Writing a Science Fair Project Research Paper

The research paper, a favorite among students and parents or a struggle that can take a lot of time to research and write? It is often a struggle, but many students have said this is where they learned the most during their time with the project. They learn about all different types of science topics and how to research, write note cards and outlines, and how to cite information, something that will be useful for the rest of their education. Here are some steps on how to write the actual paper and how to cite sources in text.

Before we begin, it may be useful to review what a background research paper is and is not. This post offers an explanation on just that. That post also explains how outlines can be helpful as well.

Once students have completed an outline, then have students write a paragraph or more on each section of the outline. If the student has struggled to create an outline ask questions and encourage research to find more to put on the outline. Sometimes it is helpful to start writing as the student may discover more concepts to write about as they move forward. Here is a sample outline with a sample paragraph. This piece of the outline and paragraph would be an example of one of the paragraphs in the body of the paper.

Quick background note: This project is on the effect of motor oil on plants. This is an excerpt of an outline.

     III. What is motor oil? (Strong topic idea, may be in statement or question form)
   
           A. Definition

           B. What is made of?

           C. Different types
    

Now using research that the students have found, begin writing a paragraph expanding on the topics in the outline. Sometimes students may have to complete more research as they write if they find out they do not have information on topics included in the outline. For example, I may have research on the definition and different types of oil, but not on what it is made of. Now the student, instead of struggling with what to search can be specific and search, "what is oil made of?". Please refer to this post on how to do an advanced search in Google.

Paragraph example:

     Motor oil is used in many different vehicles like cars and buses that have engines. The oil prevents the pistons from hitting or rubbing up against the engine (Learn About Chemicals Around Your Home). Motor oil comes mostly from something called crude oil. Used motor oil can also have chemicals in it from moving through the engine like magnesium, copper, and zinc (Learn About Chemicals Around Your Home). There are different types of engine oil and they are mostly based on weight, body, and viscosity. Some examples are "5W, 10, 10W, 20, and 20W" (Oil Consideration to Lengthen Engine Life).

The parenthesis show that the sentence or sentences are information that I paraphrased or directly quoted (the one with the quotation marks) from a source, in this case two websites. This would be just one paragraph of a six or more paragraph paper. A paper on this topic might include information on motor oil, the type of plants that would be used in the experiment, and oil pollution.