This document provides definitions for key vocabulary terms related to science fair projects, including: topic, purpose, hypothesis, research, procedure, materials, experiment, constant, variable, data, results, and conclusion. It defines each term and provides links to additional informational websites for some terms. It also emphasizes the importance of keeping constants the same throughout an experiment in order to properly test the variable being studied.

1. Science Fair Vocabulary topic purpose hypothesis research procedure materials experiment constant variable data results conclusion

2. topic – the subject you study for your project. This should be stated as a question that you must experiment to answer. Click on pictures for links to informational websites.

3. Purpose/problem – the reason for doing your experiment Click on picture for link to informational website.

4. hypothesis – the educated guess you make about the outcome of your experiment

5. research – gathering information from internet resources, encyclopedias, and non-fiction books

6. procedure – the step-by-step instructions for how you carried out your experiment

7. materials – the things you need to perform your experiment, along with the amounts of each item. You must measure!

8. experiment – the test you do to find out or prove something. Click on pictures for links to informational websites.

9. constant – the things that stay the same throughout your entire experiment It’s really important in a science experiment to be precise. Think about the things you need to control to get the best information from your experiment. Keep thinks like amount of light, temperature, amount you touch or handle your experiment the same. Only change one thing between your tests – the thing you want to test. That’s a controlled variable. Constants, however, stay the same.

10. variable – the part of your experiment that you will change, the thing you will test is your variable. Click on picture for link to informational website.

11. data – information recorded during the experiment, including measurements, photos, journal entries, etc. Click on picture for link to informational website.

12. results – everything that happened in your experiment (your data!)

13. conclusion – a paragraph that summarizes your results and tells if your hypothesis was supported 