Reflection on the Science Fair Project

Science fair projects are extremely popular in the elementary and middle school grades. I have heard of science fair projects before but I had never participated in one myself. I remember my elementary school hosting a science fair event but it was optional to students. My friends who participated in the science fair enjoyed the process of doing their experiments and learned a lot from the process. There are many things that you need to keep in mind when creating your science fair project. It is important when creating your science fair project that you know the scientific method and that you are using the process of inquiry. 

I discovered the penny experiment. I thought that this was an interesting experiment and I wanted to try it for myself. I also picked it because it flowed well with the scientific method and inquiry process that I was trying to keep in mind with. The question that I posed for my science fair project was, “which type of water will a penny hold more: soapy or regular water?” In this experiment, I needed to see how many drops of each kind of water could the penny hold. I would have to use a dropper so that I could drop one drop of water at a time while I count. My hypothesis was that the penny will hold more regular water than soapy water. The materials consisted of 2 pennies, regular water, soapy water, 2 droppers, paper towels, 2 beakers, petri dish, data table paper, and a pencil. I started off with performing the experiment first with regular water as I counted how many drops would fit on the penny. When the water would all spill over, I would record how many drops it took in the data chart. I then did the same but with soapy water. After collecting my data, I performed the experiment one more time so that my data would be accurate. I then analyzed my data and I came to the conclusion that the penny was able to hold more regular water than soapy water. I conducted research for my conclusion so that I could discover what it was that exactly hold the water together more compared to soapy water. Through my research, I discovered that regular water has a stronger bond of water molecules that hold together. With soapy water, the water molecules become more spread out and the bondage is weakened. This is why the soapy water was not able to hold on to the penny longer compared to regular water. My catchy title was, “It’s Raining Pennies!” I thought this would be an engaging title because dropping the water on the pennies reminded me of raindrops falling. This also inspired me to make my poster background water droplets and to put pennies along the border of the poster. I learned a lot about water molecules during this experiment. This new knowledge is helpful to know when it comes to science.

This project will thoroughly help students to learn more about water molecules when it comes to physical science. Science Fair projects in general will help students to expand their knowledge on science and students can learn more about different areas in science through the projects that their peers present. An online resource that teachers can use to discover more science fair project examples is from the “Science Fair Warm Up” article. It has many ideas for science fair projects if your students are struggling to come up with ideas. Science Fair projects are a great way for students to learn more about science and be engaged with it.