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2, 3,
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As you consider various ideas for your project,
you should record them in a notebook. This will be your journal.
Your journal should also be used to record descriptions of
your experiments, as well as the results of your experiments.
This is where you will record all data, diagrams, charts etc.
Remember that your journal will probably be displayed with
the rest of your project, so make sure to keep it neat and
systematic!
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Once you pick a topic, you should stick to it. Jumping from one topic
to another will only set you back in your project. Therefore, it's important
to spend time selecting a topic that interests you. At the end of the
day, the purpose of doing your project is to help you learn more about
science. You're not doing this solely for the purpose of impressing the
judges, or winning prizes. Therefore, your project does not necessarily
have to be sophisticated or extremely challenging. Keeping it simple is
probably the best approach.
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This is probably the most important
and hardest part of your research. You will have to choose
a specific topic for your project. First, start with a general
topic such as "plants". Refer to page 55 for a list of broad
topics. Then, narrow down to one particular aspect of the
topic. You could ask yourself "What affects the growth rate
of plants?". Once you have decided on this particular aspect
of plants, you can then further narrow down to a very specific
question such as "Do plants grow faster when they are grown
hydroponically, instead of in soil?"
There are many places to look for
help in deciding on a topic or idea for your project. Some
options are:
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Your
own observations and past experience Based on
what you may have recently observed, or perhaps
noticed in the past, you may be able to come up
with very interesting questions. For example,
you may have noticed that birds never seem to
have problems perching on power lines. This could
become your research topic.
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Refer to a Science project book
Science fair project books usually contain many
project ideas with instructions and detailed explanations.
However, books can only contain that many ideas,
due to physical constraints.
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Search the web There are many
websites out there which list ideas for science
fair projects. You can perform a keyword search
for "Science Fair Project" in your favorite search
engine.
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