GUIDELINES FOR EXPERIMENTS
Begin by exploring a scientific material you are interested in. Play with it, try out different things, and manipulate the conditions around it. Get to the point where you understand the material better. Then begin to observe and notice how the material behaves under certain conditions. At this point, your brain will start asking "What if...." questions. One of these questions is what you will use to design your experiment. It is called the "TESTABLE QUESTION".
Once you have a testable question, you have some decisions to make:
- How do you design the experiment to answer your question?
- What measurements do you need to take to record your results?
- How do you use a CONTROL in your experiment? A control is a part of your experiment that you don't change so that you can compare the results of your test.
- It is most wise to use a control in your experiment. It helps you to be sure that what you are testing for is really happening because of what YOU DO in your experiment.
- Think about what might happen in your experiment. This is called a HYPOTHESIS. Write down what you think BEFORE actually doing the experiment. Your teacher and Mrs. Rudig can help you with the planning part of your experiment by giving advice or ideas that might help.
Now that you have planned your experiment, gather all the materials you will need to do the experiment. As you begin the experiment, make detailed observations of what is happening. Take your measurements carefully. Keep carefully written notes about what you do and how you do it.
Then, REPEAT THE EXPERIMENT over again at least two times. This is required for all students in grade 4 and above. Record your results as carefully as you did for the first time. ALL scientists repeat their experiments; we INSIST you repeat yours as well.
When you have all of your results, from all the times you did the experiment, you need to design the way that you will report your results. Many students use graphs, charts and written summaries of what happened in the experiment. Display all your results and measurements, even if it doesn't match what you thought was going to happen.
Look again at your HYPOTHESIS and at the results of your experiment. Think about what happened and why it happened that way. Write down the reasons you think the results happened the way they did.
For the final display of your experiment, write down everything again, this time neatly. Write your TESTABLE QUESTION, HYPOTHESIS, your MATERIALS, the description of HOW ( the method) you did the experiment, the RESULTS with a copy of any GRAPHS and charts you made, and write the REASONS you thought the experiment turned out the way it did.
Paste it on your backboard along with any photographs or drawings you have made. You might also want to display a part of your experiment and some of the measuring tools you used. Be sure to read the rules of the Science Fair to make sure what you bring in to display is safe.
