Only for grades 3 through  8 (grade 8 included ).

Projects of students will be evaluated in their own age groups.

At most 2 students per project 

Language : English or Ukrainian

The purpose of this category is to prepare students for scientific research and to encourage them to present their work in judging session during the competition and in public. Projects in this category are not aimed to be presented in any international project competition. It is not necessary to find out or invent something new or original. Students can select a demonstration from the links given below or from any other source.They will definitely need the help of an adult supervisor,such as a teacher or a parent. FirStep encourages supervisors to focus on developing students’ scientific skills by investigating a question or problem.

For instance, a simple demonstration to explain concepts in science lessons such as forces, energy, atmosphere , plants, senses, chemicals etc. or to answer questions such as  why we have 2  eyes, why the  snow is white or why the rain  falls in drops rather than gush down etc.  can be found from the resources.

Their task is to demonstrate their project, explain any concept related to any school subject and present it in a scientific way at Firstep. 

During Firtsep competion, the student will do this demonstration,explain the concept in a scientific way with  a display board and a research paper ( project report ).  More information about  how to prepare a display board and research paper can be found in Guide section . This link might be helpful, too : http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_guide_index.shtml

In Little Scientist category, a detailed research paper is not required ; one like this is enough : http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project_sample_research_paper.pdf

CONDITIONS FOR VIDEOS

Every student is supposed to prepare and bring with him/her a video of between 2 – 4 min of his/her project with the following conditions:

1. In the first 10 seconds of the movie, the student’s school name and its photo must appear.
2. Then the running project must be shown in about 20 seconds. For social science projects, this is not the case.
3. Then student must introduce himself.
4. Start explaining the project in a time interval of minimum 2 min. and maximum 4 min.
5. The student must wear school uniform.
6. The video must be uploaded on YouTube which should be listed only (not publicly available).
7. If possible, the student can make his/her presentation in front of a banner or roll-up of his school.

E-books:

700 Science experiments for everyone-compiled by UNESCO

 Science Projects e-book

Any other website or book can be used as a resource but keep in mind that you must be able explain any concept in science lessons or answer a question about an amazing fact  in a scientific way with the demonstration you have selected. Remember that there are lots of amazing facts in nature around us , you can select any of them ; as Albert Einstein said : “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” The emphasis of participation is  not only on the development of children’s core scientific skills ; ‘working scientifically’ and ‘designing and making’ but to help them realize and appreciate the beauty that surrounds us.As Henri Poincaré, another pioneer scientist, ,said : “The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.”