The Science Fair is open to all students who are interested in conducting research and presenting a poster describing their results to the school and a panel of judges. Children in grades K-3 may do a project on their own or with one partner.  Students in 4th-5th grades should do a project on their own to be eligible for the district competition.

Each project should follow the Scientific Method and have a clearly stated hypothesis (question), an experiment designed to explore the question, and a conclusion or an answer to the hypothesis based on the collected data.  The project should not be just information on a topic, it needs to center on a question and answer (the answer or conclusion could certainly lead to new questions for investigation!).  The completed project is to be presented on a standard science posterboard.  The complexity of the project and experiment should be in line with the student’s age.  The judges are looking for how the students are thinking about the project, not the parents.  Parents are only allowed to give minimal guidance and support in gathering materials, data collection, and to point out safety concerns.

Projects should fall in one of the following categories: 

• Behavioral Science
• Botany and Agriculture
• Earth Sciences
• Engineering
• Math/Computers
• Physical Science
• Zoology/Medicine

Some suggested topics from previous years are listed here to get you thinking.  More ideas are available from the Discovery Science Center or by searching on the web.  There are also several books in the school library that discuss science fair projects.  Students in 4th-5th grade who are interested in moving on to the District competition should strongly consider an original idea or new twist on a common experiment to better demonstrate their critical thinking and reasoning skills.  Projects may be started at any time.  Some projects that look at long-term effects or involve plant growth may take months to collect data.

Specific rules and display regulations are available as a pdf files (see below).

Example Topics:

• Factors affecting amount of popcorn popped
• Fading of construction paper
• Effects of household products on pennies
• Static electricity
• Effects of growing conditions on plants
• Melting of ice
• Friction
• Flight of golf balls

Important Dates:

January - Registration packets go home

February - Registration forms due

April - Bacon Science Fair

April - District Science Fair