Give careful thought to setting up and maintaining your notebook. Your Science Fair notebook should be used for anything you do on your project such as discussions with your parents about your topic, all your research, buying your materials, doing your experiment, and all your thoughts about what your are doing. Your notebook entries should be dated and the writing should be neat enough to be easily read, but it is not expected to be as neat as a final copy.
Here is a recommendation for setting up your notebook:
Inside Cover - Project Schedule (a suggested timeline is included in the pdf download under the OVERVIEW tab
Title page - includes title of project, your question, your name, Kiker Elementary, and your grade. At the bottom, include your research dates and experiment dates
Table of Contents - this will be added to continually as you progress
Brainstorming of Ideas - What science topics interest you?
Big Question - What is a question that you don't already know the answer to and that you could design an experiment to find the answer?
Research on Topic - Record notes from as least three different sources - a suggested note-taking page is in the pdf download under the OVERVIEW tab
Hypothesis -this will be your prediction of what you think will be the outcome of your experiment
Procedure - this will be where you plan out the experiment steps in detail
Materials - this can include shopping lists and/or receipts
Experiment Results - record the data you collect in the repeated trials of your actual experiment
Conclusion - Was your hypothesis supported by the data you collected or not supported? What further questions do you have now? Would you change anything with the materials or procedure you used if you were to repeat this experiment again?
Here is a recommendation for setting up your notebook:
Inside Cover - Project Schedule (a suggested timeline is included in the pdf download under the OVERVIEW tab
Title page - includes title of project, your question, your name, Kiker Elementary, and your grade. At the bottom, include your research dates and experiment dates
Table of Contents - this will be added to continually as you progress
Brainstorming of Ideas - What science topics interest you?
Big Question - What is a question that you don't already know the answer to and that you could design an experiment to find the answer?
Research on Topic - Record notes from as least three different sources - a suggested note-taking page is in the pdf download under the OVERVIEW tab
Hypothesis -this will be your prediction of what you think will be the outcome of your experiment
Procedure - this will be where you plan out the experiment steps in detail
Materials - this can include shopping lists and/or receipts
Experiment Results - record the data you collect in the repeated trials of your actual experiment
Conclusion - Was your hypothesis supported by the data you collected or not supported? What further questions do you have now? Would you change anything with the materials or procedure you used if you were to repeat this experiment again?
Website created and maintained by Mrs. Diane Wells - 5th Grade Teacher at Kiker Elementary, Austin ISD, Austin, TX.