Science fair projects in high school can be an integral part of many students’ academic experience. From planning and carrying out experiments to explaining findings to audiences at presentations, these projects play an integral role in students’ educations.
Put garlic and other natural substances through their paces against lab-engineered antibiotics with this intriguing chemistry project! Or conduct an exciting physics experiment to see how much valuable electrolytes exist in sports drinks you love.
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At the high school level, students should work in collaboration with an adult mentor such as a teacher. These individuals will help acquire background information, teach techniques, and monitor for safety issues. While in elementary and middle school settings collections and report-based projects may be the norm, at high school level scientific experimentation and engineering design projects should become increasingly prominent.
Step one is choosing a topic. Science fairs involve uncovering an intriguing question and conducting experiments on it; students will spend hours working on their project so it is crucial that they select something they find engaging.
Projects should also be feasible within the time constraints of a fair, which typically take place from mid-January through February. Speak with either your student’s guidance counselor or science teacher(s) responsible for running it for more information on how you can sign up and participate.
Research
Research is the key component to creating an excellent science fair project. Students should conduct in-depth investigation on their topic of choice to ensure an intelligent experiment design can be created, since incomplete or inaccurate research results in judges disqualifying projects from going further in competition.
Research can best be accomplished through reading scientific journals and books, speaking to relevant scientists who specialize in your project area, as well as finding an experienced mentor to guide their experiment design, conduct, and presentation process. It’s advisable that students start searching early on.
Prior to attending your science fair, take care to review its rules. Some require special permission while others specify which materials can be used and may even prohibit animal or human subjects for ethical considerations. Furthermore, other regulations may prohibit certain chemicals or procedures being utilized during experiments.
Experiment
Students must devise experiments to test a hypothesis. This provides them with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate creativity and engineering knowledge; some experiments use household items while others require special equipment.
Your student could use music as an aid to memory retention or examine how soil type influences slime mold growth, while conducting simple field surveys to discover how differently gendered people perceive certain smells or monitoring heart rate before and after exercise.
Select an experiment that can be completed within the time limit of the science fair and does not violate school policies or rules. A project idea that does not satisfy these considerations may not be approved by the science fair coordinator; to find this person contact your science teacher or counselor; they will also know whether your student needs to submit any paperwork prior to beginning his or her experiment.
Presentation
Science fair projects provide teens with an excellent opportunity to gain experience designing and conducting laboratory experiments outside of teacher-led lab classes and presenting them in front of an audience. Furthermore, such projects help identify which scientific topics pique student interest, so they may continue pursuing them during college studies.
Students should use the first week after receiving their project as the ideal time to identify issues, conduct their experiment and begin planning their presentation. By the time their project arrives for display in school they should have collected most of their research data.
This classic experiment introduces students to engineering by having them design their own contraptions that perform simple tasks, such as pushing a ball or spinning a top. Not only is this activity great for unleashing their creative thinking skills and problem-solving abilities, but the end results can be displayed artistically!