Acceptable Science Project topics must:

Be expressed as a problem question beginning with a phrase such as What is the relationship between? What is the effect of? What affect does? Require experimentation and identifies the intended test subject, independent variable, and dependent variable Be within your scope of ability in terms of your age and expertise, access to materials, and testing facility constraints such as working space, and financial expense involved. have results that are quantitatively measurable in metric, SI Units Not harm vertebrates, Not be a demonstration, model, or kit, Not be a consumer product test, Not use mold or bacteria, Not use weapons, explosive or fire Follow all safety guidelines according to ISEF rules and MSDS regulations

Project Background Research The purpose of Background Research for Science Experiments is to:
Find scientific definitions for your test subject and each of the levels of the independent variable. Learn background history and information on your test subject and the levels of the independent variable (including, but not limited to what its made of, how it works, how its used, what it does, what it needs, what it interacts with, etc) Find information about any similar experiments conducted by other people on your topic/test subject, describing their results and conclusions (www.juliantrubin.com/fairprojects.html is a great resource to help you find this information) Find out about the people or groups that would benefit from the results of your project experiment and how your project results could be useful in the real world. Write the question you are trying to answer with your experiment in the space below?

You must define a basic frame work for your research. To do this you must list below a minimum of six questions your intend to research about your topic. You must gather enough relevant information on your topic to write a 1000 15000 word research paper. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6

Content of paper Depending on the complexity of your topic you may need to define some key words related to your project topic. You may also need to explain how the different components of your topic work together. Answer the key questions you proposed to investigate about your topic. Include a description of experiments that were similar in nature to yours and what the results of those experiments were. Explain how your experiment is similar or different from those experiments and how you are expecting your results to be different or similar to the ones you mentioned. Support your claims with facts and information. Provides a hypothesis written in the correct format. Support your hypothesis by stating facts and important information that supports your claim/hypothesis. Provide a purpose for your experiment, a real life application for the results (how your findings are useful to society, how could your findings be used to others). Explain why you are interested in this topic, and any connection this topic has to your future educational plans.

General research paper format. Introduce your topic. Background information about the topic. Introduce your hypothesis. State your hypothesis in the correct format. Support your hypothesis by introducing facts and information you gathered that supports your hypothesis. Explain how you plan to test your hypothesis. This is your experiment. Explain how similar experiments have been conducted and their outcomes. State how your experiment is similar or different from the others and what do you expect to happen. You may want to mention some of the challenges you expect to encounter as you set up the experiment and collect your data. Conclusion. Emphasis should be placed on the benefits of learning about the topic, testing hypothesis and further researching possible answers to questions in your topic area. Remember the possible benefits to society and groups of people as there are more discoveries in your topic area.