- The first step in designing a scientific project is to form a hypothesis or research into possibly already-solved hypotheses which may be of interest in your class. An excellent place to find ideas for your scientific project is your textbook as it outlines detailed information about several scientific topics that you should already be familiar with. Though it is possible to propose your own original hypothesis for research and projection in the class, it would be considered ill-advised to attempt original research in a primary or secondary class as this is far beyond the purposes of a scientific project in these years of study.
- After you have chosen a topic to center your scientific project around it is time to come up with a method to present the scientific ideas within the project's topic. The general idea behind the method is to briefly reiterate your hypothesis and detail the methods you plan to use on either proving or disproving what you believe will happen. If this is already established law of science, your method will be mainly focused around how you intend to prove and demonstrate the topic in question. It is crucial to understand that your method should be free of credibility issues.
- After you have outlined your method it is time to create the circumstances set forth in your method to prove or disprove your hypotheses. For example, if your scientific project was to determine the reactivity between vinegar and baking soda, you could create a diorama of a volcano and place the two substances within that to creatively show how acids and bases interact. The second part is to perform a detailed data analysis comparison of the processes that occur during the presentation. Take notes of materials used, expected versus actual results from the experiment, and a detailed explanation as to why the mechanism worked the way it did.
