How To Write An Abstract

HOW TO WRITE AN ABSTRACT

Each student who does a science project must write an abstract that will be displayed with their project.
Some science project abstracts are placed on the table in a folder while others are attached to the display board. Follow the guidelines for each presentation.
What are science project abstracts?
An abstract is a brief, written discussion of your Science Project.
Each abstract consists of a brief statement of the essential, or most important, thoughts about your project. Abstracts should summarize, clearly and simply, the main points of the experiment and/or the main sections of the report. Syntax, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, neatness, and originality are important. (see details below)
What do you include when writing science fair project abstracts?
1. Project title
School
City, State

2. Purpose of your project / experiment
. An introductory statement of the reason for investigating the topic of the project.
. A statement of the problem or hypothesis being studied.
It also may include any possible research applications.
3. Procedures Used
. Summarization of the key points.
. Overview of the investigation that you conducted.
. Only include procedures that you, the student, did.
. Do not include work done by a mentor (such as surgical procedures), acknowledgements, work done by a university lab or work done prior to your involvement in your project.
. Do not give details about the materials used unless it greatly influenced the procedure or had to be developed to do the investigation.
4. Observation/Data/Results
. State the key results that lead directly to the conclusions you have drawn.
. Do not give too many details about the results nor include tables or graphs.

5. Conclusions
. Describe briefly conclusions that you derived from your investigation.
. In the summary paragraph, reflect on the process and possibly state some applications and extensions of the investigation.
. An abstract does not include a bibliography unless specifically required by your teacher.



More Tips When Writing Science Fair Project Abstracts
• The abstract is printed on one page and is usually between 100 to 250 words long for grades 4 through 12, and between 50 to 250 for grades K through 3
• Judges and the public must have an accurate idea of the project after reading the abstract.
• The abstract must focus on the current year's research and give only minimal reference to previous work. Do not include details and discussions in the abstract, but they may be put in the longer, written research paper (if required), or given on the display board.