First, clearly define your field of study and your variables:

• Field of study: the area of chemistry you will focus on for your investigation. For the Science Fair, this should involve chemical reactions you can observe in your daily life, such as cooking reactions, acid–base reactions with household substances, oxidation (rusting), or reactions in cleaning products.
  
  

• Variables: any factor or condition that can be changed or measured in an investigation, such as temperature, concentration, time, mass, volume, surface area, or the amount of gas produced.
  
  

By combining your field of study with one or more variables, you can formulate a strong scientific question. These questions can be descriptive (describing what happens), comparative (comparing different conditions), or correlative (examining relationships between variables), in line with the IB MYP scientific inquiry approach.

To practice how to write a research question, follow these steps:

1. Think about something you have noticed in your everyday life that involves chemistry, especially chemical reactions you can observe at home, at school, or in your community. This could include reactions related to cooking, cleaning products, rusting, batteries, cosmetics, or food preservation. Take a moment to sit quietly with your notebook, breathe, and reflect on the chemical changes you have observed and the questions they raise.

2. If any of the topics you brainstorm seem interesting, carry out some basic research to understand the chemistry behind them and see how engaged you become with the topic. Think about what you would like to learn more about that reaction. Write down what you want to study—this will become your variable, such as temperature, concentration, time, mass, or reaction rate. It is usually easier to define your chemical system or type of reaction first, and then identify the variable(s) you will investigate. Consider whether your variable can be measured, observed, or compared safely.

3. Next, write your scientific question by combining your chemical system and your variable(s). Your question should be clear, measurable, attainable, relevant, and limited to a specific time and place. Avoid “why” questions and questions that can be answered with only “yes” or “no.”

4. After writing your question, make a prediction that answers it. This prediction is your hypothesis. A strong hypothesis follows the structure: “If… then… because…”. Although this belongs to the next stage of the investigation, you may begin thinking about it now.

Remember that this inquiry process applies not only to chemistry investigations, but also to understanding everyday problems through chemical thinking, such as why food spoils, metals rust, or cleaning products work. You can use chemistry to investigate real-life issues and propose solutions that benefit your community and future generations.