Project Guides (Page 5)

Choose the Best Solution

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Defining "Best" Once you have created a number of possible solutions to your design problem, you need to choose which one is best. Requirements First, look at whether each possible solution met your design requirements. Consider solutions that did a much better job than others, and reject those that did not meet the requirements. Nice to Haves, Desirables In addition to your design requirements, you probably have some features that would be "nice to have" in your solution. These are things… Read more

Conducting a Science Experiment

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Preparations With your detailed experimental procedure in hand, you are almost ready to start your science experiment. But before you begin there are still a few more things to do: Know what to do. Read and understand your experimental procedure. Are all of the necessary steps written down? Do you have any questions about how to do any of the steps? Get a laboratory notebook for taking notes and collecting data (see Sample Data Table). … Read more

Development Work

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Development Work Development involves the refinement and improvement of a solution. Some development work might be needed very early in the design process in order to evaluate different potential solutions. For example, it might not be possible to compare the cost of early design concepts without doing some development work to estimate what the cost of an alternative would actually be. Development work continues throughout the design process, often even after a product ships to… Read more

Electric Play Dough Recipes

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Swipe left to see more Fun with Circuits Making circuits out of play dough is a fun and easy way to learn about electronics while adding light, sound, and motion to your artwork. The Electric Play Dough Kit available for purchase from our partner Home Science Tools® contains all the electronics parts you need to get started building your own squishy circuits, but you will need to provide your own Play-Doh and modeling clay. The Play-Doh… Read more

Everything You Need to Know About Fonts for Display Boards

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The most important objective for your board is to effectively communicate the facts about your project. You can only achieve that objective if it's easy to read. Over the years, expert newspaper editors, as well as advertisers (Ogilvy 1983, 90) have formulated many rules of thumb for readability that we have translated for use on science project display boards. Use a font size of at least 16 points for your main body text. Anything smaller is too hard to read. (See the… Read more

Finding Information for Your Research Paper

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How to Find Information No matter how you do your background research, record your sources and take good notes as you go. Your teacher may be able to offer you some tips. Library Research One of the most valuable resources at the library is not a book, but a person. Public librarians, college librarians and certified school librarians are specially trained to teach information literacy. Librarians are excellent sources for organizing research, for teaching how to search, how to read and use… Read more

How To Grow Bacteria on Agar Plates

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Growing bacteria, or other microorganisms, on agar plates is a common step in microbiology experiments. There are two methods for inoculating (putting the bacteria on) agar plates: quadrant streaking and spread plating. Which one you choose depends on what you want to do after. Quadrant Streaking Bacteria or Fungi The quadrant streaking technique is used to isolate single colonies of one or more types of bacteria or fungi. To get started, you will need: A clean, sterile work… Read more

How to Make Solutions for Chemistry and Biology Experiments

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Solutions Solutions are used in a wide range of science experiments including chemistry, biology, health, cooking, and materials science. This video and written tutorial will guide you through how to make solutions and how to calculate the concentration of a solution. If you have a solution and need information on how to dilute it, or how to make serial dilutions of a sample, check out our guide on How to Make Dilutions and Serial Dilutions. Read more

How to Read a Scientific Paper

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Target Audience This guide is intended for advanced high school students and college undergraduates who are interested in working on independent research projects. Students should have a strong background in science. At minimum, it is recommended that the students have completed two years of high school science courses, although enrollment in advanced high school science classes (like AP Biology, AP Chemistry, or AP Physics), or the equivalent college-level courses, is preferable. Original… Read more

Increasing the Ability of an Experiment to Measure an Effect

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Sandra Slutz, PhD, Staff Scientist, Science Buddies Kenneth L. Hess, Founder and President, Science Buddies Introduction All experimental observations are a combination of signal, the true effect of a variable on an outcome, and noise, the random error inherent in your experimental technique. When designing and analyzing experiments, the goal is to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio so that you can draw accurate conclusions. Six common means of increasing the signal-to-noise ratio are: … Read more

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