PICKING A TOPIC
All projects fall under one of two main categories: Discovery and Innovation.
Discovery projects involve the investigation of a scientific question or hypothesis through experimentation and analysis. These projects follow the scientific method to explore the natural world and expand our understanding.
Innovation projects focus on developing new technologies, products, or approaches to solve real-world problems. These projects demonstrate creativity, engineering principles, and practical application.
Within Discovery and Innovation, projects will be sorted into nine challenge areas:
- Aerospace: Projects that help advance atmospheric or space science, aviation or aerospace technologies, or enable humans to explore and live in space, on the Moon, or beyond.
- Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food: Projects that help ensure food security, sustainability or competitiveness in agriculture, fisheries or food production.
- Curiosity and Ingenuity: Projects that help improve our understanding or address a problem in an area of STEM not covered by the other challenges.
- Environment and Climate Change: Projects that help ensure the quality of water, air, soil or the diversity of living things, or manage the impact of climate change.
- Health and Wellness: Projects that help prevent disease or promote physical, social, emotional, spiritual, environmental, occupational, or intellectual wellbeing.
- Natural Resources: Projects that help ensure the sustainable management, use, reuse or recycling of Earth’s finite or renewable natural resources.
- Digital Technology: Projects that help improve our quality of life or transform existing products and services through digital devices, methods or systems.
- Disease and Illness: Projects that help enhance our diagnosis, treatment or understanding of disease, or the management of physical or mental illness.
- Energy: Projects that help improve our use of current energy sources, enable the transition to alternative energy sources, or reduce our energy footprint.
PREPARING FOR THE FAIR
When brainstorming topics, experiments, materials, and other components of your project, please reference the Youth Science Canada website for an in-depth and detailed list of rules: www.youthscience.public.doctract.com. If you are ever unsure, please feel free to contact the science fair planning committee. We would be happy to answer any of your questions.
MAKING A DISPLAY
A display can consist of backboards, title boards, presentations, and prop material. The entire display should not exceed a maximum space of 1.2 m wide, 0.75 m deep, and 3.5m high.
Science board: highlights all the key components of your project – meaning a summary of all the main parts of the scientific process. A science board can be made up of words, pictures, graphs, etc. You will also need to provide the following documentation.
Journal: a detailed account of your experimental process, thoughts and observations.
Written report: A complete Project Report usually includes the following subtitles and sections. Depending on the level of the project this may not require all the components. Some variation is allowed for innovation/study projects that do not follow an experimental protocol.
- Background: How your project came to be.
- Purpose: Why your project was conducted and what you hoped to achieve.
- Hypothesis: Your proposition to be tested, if applicable.
- Procedure: A brief outline of the materials and methods used.
- Results/Observations: A summary of the results of your experiment, innovation or study.
- Conclusions: What can be concluded from your results and why it is important.
- Acknowledgements: Recognition of those individuals, institutions and businesses that provided significant assistance. References: Detailed references are mandatory for any specific literature referred to in the text of the report.
Items not permitted to be part of the display: Glass, breakable (e.g. porcelain), dangerous noxious, chemical, living, or explosive materials. No powder, sand/grit, or liquid will be permitted.