Science Strikes Back

Project Outline and Components

Science Strikes Back Website Link

Contents (links below):

• Overview
• Goals of Science Strikes Back
• STEAM! Categories
• Example Research Questions
• Judging Rubric
• Project Format Example
• Finished Project Examples
• Getting Started
• Key Sections of Your Project
• Template Slides

Science Strikes Back

Overview

Science Strikes Back

Science Strikes Back aims to..

• Encourage people to critically analyze environmental issues and solve problems in their communities.
• Develop collaborative relationships between students, educators, and content specialists from locally-based organizations.
• Produce a strong network for continued environmental education and natural resource stewardship

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Pick your STEAM! Category!

SCIENCE

SCIENCE OF HEALTH

Asking questions and constructing explanations (for science)

TECHNOLOGY

USE THE RIGHT TOOL

Engaging in argument from evidence; Planning and carrying out investigations

ENGINEERING

SCIENCE-BASED DESIGN

Defining problems (for engineering) and designing solutions (for engineering)

ART

SCIENCE IS BEAUTIFUL

Developing and using models; patterns

MATH

DRIVEN BY DATA

Analyzing and interpreting data; Using mathematics and computational thinking

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WEIRD SCIENCE

Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information; Systems and system models

STEAM! Examples of Research Questions

SCIENCE

How do different soil conditions affect vegetable growth?

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How do different environmental conditions affect mold growth?

TECHNOLOGY

How does using a compost monitor affect composting efficiency?

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How do mobile apps influence sustainability practices in our community?

ENGINEERING

How does a homemade water filter affect water clarity and odor?

Which designs are most effective at traffic calming to reduce reckless driving in our neighborhood?

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ART

How can waste materials be repurposed to create sustainable fashion?

How do different creative techniques transform recycled items into new material?

MATH

How can data be used to report pick-up needs of public trash cans?

How much water is used if you don’t turn the faucet off when brushing your teeth?

! WEIRD

What vegetables or plants produce the most colorful dye for fabric?

What’s the impact of a weekend with no cell phone on classmates?

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The Rubric...

• Collaboration
• Worked as a Team
• sought and incorporated unique perspectives and diverse voices
• Quality
• All team members understand project and process
• Project is well done and easy to understand
• project includes independent and dependent variable

• Voice
• Innovative ideas and methods
• Everyone on the team helped shape the project
• Meaningful
• Team members learned something from the project and process
• Excitement for the relevance of the project
• Project has the potential to impact their community

Click here for: Examples of past projects

Okay - How do I get started?

1. Think about topics you’d like to learn more about, or problems you’d like to solve using science! What will make this experience meaningful to you and your community!?
2. Find your team. Other people who care about the same thing, or experts who can help you learn more about your topic!
3. Decide as a team what exactly you will explore and develop for an experiment.
4. Officially register and enter your team on the website
5. Run your experiment(s)!
6. Display your project - it could be a tri-fold board, a video, an experience - get creative!
7. Present your experiment at Escuela Verde on Friday, March 13th from 5:00 - 7:30 pm.

Find your Team

• Ideal team size is 3 (But, it could be 1 – 5 team members)

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• Consider a member from a community organization to help you.

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• Maybe it’s a fellow classmate or school friend.

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• Think about what roles each teammate will have for the project.

Refining Your Idea - Research cool projects and ideas that interest you!

• Check out Science Buddies
• This site even has a Topic Selection Wizard tool!

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• Ask yourself what interests you and your team?

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• Also ask what project CAN you do within the time that you have?

Decide what you are doing and what you plan to experiment.

Things to consider:

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• Why does this experiment matter? Why is it relevant to you?
• What type of science credit do you need?
• Will you have enough time to complete this AND present on March 13th?
• Does this have your own twist, or is it just something you are copying?
• Will it be memorable to the judges?

Key Sections to Your Project

• Title - Name of your project
• Abstract - Project summary
• Research Question
• After choosing a topic of interest, what question are you trying to find the answer or answers to?
• Hypothesis - A prediction based on prior knowledge, logic, or observation
• Write down a guess what you think the answer to your question will be before you start your experiment.

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• Background Research & Experiment(s)
• Research information to learn everything you need to know to help you answer your question.
• Create a step-by-step experiment to test your hypothesis.
• Running your experiment:
• Change the independent variable to see how it affects the results of the dependent variable. A key to good experiments is changing only one thing, the independent variable, at a time.
• Test whether your hypothesis is correct. This way, you can analyze your results and know what caused any changes in the outcome.
• Carefully controlling your experiments is an important part of the scientific method.

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Key Sections to Your Project

• Independent Variable (cause):
• What specifically will you change?

Examples include changing how much of something you use, how often it happens, or how long it lasts.

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• Dependent Variable (effect):
• What do you think will change because of your actions?

Examples include what happens as a result of the change, the temperature measured, the growth observed, or the amount produced.

Example

Key Sections to Your Project

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• Results
• What happened during your experiment(s)? How are you recording your results? Video? Photos? Journal?
• What are you recording for results? What will you be talking about?
• Did you hear something? Smell? Taste? See changes? Feel changes?

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• Implications
• After running all the tests you can think of, you analyze your data. If you find that the results do not fit with your original hypothesis, that is okay. Explain why your results did or did not prove your hypothesis correct.

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• Future Directions
• What would you do differently for next time if doing the same experiment again or if someone else did the same?
• What else would you want to research that is connected to your project?

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Template Slides

Project Title:

Abstract:

Project Question:

Hypothesis:

Variables

Independent:

Dependent:

Background Research:

Project/Experiment Materials:

Experiment Methods:

Results:

Implications and Conclusions:

Future Research: