Winning Science Fair Projects: What Steps Can You Take to Create a Winning Science Fair Project?
In this blog post, we are answering the question: What steps can you take to create a winning science fair project?
Who wouldn’t like to have the honor of being the creator of a top science fair project? Or even just the sheer feeling of achievement of making something so awesome? The answer is probably, everyone, including YOU.
And we are here to support you! This is why we have compiled some steps that will help you achieve a winning prize at the next science fair.
Deciding Which Field of Science to Explore
There are many fields of science, such as biology, chemistry, physics, psychology, astronomy, and they can be branched into the categories of physical sciences, earth sciences, and life sciences. All of them provide lots of opportunities where you can delve in, have a fun time exploring, and come out successful.
But it is important to go with one that interests you, because your entire project will be based on it. If you are not interested in a field, you might not be as creative as you would be in an area you ARE interested in. Remember, YOU are the one creating your science fair project, so YOU should decide what it will be about.
Perhaps you would like to try something new, in a field you don’t know much about but what to learn. In that case, go for it! The Internet is a valuable tool where you can explore any topic you want, so indulging in the vast knowledge it provides is useful for you to search more about what you want to do!
If the field of science has been already chosen for you, or even as a next step to having chosen your area of interest, try to see if you can go into a subfield of that area (i.e. marine biology in the field of biology). This can allow you to narrow your focus, which will make it easier for you to choose exactly what your science fair project will be about!
You may also like this blog post on Biology Science Fair Projects.
Ideas of Winning Science Fair Projects
Any idea can be a winning idea if there is enough thought and effort put behind it. Nevertheless, if you need some help to get started, hopefully these ideas will be able to inspire you! (Remember that this is only a small list, and that there are many ideas that are unique.)
Some Concepts/Questions to Help You Brainstorm Ideas
What is needed in the world that you can invent or improve?
What can make current processes faster and more efficient?
How can something be more creative and original?
How can you automate (or use AI for) time-consuming and/or repetitive manual tasks?
How can you combine different products in order to generate something even better?
How many different methods can be used to solve a problem, and how are they compared to each other?
In what ways can you create something that is used to help maintain sustainability and is climate-friendly?
Some Examples of Winning Science Fair Projects
What steps can individuals take to reduce their carbon footprint?
How do different substances have different melting temperatures?
How does the salinity of the water affect aquatic plant growth?
Which types of compostable products are better at their job then others?
What are the benefits and harms of UV light in healthcare?
How can different types of acid affect growth of plants?
How to make biodegradable materials for one-use items?
What everyday items can be used to create renewable energy?
How can you make materials less flammable?
You can find more inspiration for ideas of winning science fair projects on the Internet. There are many resources out there to support you!
If you are not sure whether your idea is a good idea, make sure that it allows all the steps detailed in the section below. As long as it is able to support the process, it means that it can work!
Perhaps you need to revise some part of your idea. The section below can also help you fine tune it to make sure you deliver the best product possible.
Remember that the whole foundation of your project is your idea. If you’re unsure—if you don’t think you want to go with it, if you’re not sure how to approach it and don’t want to—you should change your idea, maybe a little, maybe a lot. You want to have a strong foundation, and having an idea that you can stand behind is the first step in ensuring that.
Steps You Can Take to Create a Winning Science Fair Project
This is not the only process that you can follow—feel free to make tweaks here and there to better support what you are trying to achieve. Still, your structure should have resemblance to the steps that are detailed below to ensure that you complete everything you should be doing!
Step 1: Write down your idea and check for the following things
Is it something you’re interested in investigating? If it seems initially boring, it may turn out to be interesting, but remember to go in with an open mindset. If that is not what you are looking towards, shift your idea into something you can be passionate about!
Is it too broad? Often, ideas that are too broad leave too much room for investigation, and while that is good, one project will not be able to cover everything you want.
Make sure it’s not too specific either—you want to make sure there is enough content you can test and write about.
Make any adjustments that you think are important. Better now than later, when you are already deep into the process.
Step 2: Research your idea
What similar experiments have been done before? What testing it looks like? What you should keep in mind, etc.?
Remember that looking at other examples is only for inspirational purposes and that plagiarism will lead to undesirable outcomes.
Step 3: Develop your idea into a hypothesis that you can test and design your experiment
Does the hypothesis seem testable? Do you know the basics of what you will be doing and what conclusion you will be searching for?
Will you be able to acquire all the materials needed? Does it fit the requirements of the science fair?
Make an outline of all the instructions, which should be clear and have precise measurements, so that you know exactly what you are doing, especially if you are handling chemicals or things that will react to each other. This step is really important, because having unclear instructions can mess up your experiment and no one wants that.
Know how you will be recording that data you collect: maybe in a table, or a list, or a diagram.
If you are handling something dangerous, know what you should and should not do and have someone on hand who can guide you, preferably an adult.
Perform your experiment! Follow your instructions carefully and ask for help whenever needed.
Step 4: Analyze the data you collected
Organize it in a table or a graph to make it easier to look at and make connections.
Highlight the biggest connections you see and be sure to explain how they prove or disprove your hypothesis.
The connections between your claim and evidence should be connected with relevant reasoning so that the conclusions make sense.
Step 5: Present your findings in an appealing way
This could be in any form (i.e. slide presentation), but try to choose the one that you think will enhance your project or the one you are the most comfortable with or a new style that you want to try. If there are requirements for the type of presentation, follow them.
Make sure to explain everything or have all the information ready to go if people ask questions (depending on the format of the project).
Step 6: Double check the project guidelines
Do anything else that is specific to you or your project guidelines that has not been mentioned here. Remember to check the rubric (if there is one) to make sure you have followed all the directions.
Have fun (Though of course this applies for the entire course of your science fair project)!
If you would like more details about each of the steps highlighted above, a quick Google search can always do the trick! Please note that different formats of science fair projects might have a different process, so make sure to follow the instructions you have been given.
Does your project need to follow every single line of the process written above? Of course not! Feel free to make minor adjustments! Just note that it should be somewhere along the lines of this so that you don’t miss anything.
Conclusion
While creating a winning science fair project might seem hard, you can do it! Bring in your creativity, talent, eagerness to learn more about science, willingness to work hard, and you will be ready!
Keep on track! Just because you might have a lot of time to complete your science fair projects, doesn’t mean you should do it all on the last day. Create a schedule or some sort of timeline to make sure you can meet the deadline.
Remember to persevere through the challenges because you’ve got this! Good luck! :)
About Inspirit AI
AI Scholars Live Online is a 10 session (25-hour) program that exposes high school students to fundamental AI concepts and guides them to build a socially impactful project. Taught by our team of graduate students from Stanford, MIT, and more, students receive a personalized learning experience in small groups with a student-teacher ratio of 5:1.
