website templates

4. Presentation

Take your project and get it ready to show others
Senior Projects - Presentation Safety - Junior Projects

Senior Projects

These are usually presented on a large A1 poster (wall mount)  or built up on a large freestanding project board. Whichever you prefer.

►Try starting with our PowerPoint template.
►If you wish to set up the poster yourself, set Page Set Up to the actual finished size of your poster.
►Do not take your text and images out to the edge. Leave a 20-30mm margin.
►Use approximately 32pt font for your main body text. 
►When sending your file away I suggest you ask that the file be trimmed to the background colour with no white edge around it. 
►For all poster text, use a Sans Serif (plain) font like Arial or Verdana. "Sans" means "without." And avoid serif fonts like Times Roman.
► Get it printed at a full colour print shop, eg. Warehousestationary 
A1 160gsm $18.50; A1 DuraPrint $25.50 (as of 24/4/2018)

Presentation Safety

Or, "why having full containers of acid attached to your project board is a bad idea."

  1. ANIMALS - The use of animals and humans in exhibits may need approval from the Ethics Committee. If you require approval you must apply for this before you start your experiment (See Ethics Booklet for full details). If required, the approval evidence must then be attached to the project board. 
  2. BACTERIA - Projects must not include fungi or bacterial culture plates as part of the exhibit. Photos must be used. Any exhibit, which is, in the opinion of the Chief Judge, unsafe, will be rejected.
  3. CHEMICALS -  Chemicals that may spontaneously combust, explode or emit toxic fumes are prohibited unless permitted by the organising committee. Ask your Science Fair Teacher to discuss this with the committee. Examples would be hydrogen production by electrolysis or photobiological water splitting where the amount of hydrogen produced on site could become dangerous. 
  4. RADIATION - Equipment that produces electromagnetic emissions must comply with accepted safety standards and laws.
  5. MAINS POWER - Any exhibit using mains power for any purpose other than powering ordinary commercial devices must use an isolating transformer or RCD. Any exhibit using or producing voltages in excess of 50 V AC or DC must be enclosed to prevent intrusion (especially by fingers) which might lead to electric shock, and should be checked safe by a person appropriately qualified to do so.
  6. TRANSPORTABLE - All exhibits must be transportable with moving parts firmly attached and safe. All projects will be inspected before they are placed on display on the Set-Up Day. It is the exhibitor’s responsibility to ensure this check is made and they receive an Acceptance Sticker and it is attached to the Safety & Certification Form. If any of the above requirements are not met, or if the exhibit is not checked on Set-Up Day then the exhibit will not be considered for judging.
  7. LIQUIDS - Photos are better than having spills in the presentation hall. Open containers of liquids are not ok. 

Junior Projects

These are presented on large display boards.
One board per project.

Use the stardard size Science Board.
This is just less than 1m high and 1.2m wide (while flat).
Boards are available from either your teacher or any good stationary store. Here is an example.
The title board across the top holds everything in place. Look for the slots that it goes into on the main board. Note, the boards come in a variety of colours, fold it so that the colour is on the project side.
Boards can be ordered for about $8.25 +gst from David Parkinson, DPM Marketing Limited, Ph 0800-536000 or dpmintl at gmail. We highly recommend this option.

Mobirise

Example Layout

This is one of the winners from 2017.
"I Suck" - Self esteem levels in students and related factors.

Title

Top middle on the title board. Clear enough to be read across the room. Memorable.

Intro and Method

Left side of board. Can method be understood by an 8 year old? What kind of diagrams or data can be shown that makes it clearer than just having small text?

Mobirise

Results

Center place on board. Lots of graphs showing data and relationships between data. Raw result data is usually in the log book, while processed data for graphs goes on the board.

Discussion

Right side of board. Lots of pictures actually from project and clear flow as to where to read. Safety form attached to rear of project.

Putting it All Together

Communicating and Reporting 

A number of skills are needed to produce a good presentation. You need to be able to:

►Write text and symbols - convey concepts clearly

►Draw diagrams - to clarify the text. "A picture is worth a thousand words."

►Tabulate data - Everyone makes observations. Scientists write them down. Past students have sometimes collected thousands of pieces of data for just one project that they stored in tables and converted to graphs.

►Identify sources - Show where information came from in a Bibliography. 

►Speak - You need to be confident about your project and practised at answering questions about it. Get friends and family to help run practise interviews, it really helps!

What Should You Have On Your Science Project?

  • Title: Make it big, bold and interesting.
  • Introduction: State the problem to be investigated and why you chose it.
  • Aim: State your aim clearly, eg. to find out how 
  • Hypothesis: Write what you expect the results to be.
  • Method: Explain what you did. Use diagrams and include photos if appropriate Include equipment or models if possible.
  • Results: Provide graphs of data if appropriate. Make these clear, accurate and visually appealing. Tables of numbers are important but may be best placed in your log book.
  • Conclusion: This answers the aim. Record what your results have shown. State if they agree with your aim.
  • Discussion: Suggest what your results mean? Do more questions need to be asked that could lead to further investigation? Were there any errors that may have affected your results?
  • Safety & Certification Form: Fill it out correctly and attach it to the back of your project
  • Log Book: You must include a log book which records everything you do on the project.
  • Appendix: Any additional and useful information
  • Bibliography and Acknowledgements: Include a bibliography of all texts and online resources. Include written acknowledgement of all people and organisations who have helped you. This may go in your log book.

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