How much information to list on Science Fair Board

[PBeck]

How much information should be listed on the "Results" portion of my Science Fair Board?
I'm worried about the amount of information being presented in the Results and Research sections of my board. There is a lot of text, and I don't want to bore those viewing the board. I grew plants and documented the number of sprouts, height and overall appearance of the plants every 3rd day for 4 testing days (18 days) until the plants died. Would it be better to simply put the overall percentages of seeds germinated and average height of the plants or include an explanation of what was seen and recorded each day?

Thank you for your help.

[deleted-71603]

Hello. Congratulations on finishing the testing and analysis portion of your science project!

The results and conclusions portion of your display board should answer the question, "so what?" So you conducted an experiment and collected a lot of data. How do your results impact the world or those in it? I assume you grew plants in different groups and somehow changed their environment (sunlight, water, fertilizer, ???) between groups that could affect seed germination and growth height. What does this mean to an agriculturalist? Would the results of your experiment change how they grow plants?

You are correct that a lot of text will lose your audience. It is best to summarize your text in a chart or picture, as you hinted at. Pictures speak 1000 words and is more pleasing to the audience, as long as it is easy to follow. I recommend you go with displaying just the overall percentages of seeds germinated and average height of the plants. If the audience wishes to read more information as to what happened throughout the experiment, that is what your laboratory notebook is for.

I hope this helps. Be sure to check out this page if you haven't already, and feel free to write back if you have more questions.
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... oard.shtml

Good luck!

[PBeck]

Thank you for your help. I turned my information in this morning but didn't include anything about how this experiment would effect the outside world. I didn't really think I had time in the end to go back and type up more information and reprint, I wish I had now.

My experiment was questioning how acid rain will effect the germination and growth of plants (I tested petunias because a "crop" plant like beans would not germinate in the time I had to complete the project). I had 5 total groups - Control, given only water during the whole experiment, Group 1 given only water during the germination period then switching to a solution with a pH of 5 after seeds sprouted. Group 2 given only water during the germination period then switching to a solution with a pH of 3 after seeds sprouted. Group 3 was given a pH solution of 5 for the whole experiment. Group 4 was given pH of 3 for the whole experiment; hoping to see the difference in how the acid rain would effect how the seeds germinated, as well as their growth after sprouting.

In my results section I simply included information about the percentage of seeds that germinated and the overall height of the plants in each group. It was bulleted which broke it down a good bit. I also included graphs made on excel to show the data in an easier to read way. In my conclusion I discussed how the results related to my hypothesis and how I would change it if I could repeat the experiment. (All my plants were killed after about 3 weeks of data recording because of a freak cold snap, so I would better protect them from temperature changes)

Maybe I will still be ok. I didn't think information about the "outside world" factor. I will know for next time I guess. I was told that if I move on to regionals (highly unlikely now that I have a basically uncompleted project because the plants died AND I excluded this information) I would have the chance to redo the experiment. I can include other information then.

Thank you for your help.

[deleted-71603]

I'm sorry to hear about the cold snap. We have all been there of science experiments going wrong for things you didn't / can't plan for. If the seeds sprouted and you were able to measure plant height, especially if there was a difference in growth height between the groups, that doesn't mean your experiment is a total loss. You did the right thing in reporting results based on the data you had and how you would change your experiment in the future.

If you have to do an oral presentation, still do research on how these results matter "in the real world," as it is very likely judges will ask. You can answer this questions from two angles:
1. Why was this experiment important in the first place?
2. If your data supported your hypothesis (hypothetically if you didn't have enough data due to plant loss), what does this mean, based on your answer to #1?

By having this information ready, this shows you didn't completely give up on your experiment after losing the plants. You demonstrate you understand why this experiment is important and, therefore, is worth trying again if you had the opportunity.

Be proud of your experiment. Sometimes, the best lessons learned come from the unexpected. Don't give up hope on Regionals. You never know!

Good luck!

[deleted-132180]

Hi there,

The previous expert already gave you some great advice! I agree that if you are going to be presenting your project board at a science fair or something similar, it will definitely help to research how your project will affect the real world and what kind of knowledge it will be able to contribute. Was this your project (or is your project loosely based on this): https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... background? If it wasn't, there's some really quick background information that will give you a quick overview on acid rain and how it affects the environment.

Another thing to keep in mind is that your audience will likely ask you what your hypothesis is, so make sure you are clear about that. How do you think the acid rain will affect the growth rate of the plants? Do your results support your hypothesis?

Let us know if you have anymore questions!

Connie