Site Under Construction: TBD for 2020-2021
2019-2020 STREAM Expo Thursday, March 26th
Viewing of Exhibits begins at 6:00pm in the St. Mary School Gym
Students should arrive by 6:00pm and stand by their exhibit.
Award ceremony: 7:00pm
*Students will receive a classwork grade for attendance at the Expo- an easy 100!
STREAM Expo 2019-2020
All Presentation Board Materials are due : Monday, March 9th
*Board sizes are: 36 x 48"
Click here to go to the:
STREAM Expo Board Order Letter and Materials Information 2019-2020
*Please note I have pictures of previous STREAM Expo Board Winners.
I think visuals are helpful to come up with ideas for the displays.
Oral presentations of projects to be given: the week of March 16th
Below are educational resources utilized in class for
each step of the Scientific Method.
Cut and paste links that don't open directly.
Use this presentation to review the steps of the scientific method:
https://www.slideshare.net/FJHScience/7th-grade-scientific-method-notes
Overview of the Scientific Method Video:
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_h33ak73JC5WHg2eVYweTRjcnc/edit
STEP 1 OF THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD
RESEARCH QUESTION:
Science Buddies Topic Selection Wizard: use this to help find a topic to conduct an experiment
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/recommender_register.php
TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION
Introduction:
Write a paragraph about what your experiment is and why you chose to do it.
Below is an example.
M & Ms are one of my favorite candies to eat. I often noticed, when eating a fun size bag of M&Ms, that the number of M&Ms in the bag often varies. The frequency of each color contained in the bag also seems to differ. I began to wonder if there is a common color found to occur in significant amounts and if there is an average number of M&Ms contained in each bag. In this experiment, I will count the number of M&Ms in several bags of M&Ms and sort them by color to determine the number and frequency of colors found in them.
STEP 2: CONDUCTING RESEARCH ABOUT YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION
Background research is necessary so that you know how to design and understand your experiment. To make a background research plan — a roadmap of the research questions you need to answer — follow these steps:
Citation: http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair projects/project_background_research_plan.shtml
STEP 3: WRITING YOUR HYPOTHESIS
A hypothesis is a tentative, testable answer to a scientific question. Once a scientist has a scientific question she is interested in, the scientist reads up to find out what is already known on the topic. Then she uses that information to form a tentative answer to her scientific question. Sometimes people refer to the tentative answer as "an educated guess." Keep in mind, though, that the hypothesis also has to be testable since the next step is to do an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis is right!
A hypothesis leads to one or more predictions that can be tested by experimenting.
Predictions often take the shape of "If ____then ____" statements, but do not have to. Predictions should include both an independent variable (the factor you change in an experiment) and a dependent variable (the factor you observe or measure in an experiment). A single hypothesis can lead to multiple predictions, but generally, one or two predictions is enough to tackle for a science fair project.
What happens if, at the end of your science project, you look at the data you have collected and you realize it does not support your hypothesis? First, do not panic! The point of a science project is not to prove your hypothesis right. The point is to understand more about how the natural world works. Or, as it is sometimes put, to find out the scientific truth. When scientists do an experiment, they very often have data that shows their starting hypothesis was wrong. Why? Well, the natural world is complex—it takes a lot of experimenting to figure out how it works—and the more explanations you test, the closer you get to figuring out the truth. For scientists, disproving a hypothesis still means they gained important information, and they can use that information to make their next hypothesis even better. In a science fair setting, judges can be just as impressed by projects that start out with a faulty hypothesis; what matters more is whether you understood your science fair project, had a well-controlled experiment, and have ideas about what you would do next to improve your project if you had more time. You can read more about a science fair judge's view on disproving your hypothesis here.
It is worth noting, scientists never talk about their hypothesis being "right" or "wrong." Instead, they say that their data "supports" or "does not support" their hypothesis. This goes back to the point that nature is complex—so complex that it takes more than a single experiment to figure it all out because a single experiment could give you misleading data. For example, let us say that you hypothesize that earthworms do not exist in places that have very cold winters because it is too cold for them to survive. You then predict that you will find earthworms in the dirt in Florida, which has warm winters, but not Alaska, which has cold winters. When you go and dig a 3-foot by 3-foot-wide and 1-foot-deep hole in the dirt in those two states, you discover Floridian earthworms, but not Alaskan ones. So, was your hypothesis right? Well, your data "supported" your hypothesis, but your experiment did not cover that much ground. Can you really be sure there are no earthworms in Alaska? No. Which is why scientists only support (or not) their hypothesis with data, rather than proving them. And for the curious, yes there are earthworms in Alaska.
IDENTIFYING YOUR VARIABLES:
Independent variables – the one factor changed by the person doing the experiment.
Dependent variables – the factor being measured in an experiment.
Control Variables – all the factors that stay the same in an experiment.
Example: I hypothesize that plants receiving the most water will grow the fastest.
Independent Variable: the amount of water
Dependent Variable: the amount of growth of the plant
Control Variables: the types of plants, the amount of sunlight they receive, the location of the plants
STEP 4: EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN
Materials
What type of supplies and equipment will you need to complete your science fair project?
By making a complete list ahead of time, you can make sure that you have everything on hand when you need it. Some items may take time to obtain, so making a materials list in advance represents good planning!
Make the materials list as specific as possible, and be sure you can get everything you need before you start your science fair project.
http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_materials_list.shtml#preparingamaterialslist
PROCEDURE
1. WRITE EVERY STEP OF YOUR PROCEDURE.
2. BE SPECIFIC.
3. USE SIMPLE COMMANDS WRITING IN COMPLETE SENTENCES.
4. NUMBER YOUR STEPS IN ORDER - YOU DO NOT NEED TO WRITE FIRST, NEXT, LAST.
http://www.slideshare.net/abridgesmith/good-procedure-writing
Powerpoint on examples of a bad and good procedure
Record in your Virtual Logbook:
1. Observations about experiment : This will be used to write your results, design tables and graphs. This will be done in class.
2. Any changes in procedure
3. Ideas to improve the experimental design
4. Ideas for future experiments
#2,3,and 4 will be addressed in your conclusion which we will work on in class.
STEP 6: COMMUNICATING YOUR RESULTS
How to present your results in written word, tables, and graphs:
Too Much Information?
Tips for Writing a Results Section
****Powerpoint on creating tables and graphs.
http://www.exposciencesnb.ca/bar-graphs-tables-pie-charts-oh-my.pd
Writing a conclusion:
Overview
Your conclusions will summarize whether or not your science fair project results support or contradict your original hypothesis. You may want to include key facts from your background research to help explain your results. Do your results suggest a relationship between the independent and dependent variable?
If the results of your science experiment did not support your hypothesis, don't change or manipulate your results to fit your original hypothesis, simply explain why things did not go as expected. Professional scientists commonly find that results do not support their hypothesis, and they use those unexpected results as the first step in constructing a new hypothesis. If you think you need additional experimentation, describe what you think should happen next.
Scientific research is an ongoing process, and by discovering that your hypothesis is not true, you have already made huge advances in your learning that will lead you to ask more questions that lead to new experiments.
Science fair judges do not care about whether you prove or disprove your hypothesis; they care how much you learned.
According to my experiments, the Energizer maintained its voltage (dependent variable) for approximately a 3% longer period of time (independent variable) than Duracell in a low current drain device. For a medium drain device, the Energizer maintained its voltage for approximately 10% longer than Duracell. For a high drain device, the Energizer maintained its voltage for approximately 29% longer than Duracell. Basically, the Energizer performs with increasing superiority, the higher the current drain of the device.
The heavy-duty non-alkaline batteries do not maintain their voltage as long as either alkaline battery at any level of current drain.
*My hypothesis was that Energizer would last the longest in all of the devices tested. My results do support my hypothesis. (I want you to restate your hypothesis)
I think the tests I did went smoothly and I had no problems, except for the fact that the batteries recover some of their voltage if they are not running in something. Therefore, I had to take the measurements quickly.
An interesting future study might involve testing the batteries at different temperatures to simulate actual usage in very cold or very hot conditions.