February 19th, 2020

Please see the following Science Fair email, shared earlier this evening:

Christina Gordon students and families:

As you all know, the Christina Gordon Public School will soon be hosting their classroom and our school-wide Science Fairs. Classroom Science Fairs will be held from March 2-4th (speak to your classroom teacher) and the school-wide Science Fair will be held on March 6th. We are so excited about the judging panel for our school-wide Science Fair this year. We have 17 judges from a wide variety of community partnerships that will be joining us, including: the RCMP, Mix 103.7, Suncor, Enbridge, Alberta Health Services, Girls Inc., Alberta Agriculture and Forestry, our local Legion, and much more! 

So, we hope you are all as excited about Science Fair as we are! However, what happens if you run into a problem with your Science Fair project? What can you do? Remember, when you start a Science Fair project the goal isn't simply to prove your hypothesis. It is to craft a scientific question and hypothesis and to test it by designing an experiment or hands-on project. Using your prior knowledge and background research into your topic, you might have an idea of what may happen or what to expect - what will happen to the dependent variable when you make a change to the independent variable. Still, sometimes science projects don't go the way that you anticipate. It could be a problem with the experimental setup, your procedure, or even that your hypothesis simply was incorrect, and that's okay! If we already knew all the answers, the project wouldn't have been necessary to begin with! 

It can be confusing and stressful to complete a science project or experiment and realize that things didn't turn out the way that you expected. However, sometimes this makes for an even stronger project at the end of the day. Begin by carefully assessing your project to see if you can identify a problem in the design or execution. First, try to determine whether something went wrong with the experiment or whether the hypothesis was actually proven to be incorrect (rather than correct as you had expected). Take time to:
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1. Review the materials - make sure the materials you used were correct, that none of the materials had expired, and that you used the correct quantity of each material. Double check your measurements.
2. Review the steps of the procedure - make sure you didn't leave any steps out and did each step completely and as described.
3. Review your variables - look at what your variables are and how you were going to change the independent variable. Did you change it as planned? Review the steps you took. Did you change anything else that may have created this unexpected result? 
4. Review your data - make sure that in analyzing your data, you didn't accidentally create an error. Double check all of your calculations.
5. Consider the source of the project - if you found your project somewhere online, it is possible that the project simply won't work as written. If the project is of your own design, it may be that there is a flaw in the experimental design, something that you overlooked or something that you didn't anticipate. Do your best to try and identify what when wrong.

For many students, once you have reason to believe there was a problem (an error in the experiment or in the materials), attempting to redo the experiment is their first instinct. However, with Science Fair so close, what if you simply don't have enough time to redo the project? Or, what if you were unable to pinpoint the problem with the project. That's okay! The data you gathered during your project is still valid, even if the project didn't turn out the way you expected. To complete your project, you need to report on the data you gathered and what you observed. If something unexpected happened, note that the data did not support you hypothesis and in your conclusion try to identify why things didn't turn out the way you expected. Share with your teacher or the judges what new questions you have and more importantly, what you learned. Remember, in the end you can learn a lot from a science project even if it didn't turn out the way you thought it would!

Trying to troubleshoot a project during the break? You can always "Ask an Expert" on one of the online forums at Science Buddies. This website is also a great place to visit if you still need help finalizing your topic, planning your experiment, or working on your logbooks. Need help with your presentation? Attached is an example of how you can set up a trifold board. You can also watch this "Judging 101" and "Presenting the Results" videos from Youth Science Canada to get some ideas on how to speak to guests and judges at a Science Fair. 

Again, we are so excited to see what our amazing CG Cougars have planned for Science Fair this year! Let us know if you have questions or concerns,

- Ms. Barrington and Ms. Proudfoot 

Agenda
- Jr. Tech: Mondays, 3:15-4:15 pm
- Sr. Choir: Tuesdays, 3:15-4:15 pm
- Sign Language Club: Wednesdays, 3:15-4:15 pm
- Hot Lunch Program: Tuesdays, Thursdays
- Fri-Yay Popcorn Day: February 21st ($2/bag)
- February Book Orders: due February 21st
- Teacher's Convention Break: February 24-28th (No School)
- Classroom Science Fair: March 3rd
- School Science Fair: March 6th
- ECDP Open House: March 5-6th
- Three-Way Conferences: March 11-12th (book online)
- Kindergarten Open House: March 19-20th
- Term 2 Report Cards: March 26th