Science Fair Success Secrets

Complete with science jokes, amusing illustrations, and twenty prizewinning projects from national competitions, a science fair book offers helpful tips and practical advice for developing and presenting a successful project.

Grade 5-8-Students who are apprehensive about doing a science-fair project will find this book friendly and accessible. Those unfamiliar with the scientific method will also find clear and cogent explanations here. Emphasis is placed on thinking like a scientist, using one's natural curiosity about the world, and creating good scientific inquiry. The text is light, informative, and engaging. After introductory chapters about conceiving projects, conducting experiments and observations, note taking, write up, and displays, a number of sample projects that have won regional or state awards are presented. Several more advanced projects are included "so you can see that high school projects are not that different from the ones done in grade school." A concluding list of 101 titles of award winners should give readers some ideas for projects of their own. Pen-and-ink cartoons are clear and echo the tone of the book. Boxed information about where ideas came from and some "stupid science questions" add accessibility to this lively book.
Kathryn Kosiorek, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Brooklyn, OH
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 5-8. In this lively book, Haduch offers an excellent introduction to science fairs. After noting that a well-designed project gives the student a taste of actually doing science, he explains what the scientific method means in practical terms that will be useful to middle-schoolers. In other words, he doesn't start off by discussing the concept of a hypothesis; rather, he encourages a process of curious inquiry leading to questions that can be usefully addressed by a science fair experiment. In the largest section of the book, "Real Projects That Rocked the World," 20 award-winning science experiments are clearly presented in terms of the genesis of the ideas, the questions addressed, hypotheses, procedures, and "real world" implications. The book ends with a list of 101 award-winning project ideas, a bibliography, and metric conversion tables. The often jaunty tone of the text and the cartoon-style drawings make this an unusually appealing book on the topic, while the respect for science and the solid presentation make it a highly useful book as well. Carolyn Phelan
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