How to Make a Science Project
Making a science project is an exciting time in school. Not only do have a free rein on what you want to try out, it’s also a perfect opportunity to perform practical science. Choosing a project and setting out to do it in the soonest possible time is ideal, to have a more thorough study of the results the project yielded, so better start now! Here’s how.
Choosing a Science Project
While it may be tempting to just get any run-off-the-mill project and do things the easy way, you’re missing out a big opportunity in discovering things for yourself. If you’re stumped for ideas, here are some ways to get your creative juices flowing.
Past Projects
science projectAsk your Science teacher about the Science projects of the last five years. Why five years? Five years is just the right amount of time to have a feel of what projects are usually done. Any more than five years may be outdated or unremarkable due to new discoveries and technologies created since then. By going through the archives, you’ll avoid doing a project that’s been done before. Previous projects could also provide ideas, such as certain aspects of a past project that were not pursued and how new discoveries and technology can affect the results of a project, among other things.
What Interests You?
You probably have a hobby prior to having to do a Science project. Why not marry the two and have more fun with it in the process? Whether you’re into gardening, anime, music and any other hobby, you can learn more about the things you love to do while fulfilling your academic requirements.
Look closely at the everyday things around you. Everything has a science behind it, from toaster ovens, detergent to kites–it’s just up to you to discover the principles behind them and what experiments you can do with them.
Make it Interesting and Original
Your Science project is made for an audience, so it’s best that you make it interesting not just for yourself, but for the teachers (who have seen a LOT of projects already) and fellow students.
Be Realistic
You only have a limited amount of time to carry out your project, and record its results. You also have to do research, prepare for the exhibit and do other academic work too. So do a project that can be done with your limited time.
Science Project Principles
A Science project should be subject to the scientific method. This means that your chosen method of inquiry must yield observable, empirical and measurable data subject to scientific reasoning. The experiment must also be replicable. Here are the steps in creating a valid and sound Science project.
Define the question and your goals. What do you mean to achieve with this project? Will it be useful and worth your while? There are different ways in approaching questions, all you have to do is choose one. The questions could be: Why does it happen? How does it work?
Gather information. Your own stock knowledge and research come into play with this step. Do you need a control variable? What do you need to do to get different results?
Form a hypothesis. Based on what your research, what do you expect the results will be?
Perform the experiments and collect the data.
Analyze the experiment results.
Interpret the experiment results vis-a-vis with your hypothesis. Was your hypothesis right? Wrong? Slightly off? What were the factors that may have affected the results?
Form a new hypothesis, if applicable.
Once you’re done with your project, make sure that your exhibit is clean, easy to follow and organized. A good exhibit will earn you more points!