CONTENTS
[SCIENCE PROJECTS, EXHIBITS, AND FAIRS] 1 [Science Projects] 1 [Project Exhibits] 2 [Science Fairs] 2 [YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT] 4 [Choosing the Topic] 4 [Where to Get Help] 8 [Documenting Your Work] 9 [EXHIBITING YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT] 11 [Planning the Content of Your Exhibit] 11 [How Exhibits Are Judged] 12 [Designing Your Exhibit] 16 [About Color] 25 [Completing Your Exhibit] 27 [COMPETITION AND ITS REWARDS] 30 [QUO VADIS?] 34 [APPENDIX I—NUCLEAR SCIENCE PROJECT IDEAS] 37 [APPENDIX II—NUCLEAR ENERGY-RELATED INVESTIGATIONS AND APPLICATIONS] 47 [APPENDIX III—SUGGESTED REFERENCES] 48 [APPENDIX IV—WORKING WITH RADIATION AND RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS] 50 [APPENDIX V—SUPPLIERS OF RADIOISOTOPES] 51 [APPENDIX VI—INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR RULES] 52
United States Atomic Energy Commission
Division of Technical Information
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-65589
1968
Interviews help AEC Special Awards judges identify the most outstanding nuclear-related exhibits entered in each National Science Fair-International. Here, Elizabeth Winstead of Jacksonville, Florida, explains her irradiated fruit flies to Dr. Paul W. McDaniel, AEC Director of Research and a Special Awards judge at the 1963 national fair, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Selected as one of the 10 winners, Miss Winstead and her science teacher spent a week at the Commission’s Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.
ROBERT G. LeCOMPTE majored in English (A. B., St. Benedict’s, 1935) and has worked primarily as a communicator—reporter, house-organ editor and photographer, military-information officer and instructor, public-relations consultant, and information and exhibits specialist. He joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s staff at Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1951, transferring in 1957 to the AEC’s Headquarters, where he is Exhibits and Education Officer in the Division of Technical Information. His concern with science stems from aviation writing, World War II service as an Air Force pilot and technical-intelligence officer, science-news reporting, and requirements for presenting AEC scientific-technical developments to the lay public. He has been involved in science fair activities since 1960, when he began the study which led to establishment of AEC Special Awards for outstanding nuclear-related exhibits at the National Science Fair-International.
BURRELL L. WOOD is a chemist (A.B. in French and B.S. in Chemistry, Presbyterian College, 1940; M.S. in Chemistry, University of Georgia, 1942; Ph. D. in Chemistry, University of North Carolina, 1952). In 1953, while head of the Chemistry Department at Furman University, Dr. Wood organized a statewide science fair program in South Carolina. He moved to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1957, and expanded that state’s program by organizing four regional science fairs. He joined the staff of Science Service in 1960 and edited Chemistry magazine and “Things of Science” experimental kits. In 1961 he joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s Headquarters staff and is now Exhibit Coordinator in the Division of Special Projects. He served at the National Science Fair-International in 1962 and 1963 as a judge of nuclear-related exhibits considered for AEC Special Awards.
Atoms at the Science Fair
Exhibiting Nuclear Projects
by ROBERT G. LeCOMPTE and BURRELL L. WOOD