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Written by Deb Dommel
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Page 3 of 14
Step 2 - Background Research You must understand your topic to design your experiment, and to be able to present it to the judges. Your science fair paper will include a section titled background research.
When searching the internet - be sure to get information from reliable sources. Personal blogs are not as reliable as scientific or educational websites. Please verify Wikipedia info from another source.
- Begin with the articles and information you have already researched and take notes.
- Notes should be brief and to the point
- Do not use complete sentences on note cards
- Use the author's ideas, not his words
- Make bibliography cards for each resource.
- Include notes on:
- i. Background information on the topic
- ii. Experiments that have been done in the past
- iii. Results of past experiments
- iv. Scientific or consumer significance of this topic (Judges look for this.)
- Arrange notes in order. They should be sequenced so that they make sense to the reader. Use the order listed above.
- Write the first draft of your background research.
- Use interesting and vivid vocabulary
- Vary sentence beginnings and length
- Use complete sentences with capital letters and punctuation
- Revise your paper. Read revised draft aloud to find mistakes. Check spelling.
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