Science Fair: Steps for Success

Updated: December 27, 2024

  • Type: Stage 3: Design Projects

  • Grade Level: 5 - 8

First, a word of warning. The process of science is messy! Although the scientific method may look linear, it moves back and forth from observation, hypothesis, and experimentation. This may feel a bit chaotic at times, but allowing students to take the lead will increase their confidence, understanding, and engagement in science! Here are the general steps to complete a science fair project:

  1. Understanding science: how does it work?

  2. Asking a testable question and forming a hypothesis 

  3. Reading scientific literature and pulling information related to the chosen topic

  4. Synthesizing the information to form a hypothesis

  5. Creating and conducting an experiment to test the hypothesis

  6. Gathering data and representing the data in a graph

  7. Generalizing and analyzing data to form a conclusion

  8. Communicating the project and research to a scientific community 

Click below to grab the free version of the Science Fair: Steps for Success poster for your classroom! You can also check out our complete teacher’s guide to running science fair and other resources in the blog post linked below.

 

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