Canadian Science Fair Journal Partnership

Scientific Proposal 

We have partnered with the Canadian Science Fair Journal to provide an exclusive opportunity for all GSM mentees. The Canadian Science Fair Project is an open-access online journal that showcases student science fair projects while working  to foster passion, networking and science literacy. Participants have the chance to have their science projects published in a science journal. Many students do not have this opportunity until post secondary school or ever later in their academic careers, that's why we are really excited for our mentees to have the chance to be published in a scientific journal at a young age, 

Submission details

Office Hours

Age Group

The GSM events team will be hosting weekly office hours on Thursdays at 6pm to help participants with their research proposals. 

​

​

• January 27th

• February 3rd

• February 10th

• February 17th

• February 24th

Introduction

Materials 
and
methods

There will also be a part 4 of the workshop series hosted by CSFJ on Thursday February 24th at 7pm. We will go over how to put all the sections together and answer any questions.

Visit our events page to RSVP. 

​

Explain why your study is novel/important

​

Hypothesis

Avoid  These Common Mistakes

​

• Jumping to the hypothesis and not providing a background of your experience

• Starting too broad and not specifying your topic

• Not defining important key terms

​

Watch part 1 of the workshop series

​

Work through an example paper

How to come up with an experiment topic

A science experiment does not need to be complicated and over the top. Some times the best experiments are the simple ones. Start asking yourself these questions if you have a hard time finding inspiration for a topic:

​

What is something that makes you wonder?

What is something that you're curious about?

​

​

Experiment Topics Examples

• What type of grass seed grows the fastest?

• Are hybrid cars really more energy-efficient than gas or diesel-powered cars?

• Can you tell how much biodiversity is in a water sample by how murky the water is?

• What type of grass seed grows the fastest?

A list of more science experiment topics can be found on these websites

Avoid  These Common Mistakes

​

• Writing a list and not a descriptive paragraph of materials used

• Background information that is irrelevant to the materials and procedure

• Weak description on how you conducted your experiment

​

Watch part 2 of the workshop series

​

Work through an example paper

Components of a Controlled Experiment

Independent Variables

A variable that ins't changed by other variables

Can you systematically and precisely manipulate them?

EX: age

Dependent Variables

A variable that changes due to another variable

Can you precisely measure changes in this variable?

EX: weight,

Confounding Variables

A variable that influences the dependent and independent variables

Can you control them? How? Do you know their effect?

EX: gender

Designing Your Study

How many subjects/trials

More trials allow for better statistics but can also cause complications

Avoid bias

Assign groups randomly

Need a control group

It's the baseline, to which everything get's compared to

Avoid  These Common Mistakes

​

• Not labeling all figures and tables

• Writing a list and not a descriptive paragraph of results

• Not explaining any errors that occured

​

Watch part 3 of the workshop series

​

Work through an example paper

Source of Errors

Sometimes in scientific experiments there are errors and that can alter your results. You don't need to explain and outline every error but it's important to recognize that a specific error could have altered your expected results. 

Source of Error Examples

• The temperature was not the same between all trials

• Calculations were not properly calculated

• Incorrect unit of measurement

• The volume of liquid that was measured was not the same between trails

• Did not read measurements correctly

• Spilled or dropped a piece of equipment

Don't Forget Citations

Citations are important as it shows your reader you've done proper research by listing sources you used to get your information. It also helps support your results and hypothesis. There is no minimum or maximum number of references/citations required. Do not copy and paste sentences from scientific literature rather take key words, phrase in your own sentences and then indicate the source of literature where the idea came from. 

​

​

​

​

​

Listen to part 4

of the workshop series

​

Audio recording

Listen to some of the questions that participants asked