What is a science fair project abstract and why is it important?
First off, we must agree on what the word “abstract” means. It has several different meanings but with regards to science fair projects, “abstract” means a brief, or a summary or a review. In other words, a shortened version of the whole thing.
Stated otherwise an “abstract” is a synopsis or a resume of the whole project. It should show up early in your presentation and be limited to about 300 words.
There are four major parts to your abstract as follows:
1. Describe what it is all about. Try to get the passer-by or casual reader sufficiently interested in your project to want to know more. Make it enticing and exciting.
2. Describe and classify what the problem is. State in clear terms what the unknown is so that people will understand what you are trying to learn thru your experiments to do your science fair project.
3. Procedures and approach. What are your concepts, ideas and techniques for solving the problems and making the determinations.
4. Results and conclusion. Tell the reader what you learned and what your learning means in terms of solving your hypothesis that you stated for your science fair project.
Tips on preparing abstracts
Try to be lucid and clear about what you are writing. Perhaps you have learned some esoteric technical terms while researching your project, but the reader may not understand this new technology, so try to be simple in your explanations.
