Atoms at the Science Fair: Exhibiting Nuclear Projects — Reading Notes

Atoms at the Science Fair EXHIBITING NUCLEAR PROJECTS

U.S. ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISSION/Division of Technical Information

Each year more students undertake science fair projects, many of which involve some aspect of nuclear science or technology.

The United States Atomic Energy Commission has prepared this booklet to help these young exhibitors, their science teachers, project counselors, and parents.

The booklet suggests also some of the numerous nuclear topics on which students can base meaningful science projects. It offers all exhibitors—regardless of age, experience, or project topic—advice on how to plan, design, and construct successful exhibits. It describes some rewards awaiting those who win their way to the National Science Fair-International, including 10 AEC Special Awards offered for the most outstanding nuclear exhibits.

Detailed advice on conducting science projects is omitted, partly because several earlier publications deal with the subject, but also because much of the personal satisfaction gained while doing a science project stems from the student investigator’s opportunity to exercise his initiative, imagination, and judgment in solving a problem of his own choice, in his own way.

We trust this booklet will encourage students to enter science fair competition, and hope it will help their advisers guide them toward better projects and more successful exhibits.

{Edward J. Brunenkant} Edward J. Brunenkant, Director Division of Technical Information

Atoms at the Science Fair Exhibiting Nuclear Projects

by Robert G. LeCompte and Burrell L. Wood

SCIENCE PROJECTS, EXHIBITS, AND FAIRS 1 Science Projects 1 Project Exhibits 2 Science Fairs 2 YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT 4 Choosing the Topic 4 Where to Get Help 8 Documenting Your Work 9 EXHIBITING YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT 11 Planning the Content of Your Exhibit 11 How Exhibits Are Judged 12 Designing Your Exhibit 16 About Color 25 Completing Your Exhibit 27 COMPETITION AND ITS REWARDS 30 QUO VADIS? 34 APPENDIX I—NUCLEAR SCIENCE PROJECT IDEAS 37 APPENDIX II—NUCLEAR ENERGY-RELATED INVESTIGATIONS AND APPLICATIONS 47 APPENDIX III—SUGGESTED REFERENCES 48 APPENDIX IV—WORKING WITH RADIATION AND RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS 50 APPENDIX V—SUPPLIERS OF RADIOISOTOPES 51 APPENDIX VI—INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR RULES 52

United States Atomic Energy Commission Division of Technical Information

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-65589 1968

ROBERT G. LeCOMPTE majored in English (A. B., St. Benedict’s, 1935) and has worked primarily as a communicator—reporter, house-organ editor and photographer, military-information officer and instructor, public-relations consultant, and information and exhibits specialist. He joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s staff at Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1951, transferring in 1957 to the AEC’s Headquarters, where he is Exhibits and Education Officer in the Division of Technical Information. His concern with science stems from aviation writing, World War II service as an Air Force pilot and technical-intelligence officer, science-news reporting, and requirements for presenting AEC scientific-technical developments to the lay public. He has been involved in science fair activities since 1960, when he began the study which led to establishment of AEC Special Awards for outstanding nuclear-related exhibits at the National Science Fair-International.

BURRELL L. WOOD is a chemist (A.B. in French and B.S. in Chemistry, Presbyterian College, 1940; M.S. in Chemistry, University of Georgia, 1942; Ph. D. in Chemistry, University of North Carolina, 1952). In 1953, while head of the Chemistry Department at Furman University, Dr. Wood organized a statewide science fair program in South Carolina. He moved to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1957, and expanded that state’s program by organizing four regional science fairs. He joined the staff of Science Service in 1960 and edited _Chemistry_ magazine and “Things of Science” experimental kits. In 1961 he joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s Headquarters staff and is now Exhibit Coordinator in the Division of Special Projects. He served at the National Science Fair-International in 1962 and 1963 as a judge of nuclear-related exhibits considered for AEC Special Awards.

Atoms at the Science Fair Exhibiting Nuclear Projects

by ROBERT G. LeCOMPTE and BURRELL L. WOOD

SCIENCE PROJECTS, EXHIBITS, AND FAIRS

In almost every area of endeavor, we learn best by _doing_. Books and lectures provide background, but it is by putting theory into practice that we make knowledge truly our own. To learn a language, we read and speak it. Our knowledge of mathematics follows practice at problem solving, and so it is with science.

In conducting a good science project, we work in much the same manner as professional scientists. Like them, we observe, experiment, investigate, speculate, and check the validity of our speculations with more experiments, all in order to learn something. If our work is good, others may learn from it too, but only if we present it adequately.

Better understanding of an area of science is the least that we can gain from doing a science project. At their best, science projects foster habits of effective planning, attention to detail, careful work, and high performance standards that will serve us well throughout our lives. Moreover, there is always the promise that the project will open the door to a satisfying career.

More and more, scientists are called upon to share their work not only with other scientists but also with legislators, administrators, sociologists, artists—all kinds of people in all kinds of professions. To follow this lead, student scientists also must tell other people about their science projects.

When executed properly, exhibits are an effective way to do this. Exhibits which combine interesting visual materials with well-written messages can communicate much in very limited time and space. Good exhibits can speak clearly to a great variety of viewers. Those already generally familiar with the subject may absorb the entire message, but even the uninitiated will find something of interest.

Fairs have been popular throughout history. Generally they have been occasions to display work or feats of which people are proud. Often they have stimulated progress and the exchange of goods and ideas.

Early in this century some teachers encouraged their students to undertake individual science projects, then exhibit them before their classmates and fellow students. Between the two World Wars some individual school systems developed citywide science fairs to show the most outstanding of these exhibits from each school. The science fair movement gained momentum rapidly after World War II, and in 1950 the First National Science Fair was held in Philadelphia, drawing exhibitors from 13 affiliated area fairs.

Today the national event draws exhibitors from more than 200 affiliated state and regional fairs. Recent entry of competitors from several other countries has produced its new title—National Science Fair-International (NSFI). It is the “Olympic Games” for science fair exhibitors, conducted by Science Clubs of America, an activity of Science Service, 1719 N Street N. W., Washington, D. C.

Usually state and regional science fairs are limited, like the national event, to the 10th, 11th, and 12th grades, but occasionally they have a division for junior high school entrants. In school districts where junior high schools hold fairs, the district fair frequently includes both senior high and junior high divisions. Some elementary schools conduct science fairs for their 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students. In both the elementary and junior high school divisions, exhibitors usually compete against entrants of their own grade level, for example, 5th graders against 5th graders, and 9th graders against 9th graders. In the senior division each entrant competes against all others. Although the overall quality of exhibits at local fairs is rarely up to that of regional, state, and national fairs, the local events are possibly the most valuable educational tools because they are viewed by so large a “grass-roots” audience of classmates, parents, teachers, and other local citizens.

In science fairs—as in athletics or music—top prizes are seldom won by first-time competitors. Almost all national fair exhibitors have participated in science fairs at various levels for a year or more before winning their way into the national event. Both experience in science projects and practice in display techniques are required to develop outstanding exhibits. Since this is true, the time to start the science project which will form the basis for your exhibit is now!

Since you will necessarily spend considerable thought, time, physical effort, and (sometimes) money on your project, pick a topic from which you can expect to learn something. If you can avoid the temptation to pick one with which you are already familiar, you will probably get more out of it. Your project should be an adventure, not merely a drill!

On the other hand your science project need not be in utterly unexplored areas; to be successful you need not come up with data and conclusions which will confound professional scientists who have spent their lives in similar work. You are a student and a hobbyist, not yet a professional research scientist. Primarily your project should advance your personal knowledge, and your abilities to observe, speculate, hypothesize, experiment, deduce, and conclude.

You should choose a project which you can expect to follow to a successful conclusion, but which is enough above your current knowledge to make you “stretch” your abilities.

But it is important not to bite off more than you can chew. The project should not demand so much time that you neglect other responsibilities. However, you need not pass up an interesting topic because covering all of it would consume too much time. Instead, zero in on just those aspects which interest you most.

You may be able to select a project which will be of continuing interest in later years. For example, a 9th-grade general-science student might begin by making an _overall survey_ of a topic to discover what is already known about it and what remains to be discovered. As a 10th-grade biology student, he might investigate _biological_ aspects of his topic, and then follow with investigations of _chemical_ and _physical_ aspects of it while studying 11th grade chemistry and 12th grade physics. Some outstanding science fair exhibits have resulted from such progressive development of a single project which the exhibitors undertook first in junior high school.

Whenever you ask a question about some aspect of nature you have a possible project topic. “How does a chicken hatch?” “What is the best way to treat a burn?” “How could nuclear energy be used in space travel?” You need only examine the questions that occur to you every day to find dozens of topics on which to base projects.

You might identify promising topics by reviewing the table of contents in your science text, noting chapters or topics of particular interest. Or you may find it helpful to consult the references listed in the appendix to this booklet. If you are interested in a project related to atomic energy, the appendix lists also many nuclear topics and research areas.

It is probably wise to select several potential project topics, do a little reading on each of them, and then pick one. Before reaching a decision, discuss them with your teachers and parents. Your science teacher can help you pick a topic that will relate closely to classroom work, and may be able to suggest interesting approaches you haven’t considered. By talking your project topic over with your parents and advisers you can make sure that you will have the time, working space, moral support, and financial resources needed to complete it successfully.

At the outset, the exhibit possibilities of your chosen project may not be clearly apparent. You cannot predict exactly what procedures you will follow nor what conclusions you will draw. As you proceed, you will probably uncover many facts which you will want to tell people about. If you choose a good topic, work carefully and accurately, and cover the topic fully, you will produce a successful project which can form the basis for a good exhibit.

One mark of a truly educated individual is his willingness to discuss his problems with others and profit by their advice and help. One of the most important things that you can learn while doing a project is how and where to obtain information and assistance.

Your _science teacher_ may be an excellent source. If he cannot provide specialized help himself probably he can direct you to those who can.

Your _school librarian_ can point out specialized references such as scientific encyclopedias and “reserved” reference books. Scientific magazines and journals have good “survey articles” on recent developments. Don’t overlook the public, college, and special technical libraries near you. Also, academies of science, technical societies, and science laboratories may have libraries or publications you can use.

It is to be hoped that your topic is one on which some expert local counseling will be available—from your science teacher or one of your parents, your family physician or the local pharmacist, your agricultural extension agent, or scientific and engineering personnel of a nearby manufacturing plant, defense installation, research laboratory, or college.

Select a _project adviser_ and try to enlist his cooperation. Explain your choice of topic to him and how you plan to develop it. (If you have already done background reading you may find him more receptive and more helpful.) You may need to consult him on several different occasions. You will probably want him to check you project plan to make sure that you have not left out an important step, or included some potential pitfall. Also, you may want him to review the final written report in which you summarize your work and findings.

However, your project must rest upon work done by you. It is permissible to obtain assistance from others, but never to the extent that you are standing on the sidelines watching someone else do your work. Keep your interviews brief and approach each conference with a clear idea of what you are seeking and why, and always only after you have already done as much as possible—whether by way of reading or project work—to find the answer on your own. By doing this you will gain valuable habits of self-reliance, and added stature in your adviser’s eyes.

_Special equipment and materials_ may be obtained or borrowed through laboratories. College laboratories assist sometimes. Some industrial organizations may have surplus equipment and materials that they are willing to lend or donate.

Documenting Your Work

Project Notebook Every scientist worth his salt keeps detailed notes on each project on which he works. You should do likewise. This notebook, which could as well be a set of file cards, contains a running, day-by-day account of everything that concerns the project—observations, speculations, experiments, materials, expenses, procedures, data and observations, hypotheses, checks for validity, conclusions, and conjectures. From such notebooks comes the information for the scientist’s formal report, or “paper”, by which he advises his employers and colleagues of the progress of his work.

Since the notebook contains everything pertaining to your project, it may become disarranged, no matter how well you organize it in the beginning. If so, don’t worry—just keep it up to date.

Project Report But there should be nothing haphazard about the final report on your project. In some science fairs, this report is displayed in the exhibit and considered in the judging. Even where not required, the project report belongs with your exhibit.

After writing your report you will find that much of your exhibit planning—and even some of the text which will appear in your exhibit—is already accomplished.

If you are doing your project as a classroom assignment, your teacher may specify the manner in which your report is to be organized. Otherwise, you can follow a format such as this:

1. TITLE. Keep it short. If accuracy requires more than a few words, consider using a very brief main title and a more definitive subtitle.

2. ABSTRACT. This is a very brief condensation of the entire report summarizing the objectives of the project, what you did, and the conclusions you came to.

3. INTRODUCTION. Describe your topic and give some background information such as relevant work done by others. Summarize your purpose, scope, and method of investigation. State the questions or hypotheses your examined. Include the most significant findings of your investigations.

4. MATERIALS AND METHODS. Describe in detail the materials, equipment, methods, experiments, controls, unforeseen difficulties and remedies.

5. OBSERVATIONS AND DATA. Describe your observations. Include some of your observational data here as an example. You may wish to put the bulk of it in an appendix.

6. DISCUSSION OF RESULTS. Give the main conclusions your observations tend to prove or deny. (Disproval of your initial hypothesis may be as important as proof of it!) Include the evidence developed for each main conclusion and any exceptions, or for opposing theories. Offer possible explanations. Compare your results and interpretations with those of other workers in the same field.

7. NEW QUESTIONS, POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE PROJECTS, IF ANY.

8. APPENDIX. Give more detailed and supplementary information, often including graphs, tables, photographs, and drawings.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY. Keep it brief, listing only those books and periodicals which you actually used to provide background information.

10. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. Both prudence and the best traditions of science require that you acknowledge all help which you receive. Usually student scientists do not produce laboratory work of professional quality, nor do student exhibitors match the skill of commercial designers and fabricators. Consequently, when judges encounter very exceptional unacknowledged work, they may reasonably wonder if the exhibitor received some professional help. And if on part, they speculate, on how much more? Result: they might be tempted to disqualify the exhibit entirely, whereas if you had acknowledged frankly—“Professor James Smith, Alpha University, for loan of four color transparencies”, or “My father, who devised the lighting system”—you might lose a point or two on their scorecards, but remain in competition.

Your project notebook and your formal project report are important components of your exhibit to follow. If both are completed first, you will find planning the rest of your exhibit a much simpler task.

EXHIBITING YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT

Planning the Content of Your Exhibit

Try to organize your exhibit content so that it will be meaningful to viewers who know less about it than you do. The following outline may be followed, but is not the only one possible. Don’t be afraid to let the unusual aspects of your project influence the organization of its exhibit.

Title The same title you chose for your project report may be an acceptable exhibit title. It should be brief and as nontechnical as possible. A subtitle may explain or amplify the main title.

The Summary Message (or Statement of the Problem) Give the viewer a capsule explanation of the project and its significance. You may use a simplified version of your abstract, eliminating information and language which is not meaningful to the average viewer. Keep it simple.

Hypotheses and Conclusions List these briefly in a manner understandable to the average viewer. (Those interested in details can find them in your notebook and project report.)

Method and Scope of Investigation Hit only the high points, but emphasize instances where you feel you displayed unusual imagination, ingenuity, or resourcefulness.

Observations and Data Both are important, but in an exhibit too many data can be dull. Select only those which are essential to the capsule story of your project.

Photographs and Illustrations Review the foregoing elements to see where pictures will tell your story as well as (or better than) words. List all photographs you have already taken of your project, ones you can still obtain, and drawings which will illustrate or help narrate your story. Don’t be selective yet. Later, when you are designing your exhibit layout, space limitations will force you to choose.

Equipment and Specimens These also help narrate your story. Select objects and apparatus which will provide viewers a good grasp of your project work. Have you hit upon a low-cost substitute for expensive laboratory equipment? Do some of your specimens present clearly visible evidence of points you want to make? Are any of the experimental results or specimens particularly unusual, spectacular, or beautiful? List them for possible use.

Handout Brochure An important but frequently overlooked exhibit component is the “handout brochure” to be distributed to interested viewers. Even a single mimeographed page can supply more written information than should be displayed in the limited space of the exhibit. It can provide serious viewers a condensed version of the project report. The brochure provides all viewers a reference when they discuss the science fair and your exhibit with others. Consider the handout brochure while planning your exhibit’s contents because it can contain data and graphs which might otherwise clutter and confuse your exhibit proper.

How Exhibits Are Judged

Rules for the judging of exhibits vary, but most science fairs stick fairly closely to the criteria and point values used by the National Science Fair-International, which are:

I. Creative Ability Total 30 points

How much of the work appears to show originality of approach or handling? Judge that which appears to you to be original regardless of the expense of purchased or borrowed equipment. Give weight to ingenious uses of materials, if present. Consider collections creative if they seem to serve a purpose.

II. Scientific Thought Total 30 points