Submit all Science Fair assignments past and present to: room1@stbonaventureschool.org

Submit all robotics assignments to: robotics@stbonaventureschool.org

Keeping a logbook

• Date and record ALL progress during your science project. That include any experiment observations, research and measurements. This is the rough draft of your project.

Example of Log Entries

5/12/14

I picked my science fair project. My question is “What type of liquid will sink a boat?” This is interesting to me because...

6/5/14

Today I researched more about liquid and buoyancy. I also looked at different boat shapes. I discovered that ___.

6/8/14The materials I’m going to need for my project:

-1 liter of nonfat milk

-1 liter of OJ

-1 liter of pure water

-2 meter of wood

9/12/14

Experiment Day 1

Plant 1: No growth (0cm)

Plant 2: No growth (0 cm)

Plant 3: No growth (0 cm)

3 of 25

• Any student testing on humans, living vertebrate animals, living tissue samples, or hazardous materials need a certificate turn in with their logbook when you have robotic class on Oct. 20, 21, 22, 23

What certificate(s) do I need?

• (You need to get permission from your teacher and parent/guardian first!)

• Human Subject Certificate: If you are testing on any humans besides yourself. However, any experiment that is harmful, painful, or degrading to people are NOT ALLOWED!

• Vertebrate Certificate: If you are testing on any living creature with a backbone besides a human (examples: birds, dogs, cats and fish). However, any experiment that is harmful, painful, or degrading to any living creature with a backbone is NOT ALLOWED!

What certificate(s) do I need?

• Hazard Control Certificate: If you using any possible harmful substance or equipment (fire, bacteria, lasers, bleach, acids..etc). You must have adult supervision who is licensed or a professional in your topic experiment. (doctor, engineer, professor, teacher..etc.)

• Living Tissue Certificate: If you are testing on any organic tissue from human or animal (hair, skin, organs, teeth…etc), you can not get the organic tissue by yourself.

Material/Instructions

• Materials and Instructions should be written like a cookbook, listing specific ingredients and step-by-step instructions on how to do it

• For example:– 2 liters of mineral water– 3 grams of baking soda

7 of 25

Experimenting

• When your child is doing his or her experiment, they must do at least 8 trials or times.

• Record all observations, if the experiment fails, what you did to “fix” the failure, etc.

• Must use the metric system as the method of measurement.– Meters (Area/Distance)– Liters (Volume)– Grams (Weight)– Seconds (Time)

8 of 25

Common Metric Units• the meter for distance, • the gram for mass, • the second, hours, days, weeks for time, • the ampere for electric current, • the Celsius for everyday temperature • the candela for intensity of light• the watt for power, volt (potential)• the joule for energy• the hertz for frequency of regular events• the lumen for flux of light and the lux for

illuminance

Experimenting/Testing

• 3 common types that the majority of the students are doing

• 1-2 day/trial experiments

• 2-3+ week/timed experiments

• Survey experiments

1-2 day/trial experiments

• Have 3 or more variables to test (ball bounce, different brands, different material, different structures..etc), and test at least 8 or more trials/times for each variable.

Which object flies the farthest?

Example

Yes, there are only 5 trials but this is to get an idea what to do.

ExamplesWhich design hold the most weight?

2+ week/timed experiments

• Have 3 or more variables to observe long term (different plants, different bread to mold..etc.).

• For 2+ week long experiments write observations/data at least every 2 to 3 days.

• For most timed experiments like how long does a battery last or dissolving marshmallow, it can be measure in seconds, minutes, hours or days.

Tomato plants growth using different liquids

Example

Which bread grows the most mold?

Survey Experiments

• Have 3 or more variables to test

• at least 50 human/animal test subjects,

• 5 or more appropriate questions with an appropriate activity

• documentation for each person survey. Each person survey must be anonymous.

Color test

• Do you have problems seeing colors?

• Do you need to wear glasses to see?

Besides Data…

• Make sure you write down what happen during the experiment.

• Example: If you are growing plants or mold, what color, texture, or changes did you see? This will help determine what might affect your experiment.

Experimenting

20 of 25

21 of 25