Science fair projects - Complete guide to a winning science project overview

Science fair projects are not only opportunities to explore science, but they’re a lot of fun too! One of the great things about science fairs is the chance to showcase your project for a chance to win an achievement award. In fact, your award might even get chosen as one of the science fair projects to represent your school in regional, state or national competitions.

 I always approached my project for the science fair as a detective, and you can do the same.  Just look at it as a mystery to be solved and you’re the detective searching for the answers. What’s even better is that YOU get to choose the mystery, and you get to design methods for uncovering clues. The clues will reveal the who, what, when, where, how, and why.

 Understanding the most important points to success is the key to winning science fair projects, and it’s up to you to discover them.  

Here are the seven most important things to keep in mind for a winning science fair project:

1. Scientific Method. The scientific method is the process that scientists use to help them find the answer to any question that they have in science. Prior to getting started on any project, you should have a good understanding of what the scientific method is. The steps in the scientific method are designed to help you work through any problem in an organized and easy method. Starting with research and stating your problem and then creating a hypothesis, the scientific method goes onto include doing your experiment and finally, coming to a conclusion.

2. Topic Research. The first thing that needs to be done in science fair projects is researching a topic. Since you’ll obviously be spending a lot of time working on your project, be sure to choose a topic that you really like. Although you may lose interest in a project topic once it has been chosen, it is best to stick to one idea and not change. Having to continuously start over with research makes completing your project difficult. To help you decide on a experiment or project topic, there are several things that you can do. You can pick a subject that you personally know something about from your own experience, you can explore a science periodical for a topic, you can read various books written about science fair projects or you can study the world that you live in for great ideas.

Before we move on, you will probably want to download a free copy of the step-by-step science project guide to help you with your own project.

3. Project Research. Once the difficult task of choosing a topic is complete, it is time to move on to the research phase of your project. Basically, the more you study and research your topic, the better your project will be. This is why project research is one of the most important parts of the science project. There are many great sources for information on your science project from newspaper, the Internet, magazines, books, teachers, librarians and even your parents. You never know where you will find good information and the more you study, the easier your project will become. Just be sure to acknowledge all of the sources you use to find your information and keep track of everyone and everything that you use in your research.

4. Project Report. Winning science fair projects always include a thorough project report. Your report is a written compilation of everything you have done from beginning to end. You want to write the report in a way that the person reading it who is unfamiliar with your project understands it. Everything from how and why you did your experiment to the sources you used to the outcome of the entire project should be detailed in your project report. Your project report should be a clear and concise representation of what your project is all about. Someone should be able to understand your experiment simply by reading your project report, even if you are not there to talk about it. It is also the one place where all of your research is documented and kept track of. Sometimes, there is a specific format for your project report so you will want to be sure to check with your teacher or the admission guidelines of your science fair. There are some basic elements to every project report that you can expect to find including an abstract explanation, the title page, table of contents and the various parts of the experiment and you data gathered. You will also need to include sources and any other acknowledgements that were necessary.

5. The Display. All the work you’ve done on your science fair project will be placed on the display. A good display board should have a nice representation of the project you did with some sort of a board display, like a trifold, a copy of your report and everything that you think is important to the details of your project, like examples, photos and questionnaires. Without making a jumbled mess on your display board, you want to include any pertinent information to your project in a clear and organized manner. It is also important to keep in mind the rules and requirements for display boards that are set by the science fair administrators or even your teacher.

6. Presentation and Evaluation. Many times, science projects include an oral presentation in front of your classmates. For many people, this is the most difficult part of the entire project. The key to remaining calm and delivering a good presentation is to practice! The more you know about your topic, the easier it is to talk about it. Keep your presentation short but to the point and have a good time with it! When you know your stuff inside and out, it is fun to talk about it with your peers. And with all of the hard work you have put into it, you will enjoy sharing it with friends.