation make you wonder?)
3)  form a hypothesis (educated guess)
4)  test your hypothesis (experiment/collect data)
5)  analyze your results (charts, graphs, etc.)
6)  draw conclusions (answer your question & hypothesis, additional information learned)
7)  communicate your results (that's what the science fair is for!)
8)  use your results as your next observation, which can be used to form another question, hypothesis, etc.

For example:
1)  I notice that squirrel tracks have their back feet in front and front feet in back.
2)  Do squirrel tracks always have their back feet in front and front feet in back?
3)  I think 90% of the squirrel prints I see will have their back feet in front and front feet in back.
4)  I put some flour outside near a tree.  I watch the tree from my window for a half hour.  I write down how many squirrels I see, make a drawing showing where the squirrel tracks are, and draw arrows to indicate which way the squirrel was moving.  After that half hour, I go outside to see which feet are in front and compare it to which direction the squirrels were traveling.  I repeat this experiment four other times and collect data the same way.
5)  I count the number of tracks that have their back feet in front (10) and divide that by the number of total prints (10).  I make a diagram to show where the tracks were and how they were placed.  I look over my notes from the days I looked out my window.  I make a chart to compare the total number of squirrel tracks to how many have their back feet in front.
6)  I conclude that 100% of the squirrel tracks I saw had their back feet in front and their front feet in back. 
7)  I tell my family members what I learned, and we go on a walk at Wood Lake to see if we can watch more squirrels.
8)  Since 100% of my tracks had their back feet in front, it makes me wonder if there's ever a time squirrels would leave a track with their back feet in back.  I decide to watch a bird feeder area to see if squirrels leave different tracks when they're eating.

Examples of Good Questions
Remember, these should be specific questions you can answer with a simple experiment.
1)  How much air is in snow?
2)  How big of a piece of food will a squirrel carry at least 20'?
3)  Do squirrels at Wood Lake prefer eating seeds or fruit?
4)  How does the magnification power of a water droplet compare to a simply magnifying glass?
5)  What is the best clothing insulator for winter?
6)  How much water is the best for a spider plant?
7)  How long does it take for a butterfly to fly after hatching out of its chrysalis?
8)  How fast do goldfish grow compared to guppies?
9)  How thick does a beeswax candle have to be to burn to the bottom of the wick?

Examples of Not-so-good Questions
Explanations as to why there aren't so great follows each question in parentheses.
1)  How do insects breathe?  (This could be answered with research, not an experiment.)
2)  Do aliens really exist?  (Can't test it.)
3)  Is Leah truly a weirdo?  (It's opinion... an experiment should test fact, not opinion.)
4)  What helps a plant grow?  (This question is too open-ended... your experiment should preferably test one thing, not many variables.)
5)  How long does it take before rock turns into sand?  (Unless you have hundreds of thousands of years to experiment, this would take way too long!)

Okay!  Stop reading!  Go work on your project!  And don't forget to have fun!