Science and Technology Fair

No doubt you will have heard about the Science Fair. It is a school wide event that has been happening at
Balmacewen Intermediate for a number of years now. It is a successful event and our students often make up the
majority of the award winners at the Otago Science & Technology Fair each year. We have also had a number of
overall winners during our years of entering.
WHO:
All Balmacewen Intermediate students will complete a Science & Technology Fair project in some form,
either as an individual or in a group.
WHEN
: Science Fair takes place over the course of term two. All students complete a project which is due into
nd
their classroom teacher for presentation by Monday 22
June.
From here all the projects will be exhibited in the hall and judged. The best entries will be taken to the Otago
Museum to be judged amongst the best in Otago at the Otago Science & Technology Fair.
WHERE: Students will carry out science investigations and learn how to put their projects together, create graphs
and learn procedural writing techniques in class. They will get some class time to work on their projects and the
rest will be made up of homework time for the term.
WHAT
IS A SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT? A Science Fair project can be an invention, investigation or experimental
research.
Below are some approximate dates. These may change slightly from class to class.
HOLIDAYS WEEK 1: It will start with a Big Question, idea or aim that the student wants to explore. For
example: How can I keep the fizz in my fizzy for longer? Why is the sea salty? How can I make myself safe
on my skateboard when coming to school in the mornings?
WEEKS 1 3: Students will need to research and gather background information around this big idea. They
will use this information to make a hypothesis or (in the case of an invention) come up with a prototype.
WEEKS 3 7: Students need to come up with a plan for how they are going to carry out their experiment,
invention or investigation. They need to remember to use a fair test, etc. (These things will be covered at
school.) Students carry this plan out over the next few weeks, keep a record in their log book and take
photos of the process along the way.
WEEK 8:
Students put together their results using graphs, etc.
WEEKS 8 9:
Students then summarise their results, making reference to their hypothesis.
The most important parts of their project are then summarised and get presented on a display board
(pictures of these will be on class blogs in the coming weeks).
The display boards will be available from the
school library for a cost of around $10. The rest of the information goes into a log book/clearfile which will
be kept with the display board for judges to reference.
We will have a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas in class and there will be notices coming out with
additional information. I hope this summary of information is useful. If you have further questions please see
your childs classroom teacher.
GOOD LUCK,
Balmacewen Intermediate teaching staff