Your Abstract
The Abstract will be a one-page document. It MUST include only the following features:
Title of the project: A concise summary of your project which should include the purpose and methods and may include results and conclusion of your work between 100 and 300 words maximum
Name of author(s), class and school
A picture/graph/table representative of the work carried out
The Abstract has to be a Microsoft Word document and the picture included has to be in JPEG or PNG format.
Your Report
The length of your report will depend on what you have done. There is no minimum or maximum length, but as a scientist you should be concise and very precise in what you say, so don’t use more words than you really need. Don’t be satisfied with a first draft. Rewrite your report as many times as necessary!
Please follow the guidelines below when preparing your report.
Language
You can write your report in any language but you will need to provide a translation in English, French or German for the judges.
Your writing must be error-free and grammatically correct. Ask somebody to proof read your report for errors.
If you are writing in your second language, have your work checked by a native speaker.
The people who read your report will be scientists or student like you with some understanding of science, so you don’t need to over-simplify your report. You should use the correct technical terms as appropriate.
You can write in the first person (‘I analysed the samples.’ or ‘We measured the temperature every hour ‘…) or in the passive (‘The temperature was measured every hour’…)
Format
Font: Calibri 11 point or Times New Roman 11 point.
Line spacing: 1.5 lines.
Margins: 2.5 cm all round (top, bottom, left and right)
Structure
The following is a standard structure for a scientific paper. You are not obliged to follow it but you are advised to keep your report as clear and organised as possible.
Title
Your title should describe what your project is about, e.g. The effect of temperature on the activity of grasshoppers.
Authors
List the students who participated in alphabetical order with their class and the name of the school.
Abstract
An abstract is a one-paragraph summary of the purpose, methods, results and conclusion of your work in 100-250 words. In the world of science an abstract is always included with a research paper, so that a reader can quickly see whether the paper is relevant for him/her. A scientist working in research does not have time to read every paper that might be related to his/her work, so reading abstracts saves a lot of time.
In our competition the abstract will be published in the programme, and every student and teacher will receive a copy, but your full report will only be read by the judges and anyone who asks for a copy.
Introduction
This should clearly state your research question. You should describe the purpose of your study or experiment, and any background information that the reader needs to know.
Materials and Methods
Describe what you did in enough detail that another scientist could repeat it from your description alone. If you have conducted experiments and taken readings, you should describe how you did this, and why. If you have designed an item then you should describe how you approached the design, what experiments you did and how you developed or improved it through the design cycle. Use diagrams if they are helpful, and label them carefully. Include safety considerations and describe help you had from a mentor, parent or other assistant, and any permission you needed to obtain. Do not include your actual data in this section, but you can report preliminary findings that affected that way you conducted the main experiment or design.
If you used information from the internet or other research groups, you must be very careful to say so. If you use other people’s work without acknowledging it, this is plagiarism, and your project will be disqualified from the competition.
Results
Present your results using tables, graphs, diagrams and descriptions as appropriate. If you have an engineering design project, this is the place to describe the detail of your design.If you have made measurements from an experiment, you should describe the precision of your measurements, and if you are using them in calculations, be sure to estimate your errors correctly. (This is especially important for a senior project.)
Be honest – only present what you really saw or measured, not what you hoped to see! Make sure you use correct units and labels. Don’t discuss the results here! Wait until the next section!
Discussion
Look at your research question and ask yourself what your results show. If you didn’t get the result you expected, discuss why this might have happened. Perhaps you made a dramatic new discovery or you just didn’t get good measurements! What further work would you need to do to improve your experiment or verify your results?
Conclusion
This should be very short, often only one sentence. It should state clearly what you have found, and should relate to your research question.
Acknowledgments
List of people who helped you with a brief description of their contribution.
References
This section should include any books, publications and internet sources you made use of.
For a book or magazine article please state the author(s) first, then the year of publication, title of the work, publisher and the pages you consulted, e.g. Baines D. and Gallas F. 2013. Great science experiments. Oxford University Press. p876-913
For an internet site you should try to find the author. If you cannot, then state the name of the site first, then the name of the article, the url and the date you accessed it (internet sites change all the time!), e.g. European Research Council. https://www.erc.europa.eu/. Accessed 28/09/2016.
Your Poster
The poster should be a visual presentation of your project and should meet the following criteria:
Title
The title should be the same as in the submitted abstract. Character should be a minimum of 48 point font size. The authors’ name and the name of your school should also be displayed on the poster.
Size
The maximum size of poster is A0 (841 mm x 1189 mm).
Orientation
Your poster MUST be in portrait orientation.
Headings
32 to 48 font size is recommended for headings.
Content
24 to 32 font size single spaced is recommended. The text should be concise and easy to read.
We ask you to please come with 2 copies of each poster.
Your Presentation
Finalists will be selected to present their project in a plenary session in front of a bigger audience, including all the judges, some teachers and students. Every participating team must prepare a presentation in either English, French or German in case they are shortlisted to the final.
Please follow the guidelines below when preparing your presentation:
- Your presentation must be prepared with Microsoft Power Point.
- Your presentation must not exceed 10 minutes. You may be stopped after this time.
- Do not put too much on your slides. Use bullet points and brief headings or phrases. Your audience need to be able to read and listen to you at the same time.
- Don’t try to include all your data. Instead give summaries and conclusions.
- Use your slides to aid your oral presentation, not to duplicate it.
- If you include a slide with your acknowledgements, don’t read it out.
- Do include a slide with your references, but don’t read them out.
- Practice your presentation several times.
- Make sure to bring your presentation on two separate USB sticks.
- Your may arrange to bring a laptop computer with your.