What's the problem?

Each step takes you closer to finalizing your science fair project and the design of your experiment. As a first step you should have selected a few ideas or topics that interest you.

Remain flexible and don’t fall in to the trap of doing the first project that comes in to your head. The following items need to be thought through before getting to involved in your project.

Safety - it doesn’t matter if you are doing this project as part of home schooling, school project or major science fair entry. Ssafety is of paramount importance. Check out the science fair rules and regulations. Do they prohibit certain chemicals, is electricity involved, might the project injure another person or animal?

Rules and Regulations - if you are doing this science fair project for school or other science fair do read the rules and regulations. It would be daft to spend hours producing a great project that falls foul of the rules and regulations. Safety of yourself, other students, even teachers is important. Visit the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) website to view their rules.
Warning - many science fair competitions either do not allow the use of vertebrates or place very strict guidelines for their use in science fair projects. Before embarking on this type of project get advice from teachers and other professionals.

Equipment (and cost) - the old acronym KISS (keep it simple stupid) makes good sense. Great projects involve ideas, time and effort not expensive equipment. So before starting make sure that all of your materials and equipment are available and affordable. If you look in the project idea section of this website you’ll see many ideas that use everyday items.

Can I do it? - make sure that your project choice and methods are within your abilities. This is especially tru if you are new to science, science fairs or just not a scientist or technologist. A simple, interesting, well thought out project will always beat a complex mess that never gets finished properly. If you get the bug move on up to bigger and better projects.

Time - doing science experiments for fun is a luxury few of us have. Be aware of the amount of time you have to complete the project. Limit your investigation and make sure you finish the experiments.
Testing the maggot development time at different temperatures for one species of fly is an achievable project within a reasonable time. If something goes wrong with your first experiment (your mom chucks out the sample in the fridge) you should have time to repeat the experiment.You can always expand your project whilst a half completed experiment always looks bad.

Interesting? - do choose a project that you are genuinely interested in and if you do have to work with someone find a person with similar interests.

Information - can you find relevant information that you can understand? There may be hundreds of books or websites relating to cosmology but do you understand what they are saying and is it relevant?

Family and School - this is your project but it does help to have the support of your family and teachers. Does it fit with the school curriculum (sports projects can be great fun but don’t work well in a botany class). How does your mom feel about fruit flies or mould samples in the fridge. What about the time and cost?

It’s now time to gather information.