Choosing the Topic
Since you will necessarily spend considerable thought, time, physical effort, and (sometimes) money on your project, pick a topic from which you can expect to learn something. If you can avoid the temptation to pick one with which you are already familiar, you will probably get more out of it. Your project should be an adventure, not merely a drill!
On the other hand your science project need not be in utterly unexplored areas; to be successful you need not come up with data and conclusions which will confound professional scientists who have spent their lives in similar work. You are a student and a hobbyist, not yet a professional research scientist. Primarily your project should advance your personal knowledge, and your abilities to observe, speculate, hypothesize, experiment, deduce, and conclude.
You should choose a project which you can expect to follow to a successful conclusion, but which is enough above your current knowledge to make you “stretch” your abilities.
But it is important not to bite off more than you can chew. The project should not demand so much time that you neglect other responsibilities. However, you need not pass up an interesting topic because covering all of it would consume too much time. Instead, zero in on just those aspects which interest you most.
Sophomore Eileen O’Brien of New Dorp High School, Staten Island, New York, displayed this nuclear-related exhibit at the 13th NSFI at Seattle in 1962, but did not win any AEC recognition.
At the 14th NSFI at Albuquerque in 1963, junior Eileen O’Brien returned with a new and better exhibit of a related but more advanced project...
... and found herself an AEC Special Awards winner invited, with her science teacher, to spend a week at Argonne National Laboratory.
At the 15th NSFI at Baltimore in 1964, senior Eileen O’Brien qualified again as an AEC Special Awards winner by exhibiting a more advanced project, but one still related to her earlier ones. Courtesy Science Service
You may be able to select a project which will be of continuing interest in later years. For example, a 9th-grade general-science student might begin by making an overall survey of a topic to discover what is already known about it and what remains to be discovered. As a 10th-grade biology student, he might investigate biological aspects of his topic, and then follow with investigations of chemical and physical aspects of it while studying 11th grade chemistry and 12th grade physics. Some outstanding science fair exhibits have resulted from such progressive development of a single project which the exhibitors undertook first in junior high school.
Whenever you ask a question about some aspect of nature you have a possible project topic. “How does a chicken hatch?” “What is the best way to treat a burn?” “How could nuclear energy be used in space travel?” You need only examine the questions that occur to you every day to find dozens of topics on which to base projects.
You might identify promising topics by reviewing the table of contents in your science text, noting chapters or topics of particular interest. Or you may find it helpful to consult the references listed in the appendix to this booklet. If you are interested in a project related to atomic energy, the appendix lists also many nuclear topics and research areas.
It is probably wise to select several potential project topics, do a little reading on each of them, and then pick one. Before reaching a decision, discuss them with your teachers and parents. Your science teacher can help you pick a topic that will relate closely to classroom work, and may be able to suggest interesting approaches you haven’t considered. By talking your project topic over with your parents and advisers you can make sure that you will have the time, working space, moral support, and financial resources needed to complete it successfully.
After failing as sophomores to qualify for AEC Special Awards at Seattle, both these Texans came back as juniors to win at Albuquerque with better exhibits of similar, but more refined projects. James L. Ash (below) is from Dallas, and Michael A. Haralson (above) is from Abilene.
At the outset, the exhibit possibilities of your chosen project may not be clearly apparent. You cannot predict exactly what procedures you will follow nor what conclusions you will draw. As you proceed, you will probably uncover many facts which you will want to tell people about. If you choose a good topic, work carefully and accurately, and cover the topic fully, you will produce a successful project which can form the basis for a good exhibit.