GUIDELINES FOR SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
Begin by choosing a topic that is small enough to cover in five to ten handwritten pages. Some scientific topics are so broad that volumes of books have been written on them. If you can think of only about five related questions to ask about your topic, it is probably small enough to do a good report on. Important: These are not questions with "yes or no" or number answers. They should be general enough on which you can get a page of information. For example: "Are volcanoes big?" is a bad question. A better question would be "What are the ranges in size of the world's largest volcanoes?
Once you have your questions, begin planning how you are going to collect the answers to those questions. Be sure to use at least three different sources to gather your information. Use the libraries, videos, electronic data, and interview an expert. Take notes, do not copy from your sources!! Organize all of your information into paragraphs. Be sure to include an introductory and summary paragraph to introduce and summarize your most important findings. Check your spelling and grammar, and write your final draft in the best handwriting or best typing you can!!! Enhance your report with as many pictures, photos, examples, a non-working model, charts, graphs and a self-standing back board. Make it inviting for your audience to read. You may even want to make a bound book out of your final draft report. Finally, write a bibliography (a list) of all of the sources you used. Include this at the end of your report.
All written material downloaded from the internet must be put into the student's own words and NOT included as part of the display. Photographs and diagrams from the Internet may be used if full credit is given and any needed captions are written by the student. All internet and published references must be listed on the projects display.
