Davidson Academy Science Fair

• Step One: Brainstorm Topic Ideas
• Step Two: Narrow Your Topic and Find Others' Research
• Step Three: Do Your Experiment and Document Your Results
• Step Four: Cite Your Sources
• Step Five: Ask for Help!

Step One: Brainstorm Topic Ideas

• Use these links to get ideas for your project.
• The Library of Congress has a Science Fair Research Center.  Also try LOC's Tracer Bullets for research guides on many different science topics.
• The Internet Public Library also has a Science Fair Project Resource Guide.
• Scientific American Magazine's Amateur Scientist series has examples of experiments. 
• The Intel Science and Engineering Fair has a guide to science resources online.

Step Two: Narrow Your Topic and Find Others' Research 

Once you have a topic in mind, look for books and articles to find out what research has already been done and what methods other scientists have used.  This will help you decide exactly what you want to investigate in your own project.

• Use the Library Catalog to find books on your topic.  Search by keyword, then use the options on the left and the tags on the right to narrow things down.  Or, do a Classic Search to find books by author, title, or subject heading.
• Search databases to find articles about your topic.  Academic Search Premier is a good starting point.   For more specific articles, look at our Subject Pages for links to article databases (and more) in the sciences:
• Biochemistry
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Climatology
• Computer Science
• Engineering
• Environmental Science
• Geological Sciences
• Medicine
• Physics
• Some indexes and databases have links to full-text articles, but many do not. The library has a service, called "SFX" that provides links to full-text articles across licensed database services that use the "open-URL" standard. If you see this button, click it for links to full-text and other information:
  
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• If you have identified an article that is not available in the database in which you found it, and there is no "SFX Find It!" access, try our Citation Finder. If that doesn't work, look up the journal title (not the article title) in the library catalog or Quick Search for Titles. If UNR does not have access to the journal, request it from Document Delivery Services. Journal articles are now delivered on the Web whenever possible!

Step Three: Do Your Experiment and Document Your Results

• Follow the science fair procedures your class is using.
• @One in the Knowledge Center can help you make a poster to present your results.

Step Four: Cite Your Sources

• Choose a citation style and follow it to cite your sources.  If you can't find the answer to your citation question in our online citation guides, we have print citation guides at the Knowledge Center that provide more information.  Ask for them at the Research and Computing Help Desk.   Once you get the hang of your citation style, you can also use Citation Machine to help you format your citations.

Step Five: Ask for Help!

• We're here to help you! You can contact any of the three presenters (Madeline, Erin, and Ann) or Usha Mehta.  You can also contact the Subject Specialist librarian in your scientific field.
• Come to the Knowledge Center! We can help you with any research or computing questions on the second floor at the Research and Computing Help desk.  The desk is open every day (weekday and weekend hours vary--check the schedule).  At the @One Desk on the first floor, you can get help creating a poster to present your results.
• If you need help from off-campus, look for the link on the Knowledge Center website.  From there, you can chat with a librarian or email your question to us. You can also call the Research and Computing help desk at (775) 682-5657 during the hours when the desk is open.