Summit Middle School, Boulder

Guidelines:

- Scientific Method

- Categories

- Problem & Hyp.

- Exhibit/Display

- Judging Criteria

After choosing your topic, you will start doing research and writing a research paper. While you are writing your research paper, you should also spend some time thinking about an experiment.

Problem Statement
The experiment you will do must solve a very specific problem. When deciding on a problem, be sure that it is one that you can answer with the time, skills, resources, and equipment available. A big mistake students make is to define their topic too broadly.

As an example, some problem statements that are worded too broadly:

1. Does television have a bad effect on test scores?
2. What is the effect of irrigating plants with salt water?

Well-worded problems state the intent of the experiment, list the subjects to be tested, and describe results to be measured. Look at the following examples of well worded problem statements:

1. What is the difference in test scores between 7th graders watching less than 5 hours of TV per night and watching 5 or more hours of TV per night?
2. What is the difference in growth rate between three different types of plants irrigated with tap water and the same plants irrigated with seawater?

Although the problem statement and the hypothesis do not take more than a few sentences, they are very important. They form the basis of the entire experiment, and are the basis on which your results are judged.
Therefore, before you start your experiment, determine:

• problem (what is the problem/question you want to investigate?)
• subject (who are what are you investigating?)
• independent variable (what are you changing on purpose?)
• dependent variable (what are you measuring?)
• control variable(s) (important variables that are not changed)
• hypothesis

Hypothesis
Once you have decided on a problem and done enough research, you must develop your hypothesis. The information you gathered while you were writing on your research paper should come in handy now.

The hypothesis represents your prediction of what the results of your experiment will be. Your hypothesis should include:

• the subject of your experiment
• the independent variable (the variable you change throughout the experiment)
• the dependent variable (the variable that changes due to the independent variable)
• the result you expect.

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Summit Middle School Science Fair

Designed and updated by Mery Molenaar
October 2000

URL: http://www.geocities.com/mery_molenaar/sci_fair