EKSC Regional Science Fair

Judging Guidelines

1)  Projects must be the work of a single student. Team projects will not be judged.

2)  All students should be able to explain their project in an oral interview.

3)  All work on the project’s experimental procedure, data collection, and data analysis must be completed by the students. Projects which indicate the direct assistance of individuals other than the student will be disqualified by the judges. Teachers, parents, or other persons may advise and provide technical assistance, but may not be involved in the actual work of the project.

4)  Projects must be scientific investigations (experiments) and based on the scientific method. Collections, models, inventions, demonstrations and product comparisons will not be judged.

5)  The scientific method involves the following steps:

►Selecting a topic - Is the student interested in the topic?

                         Did the student select the topic?

►Identifying a problem/question - Can this question only be answered by experimentation?

►Doing research - Project research is the process of collecting information from knowledgeable sources, such as  books, magazines, software, librarians, teachers, parents, scientists, or other professionals. Provide references.

►Stating a hypothesis - Did the hypothesis match the problem/question?

                                           Can this hypothesis be proved by experimentation?

►Experimenting - Did the experiment test the question/problem?        

                                   Did the student:

►Reaching a conclusion - Did the student summarize the results of the experimentation and state how the results relate to the hypothesis?

6)  Journal

This notebook should contain topic and project research. It should contain not only the student’s original ideas but also ideas they got from printed sources or from people. It should also include descriptions of the exploratory and project experiments as well as diagrams, graphs, and written observations of all results.

7)  Report

The report is a written record of the entire project from start to finish. The report should be clear and detailed enough for the reader to know exactly what was done, why it was done, what the results were, whether or not the experimental evidence supported the hypothesis, and references.

8) Display

Posted on the display should be the:

►Project title

►Problem

►Hypothesis

►Experiment - materials & procedure

►Data

►Results

►Conclusion

►Pictures, graphs, charts