All Science Fair Projects Need Good Questions To Get You Started
It will happen for all science fair projects, for all ages. You need good questions to get you started!
One of the steps in all science fair projects is to make a hypothesis, which involves coming up with a question. Any time you read about this the stuff you read just says, Come up with a question, or Formulate a question, if you want to be formal about it. I don’t know about you, but I can hear my kids saying, well more of a half cry, half whine with panic thrown in……” I don’t know what they mean, what kind of questions do I do? Where do I find questions?” (Yes, I hear them..even though they are grown their elementary voices are fresh.
Sometimes all you need is a jump start. Before you think of questions for your science fair project, you need to know what topic you are going to explore, once you have that you can start asking questions about it. So a brain storm session with your child and the family just talking about all the things they always wondered about…. rocks….. or fertilizer…… or ice…… or insulation……
Once you figure your topic out and general questions, all science fair projects will want you to fine tune the questions, and these will be based what activity you will be doing.
If you will be measuring or counting you questions will be…
- How many…
- How often…
- How long…
- How much…
If you want to compare how one thing differs from another. How are they alike, and what is different.
- How do….fit together
- How are…..different
- In how many ways are ….alike
- In how many ways are ….different
If you are predicting, investigating and experimenting which is really the most common for science fairs you will be asking these kinds of questions.
- What happens if____
- What would happen if you ____
- Will ____(work, grow,) better than____
- Does ____hold more than _____
- Is ____(stronger, last longer), than ____?
Often the types of school science fair projects will dictate which kind of question you will use. A collection project will be more how things are alike and different to show categories, but a demonstration project might be What happens if you mix ____with ___?
One of our experiments DON’T LOSE YOUR COOL has to do with comparing insulation. One student might focus on how many ways they are alike or different for their question where another might look for which one holds the heat better ?
It doesn’t matter if you are doing a quick and easy science experiments or something that might take a weekend or even a demonstration, all science fair projects must start with a well formed question, as that is what your results and conclusion will be based on.
Get “Don’t Lose Your Cool!” and other experiments like it, look for all science fair projects options with Weekend Science Fair projects
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