Mentoring program for school science fair projects

In addition to the IRIS Science fairs, Google has an ‘Global Science Fair’ that is worth considering. Google’s competition is open to students in the age group 13-18 years. It also has a very good checklist of ingredients that make up a good science project for any such project. These are copied below from the Google website.

As usual, if anyone is interested, we will be very happy to talk about the proposed project plan, and offer any help possible.

1. About me / the team
   An excellent student will show a real passion for science and be able to present their ideas with confidence, clarity and enthusiasm, and explain what winning would mean to them.
2. The question
   An excellent question will be interesting, creative, worded scientifically and relevant to the world today.
3. Hypothesis
   An excellent hypothesis will lead on from the question, be tightly focused and build on existing knowledge.
4. Research and Works cited
   Excellent students will undertake research to help them shape their question and hypothesis and to put their work into a relevant, real-world context.
5. Experiment
   Excellent students will demonstrate that they have used good experimental techniques and describe their experiment clearly and in detail.
6. Data
   Excellent data will be relevant, sufficient to support a conclusion and should be recorded accurately and precisely, and be presented clearly.
7. Observations
   Excellent observations will describe patterns or trends supported by the data.
8. Conclusion
   An excellent conclusion will explain how the experiment answers the question or why it fails to do so and whether or not it supports the hypothesis.
9. Bibliography, References and Acknowledgements
   Excellent students will acknowledge and provide clear references for sources of information that they have consulted and/or referenced and acknowledge any assistance received (e.g. to find equipment and materials, to stay safe or to use unfamiliar equipment or techniques).

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A list of ideas for potential projects in various areas has been put up at HERE. Please take a look, and think about how you would prepare a detailed plan for one or two that interest you. On Sunday, approach one of us after the talk on Sunday by Arindam, and we will discuss how to prepare a plan (or discuss your plan if you have one).

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At the third mentoring session, after Magesh’s talk on chemistry in food, Anuja Bagul, a former National-level awardee (for her project on nanotechnology) who is now a third-year engineering student, spoke of her experience.

She encouraged the students to approach scientists and discuss their ideas. She had talked to over 100 scientists and professionals!

An updated version of the mentoring presentation was discussed:slides are available HERE.

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The first information session was held following the popular talk on climate change by Guru. The general structure of the project, and the differences between data-collation projects and ones with unknown outcomes were discussed. The second type (a project where the answer is unknown) is the type relevant to such science fairs. The presentation is available here. In short, you need either a new idea and an experiment to test whether it is true, or a novel implementation of an existing idea.

In the next session, we will try to discuss the process of evaluating ideas for applicability (for instance an experiment that involves trees growing is unlikely to be over by the the science fair deadline date!

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