Assalamu Alaikum Dear parents,
I hope you have had a restful winter break with your family.I have the pleasure to inform you that this year Insha'a Allah grade 4 are invited to participate in the science fair that will be held on Thursday, March 26, 2015.
For this grade, the participation is optional as the research and work involved are to be done outside the school and the project is not evaluated. However, students who wish to participate are required to work with a partner. Teacher Marwa , teacher Seher and myself are available to provide help when needed.
I am attaching the science fair handbook to help your child throughout his/her work.
Students, who would like to participate in the science fair, are required to fill out the registration form and return it to their teacher by the end of January. Students are given the timeline to help them manage their time.
For any question, feel free to email me any time.
Jazakum Allah for your support and cooperation
Dr. Amina Ould-brahim,
Science Coordinator l
Abraar School: Islamic Education for the Next Generation
Science Coordinator l
Abraar School: Islamic Education for the Next Generation
Secondary Campus: 1085 Grenon Avenue, Ottawa, ON K2B 8L7 | ph.613-820-0044 | fx.613-820-1495
Elementary Campus: 70 Fieldrow Street, Ottawa, ON K2G 2Y7 | ph.613-226-1396 | fx. 613-226-2745
Find us on: Facebook | Twitter
Support Abraar by Donating Online: Donate Now (all donations are tax deductible)
Support Abraar by Donating Online: Donate Now (all donations are tax deductible)
Elementary
Science Fair
Planning Guide
Abraar School
Elementary Campus
2014 – 2015
Table of Contents
Page
Letter to parents 3
Project time line 4
Categories 5
Research approach 5
Display board 9
Science Fair Questions 11
Letter to Parents
Friday December 19,
2014
Dear
Parents,
Assalamu
Alaikum,
Your
child is taking part in the Abraar School Elementary Campus Science Fair
scheduled for Thursday, March 26th, 2015. This
exciting event encourages students to think like young scientists. In the next
few weeks, your child will design a science project using the scientific method
or the Engineering Design Process to solve a problem. In this activity,
students will have the opportunity to develop skills in creative thinking,
problem solving and communication (oral and written).
Your
cooperation is appreciated in encouraging your child and monitoring his/her
progress along the way. Your support is the key to a successful project, but please
do not allow your involvement to extend any further in order to assure equity
and promote student learning. Guide your child whenever and wherever you can.
It is important that the final project reflects student individual effort and
design.
Abraar
School Science Fair Guide will be posted on the blog and help will be provided
to students whenever they need it during the various stages of their projects.
For
suggestions on helping your child through this process, see the website at www.free-science-fair-projects.com.
Although
participating in the event is already a reward in itself, we like to offer
recognition (in the form of a prize) to the top students for their excellence
in each category. We would appreciate your generosity in this regard by helping
us cover the cost of the prizes. If you are able to help with a financial
donation, you may give it or send it to Sr. Naida or to myself.
May Allah
reward all of you for your generous contributions and support!
For
any question, please email me at the address below
Jazakum
Allah Kheiran for your cooperation,
Dr. Amina Ould-brahim,
Science Coordinator l
Abraar School: Islamic Education for the Next Generation
Science Coordinator l
Abraar School: Islamic Education for the Next Generation
Secondary Campus: 1085 Grenon Avenue,
Ottawa, ON K2B 8L7 | ph.613-820-0044 | fx.613-820-1495
Elementary Campus: 70 Fieldrow Street,
Ottawa, ON K2G 2Y7 | ph.613-226-1396 | fx. 613-226-2745
Find us
on: Facebook | Twitter
Support Abraar by Donating Online: Donate Now (all donations are tax deductible)
Support Abraar by Donating Online: Donate Now (all donations are tax deductible)
Project
Timeline
|
Due Date
|
Project Component
|
Y / N
|
|
01/12/2015
|
Project proposal:
1)
- Students must have their partners, decided on their testable question and
have formulated their hypothesis.
2)
- Students must keep a journal to write down notes. This journal must be
presented to the judges.
|
|
|
01/26/2015
|
Background research and experiment
details:
1)
- Students submit the project name, a summary of their research, the list of
material and the procedure.
2)
- Students have done also one test of their experiment and collected the
first data.
|
|
|
02/23/2015
|
Data tables , graphical representation, pictures
of the experiments Data Analysis:
1)-
students have their data tables, graph, pictures ready
2)-
Analysis of Results
|
|
|
03/9/2015
|
Conclusion, Abstract:
1)
- Conclusions: Support or reject hypothesis with reasons – why?
2)-
Applications: How can your experiment apply to the real world,
extensions/further investigation
3)-
Bibliography: Supply all references
4)-
Abstract: Summary of purpose, procedures, results and conclusion (must be
between 200 and 250 words/typed)
|
|
|
03/23/2015
|
Final Check
1)-
Prepare the presentation board (be creative and detailed oriented)
2)-
Review the presentation board (Verify that all the required information is in
its correct place)
|
|
|
03/26/2015
|
Abraar Science Fair
Thursday, March 26 2015
From 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM
School Gymnasium
|
Categories
This
year we are adopting the same categories as the Ottawa Regional Science Fair
(ORSF) even though grades 5 and 6 would not be able to participate to the ORSF.
The
categories are as follow:
·
Discovery - Create new fundamental
knowledge based on your curiosity by asking a question and using the techniques
of scientific inquiry to develop an answer.
·
Energy - Improve our use of current
energy sources, enable the transition to alternative energy sources, or reduce
our energy footprint.
·
Environment - Reduce our impact on, improve
our understanding of, and ensure the quality of water air, soil, and the
diversity of living things.
·
Health - Increase our understanding of
the human body, or apply science and technology to improve health,
control disease, or support an again population.
·
Information - Enhance communication and our
use of information using digital and networking technologies, or applications
of new media.
·
Innovation - Combine scientific principles
with your creativity to develop a new material, structure, device, or system to
solve a problem or improve an existing solution.
·
Resources - Develop better ways to use our
natural resources that provide sustainable sources of food, products, or
prosperity.
When registering with your teacher, identify the category of your
project. Ask for advice (your teacher or Tr. Amina) if you are not sure.
Research Approach
Choose a subject that interest you, do the background research and write
down the references for your documentation. If your project is an experiment,
follow the steps of the scientific method to carry out your research:
The scientific method is a way to ask and answer scientific questions by
making observations and doing experiments. The steps of the scientific method
are to:
Fig1: the steps for
Scientific Method
- It is important for your experiment
to be a fair test. A "fair test" occurs when you change only one
factor (variable) and keep all other conditions the same.
The following
paragraph is adapted from: The elementary Science Fair Planning authored by
Lora Holt
Designing an experiment is really cool
because you get to use your imagination to come up with a test for your
problem, and most of all, you get to prove (or disprove) your Hypothesis. Remember
to take plenty of pictures as you go through these seven very simple steps.
First: Gather up your materials: What will you need
to perform your experiment? The safest way to
do this is get that adult you recruited to help you
get the stuff you need. Oh, did we mention to take pictures
or draw
pictures of your materials. This will come in handy when you are making your
board display.
Second: Write a PROCEDURE. A procedure is a list of steps
that you did to perform an experiment.
Why do you need to write it down? Well it’s like
giving someone a recipe to your favorite dish. If they
want to try it, they can follow your steps to test if
it’s true. Scientists do this so that people will believe that
they did the experiment and also to let other people
test what they found out. Did we mention to take
pictures of yourself doing the steps?
Third: Identify your variables. The variables are
any factors that can change in an experiment.
Remember that when you are testing your experiment you
should only test one variable at a time in
order to get accurate results. In other words, if you
want to test the affect that water has on plant growth,
then all the plants you test should be in the same
conditions, these are called controlled variables: same
type of dirt, same type of plant, same type of
location, same amount of sunlight, etc. The only variable
you would change from plant to plant would be the
amount of water it received. This is called the independent
or manipulated variable. The independent variable is the factor you are testing. The results
of the test that you do are called the dependent or
responding variables. The responding variable is
what happens as a result of your test. Knowing what
your variables are is very important because if you
don’t know them you won’t be able to collect your data
or read your results.
Fourth: TEST, TEST, TEST. Remember that the judges expect
your results to be consistent in order to
be a good experiment, in other words, when you cook
from a recipe you expect the outcomes to be the
same if you followed the directions (or procedure)
step by step. So that means you need to do the experiment
more than once in order to test it properly. We recommend
five times or more. More is better!
Don’t forget to take pictures of the science project
being done and the results.
Fifth: Collect your DATA. This means write down or record
the results of the experiment every time
you test it. Be sure you also need to organize it in a
way that it is easy to read the results. Most scientists
use tables, graphs and other organizers to show their
results. Organizing makes the results easy to read,
and much easier to recognize patterns that might be
occurring in your results. (Besides, it impresses the
judges when you use them.) But don’t make a graph or
table because we asked you to, use it to benefit
your
project and to help you make sense of the results. There is nothing worse than
having graphs and
tables that have nothing to do with
answering the question of a science project.
If
your project is an innovation, follow the steps of the Engineering Design
Process.
- The
engineering design process is the set of steps that a designer takes to go
from first, identifying a problem or need to, at the end, creating and
developing a solution that solves the problem or meets the need.
- The
steps of the engineering design process are as illustrated in the diagram
below:
The Engineering Design Process
Fig2: the steps for
the Engineering Process
During the engineering design process, designers frequently jump back
and forth between steps. Going back to earlier steps is common. This way of
working is called iteration, and it is likely
that your process will do the same!
Here is the fun part and don’t forget to take pictures, pictures and
more pictures!!!!
First: Define the problem: Look around you and define a
problem that you think you can find a good solution to it. Oh, did we mention to take pictures or
draw pictures of your materials. This will come in handy when you are making
your board display.
Second: Do your
research: A Guess what? The best places for that are your local/school library and
of course the Internet. An advice for you: write down the references of all the
articles /book you read or websites you visit. This will come handy for your
bibliography. Want to know how to write it?
Ask Teacher Nancy, she is the Book guru.
Third: Think about the model
you want to make: Sketch your idea of the
model, a sketch notebook would be a good buy at this point, make the
modification you want until you are satisfied. Make a nice drawing on a squared
paper and keep it for your display. This is your development work
Fourth: TEST, Modify, TEST,
Modify. Test your model and make the necessary changes until
it works the way you want it. Remember to keep track and write all the changes
you made as well as the different tests and write down the reason of the
adjustments. Did we say also to take pictures when you test your model? And
here is your prototype.
Fifth: Collect your DATA. This means write down or record the results of the step four. Now think
about how you can improve your prototype and make it better. Redesign your
prototype according to your results.
Display
Board
The general rule is to present the
hypothesis/ question/problem, background research and abstract on the left side
of the board facing you, the experiments, tests, pictures, results and graphs
in the center and on the right side you put the conclusion, application, future
direction and references. Project title: Should be readable from across the
room, well written, neat and catchy.
·
Abstract:
Should fit in one page and summarize your work (question/hypothesis, reference
to the materials and procedure, results, summary of your conclusion and short
summary of your future directions) without the details.
·
Materials:
numbered list of materials
·
Procedure:
numbered and well explained steps. The steps must be presented in chronological
order that another person can reproduce your experiment.
·
Conclusion:
Should explain the data and doesn’t have to confirm
the hypothesis. The best conclusion is open-ended and includes what can be done
next.
Your
display board should be well organized, neat and clear. Explain precisely and
clearly what you want to do, how you did it, what did you find and what did you
learn. Use the active voice (I measured, I added). Use the past tense to
explain the procedure and the results, and the present tense for conclusion.
Fig3: Display board
samples
Images copied from: www.sciencebuddies.org
(visited on January 31, 2014 @ 2:46 PM)
Science Fair Project Questions
1. What color of candle
burns the fastest?
2. What kind of paper can
float the longest?
3. What shape of clay
boat holds the most pennies before sinking?
4. What happens to
cookies when you leave out one ingredient?
5. Which kind of cola do
people really like the best? (blind taste test)
6. Which kind of
detergent washes the most stains out?
7. What liquids in my
house fizz when I add baking soda?
8. What cleans a penny?
9. How do different
amounts of baking soda affect cookies?
10. What food does my pet
like best?
11. How many seeds do
different types of fruit produce?
12. How do different style
pencils or grips affect writing fatigue?
13. What factors affect
seed germination?
14. What medium is best
for seeds to sprout?
15. What time of day does
a hamster go through a maze faster?
16. What type of food or
type of birdfeeder attracts the most birds?
17. How does smell affect
taste?
18. Is the heart rate of
different animals and people the same after exercise?
19. Which gun lasts the
longest?
20. What product works
best to stop stinky feet?
21. What temperature makes
bread mold grow faster?
22. How does egg
substitute (or sugar substitute) change recipes?
23. Which detergent is
best for removing stains?
24. What type of paper
makes the best paper airplane?
25. What is the best type
of cup to keep drinks hot? or cold?
26. Which type of
chocolate melts fastest under a hot light?
