How To Guide for Creating and Completing an Agriscience Fair Project

This document is intended to help agricultural education students who are interested in
developing, completing, and successfully competing with Agriscience Fair projects. The contents
of this document are merely suggestions and are not requirements for competing in the
Oklahoma FFA Association Agriscience Fair. Any examples are purely hypothetical and are
only intended to clarify procedural concepts and explanations.

General tips before you get started

a. Never be afraid to ask for the advice of an expert. Whether it is your agricultural
education instructor, your science teacher, an industry professional, or a university
professor, do not hesitate to ask for help, direction, or advice on your project. Never
underestimate the power of a high school student with initiative, ideas, and passion!
b. Have fun and be creative! The cool thing about an Agriscience Fair project is that it
will allow the student to become both the student and the teacher. Students, this is
your opportunity to take control of your agricultural education and thoroughly
explore a topic that you are interested in or passionate about. The advice above was to
not be afraid to ask an expert. However, by the end of your project, you will find that
an expert is what you have become!
c. Start early. Right now is as good a time as anylets get started!

Steps to Completing an Agriscience Fair Project

1. Select a topic/Ask a question.

a. Start and maintain a research journal
i. Scientific discoveries often stem from observations made by inquisitive minds
that are curious about the world around them. Legend has it that Sir Isaac
Newton developed the Universal Law of Gravitation after witnessing an apple
fall from an apple tree. Dr. Alexander Fleming is said to have discovered
penicillin, one of the worlds first antibiotics, after returning to his lab from
summer vacation and observing that a bacteria-inhibiting mold had
contaminated some of his petri dishes. These are just two examples, but we
can be sure that the world is full of more scientific breakthroughs that are just
waiting to be discovered. One way that students can begin the process of
creating an Agriscience fair project is to start a research journal. Students can
use their research journal to make observations, ask questions, and start
developing methods to find answers.
b. Some of the best research projects are those related to current events and/or topics
that are relevant to a large audience. Students can find inspiration for Agriscience fair
projects by reading newspapers, magazines, and/or scientific journals (e.g. High
 Plains/Midwest Ag Journal, The Oklahoman, New York Times, Wall Street Journal,
The Economist, Science, Nature, The Salt: NPR, Journal of Extension, extension
publications and fact sheets from land grant universities, etc.). Do not let peer-
reviewed scientific journals intimidate you. Most scientific societies provide several
different publications for a wide range of audiences. You will also find that many
popular press articles will cite or summarize information found in scientific journals.
These sources will also be useful as you complete your background research and
literature review. It is good practice for students to utilize peer-reviewed sources as
they synthesize their research topic. Articles published in popular press or scientific
journals will always provide contact information for a corresponding author. If you
have a question or desire more information about something you read, do not hesitate
to contact the corresponding author.
c. While not comprehensive, the list below contains some examples of journals and
magazines that could be useful for students wanting to complete projects in each of
the Agriscience fair categories.
i. Animal Systems
1. Animal Frontiers: The review magazine of animal agriculture
2. ADSA News: A publication of the American Dairy Science Association
ii. Environmental Service Systems/Natural Resource Systems
1. Journal of Environmental Quality
2. Soil Horizons
3. Natural Sciences Education
4. Fisheries Magazine
5. The Wildlife Professional
6. The Forestry Source
iii. Food Products and Processing Systems
1. Food Processing
2. Food Product Design
3. Advances in Nutrition
iv. Plant Systems
1. CSA News
2. Crop Management
3. Forage & Grazinglands
4. Applied Turfgrass Science
5. The American Gardener
v. Power, Structural, and Technical Systems
1. Applied Engineering in Agriculture
2. Resource: Engineering & Technology for a Sustainable World
vi. Social Sciences (AFNR Life Knowledge and Cluster Skills and Agribusiness
Systems)
 1. Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy
2. Choices Magazine
3. Journal of Applied Communications
4. Journal of Career and Technical Education
5. TEN magazine
6. The Main Street Economist
7. The Oklahoma Economist
vii. Additional information on energy, oil, and natural gas
1. Oil & Gas Journal
2. The American Oil & Gas Reporter
3. E&P Magazine
4. Oklahoma Energy Resources Board (www.oerb.com)
2. Complete background research, literature review, and introduction.
a. Once you have selected a topic, you need to determine and establish the importance
and originality of your work. This is done by reviewing previous research performed
on your chosen topic. You need to identify the research that has already been
accomplished and state how your research improves upon previous research and/or
answers additional questions that have not been addressed by previous studies. In
your written project report, your introduction should include
i. Background information
ii. An explanation of the problematic situation
iii. Description of the researchable problem or research question
iv. A statement of purpose (or objectives)
v. A brief description of how the objectives will be accomplished
vi. Overall, the introduction should establish two things:
1. importance
2. originality.
b. One thing to keep in mind as you are doing your background research and literature
review. No judge wants to see a list of references full of websites and Wikipedia.
Take this opportunity to use all your resources, including books and journals (many
of which can be found via online databases). Consult the Library Media Specialist or
teachers at your school if you need help.
3. Develop your hypothesis.
a. After thoroughly researching your problem or question, you should be able to make
an educated guess regarding the answer to your question. This educated guess is
called a hypothesis, and it typically includes the relationship between your
independent and dependent variables.
b. Independent variable: The variable that is changed by the scientist. You have control
over this variable. You can have more than one independent variable.
 c. Dependent variable: The variable that responds to changes in the independent
variable. This is the variable that you want to observe.
d. Your hypothesis should state how you think changing the independent variable will
affect the dependent variable.
e. Example: I hypothesize that adding rock and soil cuttings (or drill cuttings) from a
drilling site to soil will cause plants to grow larger than plants that do not receive drill
cuttings.1
i. In the example, drill cuttings are the independent variable and plant size
(measured as height, leaf width, biomass (in pounds), or another measurement
for size) is the dependent variable.
4. Design experiment.
a. Now that you have a testable hypothesis, you want to design an experiment that will
allow you to test your hypothesis.
b. To design your experiment, you need to specify the number and types of treatments
and replications that will allow you to ensure that your results will be verifiable
(instead of a random accident).
i. Treatments (or trials) make up your experimental group. Each treatment
allows you to change the independent variable. To continue our example, you
could have four or five treatments containing varying amounts of drill cuttings
added to the soil. You could also use the same amounts but different types of
drill cuttings, such as those from oil, gas, and water wells.
ii. Along with your experimental group, you will need a control group that
receives no treatment.
iii. Replications are the number of times you repeat each treatment (and the
control, with no treatment). For our example, you would want to have at least
three replicates for each treatment. The more replications, the better (and more
reliable) your results will be. Different types of studies will require different
quantities of replications. Experiments, such as those in the social sciences,
that involve testing or surveying groups of people require much larger sample
sizes than experiments similar to the example used here.
iv. Table 1 is an example experimental design. Notice that this design includes a
control, four treatments, and five replications within each treatment. The
experimental design would also include the type of plant used and the amount
of drill cuttings included in each treatment. Units are also important when
determining treatments. Treatments should have consistent units. For

1
Rock and soil cuttings (called drill cuttings) are removed from boreholes that are drilled for oil,
gas, or water wells and holes drilled for geotechnical investigations or mineral exploration. They
are often applied to land surfaces for disposal and bioremediation. In the agricultural industry,
there could be questions as to how these drill cuttings could be used on agricultural lands and
how they could affect plant growth.
 example, treatments could be measured as pounds of cuttings per pound of
soil or pounds of cuttings per cubic feet of soil. Either would be fine, but they
should be consistent.

Table 1. Example Experimental Design

Replicate Control Treatment 1 Treatment 2 Treatment 3 Treatment 4
1 Plant 1 Plant 6 Plant 11 Plant 16 Plant 21
2 Plant 2 Plant 7 Plant 12 Plant 17 Plant 22
3 Plant 3 Plant 8 Plant 13 Plant 18 Plant 23
4 Plant 4 Plant 9 Plant 14 Plant 19 Plant 24
5 Plant 5 Plant 10 Plant 15 Plant 20 Plant 25

v. After you have completed your experimental design, you can determine the
materials needed in order to carry out the experiment.
vi. You will also want to determine a timeline for your experiment and decide
how often you want to collect data.
5. Execute experiment and collect data.
a. Once you have completed your experimental roadmap, it is time to begin your
experimental journey. As you begin setting up your experiment, document each step
by taking pictures and be sure that you adequately label each treatment and replicate.
This will ensure that you can accurately complete your data collection. It can also be
useful to construct tables to facilitate data collection. This can be done on a computer
or in your research notebook. Table 2 provides a hypothetical data collection table to
follow our example. Note that, for our dependent variable (plant size), we could have
used any number of measurements but chose to measure plant height for the example.
You could also take multiple measurements (example: measure plant height, leaf
width, and biomass).

Table 2. Example Data Collection Table

Control Plant Treatment 1 Plant Treatment 2 Plant
(lb cuttings/lb Height (lb cuttings/lb Height (lb cuttings/lb Height
Replicate soil) (inches) soil) (inches) soil) (inches)
1 0 0.25 0.5
2 0 0.25 0.5
3 0 0.25 0.5
4 0 0.25 0.5
5 0 0.25 0.5
Table 2 (cont.). Example Data Collection Table
Treatment 3 Plant Height Treatment 4 Plant Height
Replicate (lb cuttings/lb soil) (inches) (lb cuttings/lb soil) (inches)
1 0.75 1
2 0.75 1
3 0.75 1
4 0.75 1
5 0.75 1

6. Analyze results.
a. Summarize data.
i. Begin your data analysis by reviewing your raw data to make sure you have
what you believe is a complete, accurate data set. Is your data set complete?
Are there any noticeable mistakes? Does it look like you need to collect more
data?
ii. If your data passes your inspection, begin summarizing it by calculating
averages (or means) and perhaps other simple statistics. What is the maximum
value of the dependent variable? What is the minimum value?
iii. Once you have calculated averages, you can display your summarized data in
a graph or table. Figure 1 provides an example of a graph that could be
produced by our example experiment (again, this is completely hypothetical).

20

15
Mean Plant Height (inches)

10

0
0 0.25 0.5 0.75 1
Drill Cutting Concentration (lb cutting/lb soil)
Figure 1. Relationship between mean plant height and the concentration of drill cuttings
added to soil
 iv. Before we proceed, lets make a few observations about figure 1.
1. Both the x-axis and y-axis are clearly labeled and include the units of
measurement. It would be better if we knew the type of plant on the y-
axis, but this is adequate for our example.
2. The dependent variable is on the y-axis.
3. The independent variable is on the x-axis.
4. The graph is free of any unnecessary clutter and avoids nondata ink
a. No shading
b. No gridlines
c. No box around the figure
5. The figure passes the stand-alone test
a. The title says what is in the figure.
b. Clear and modest type is used.
c. Acronyms and abbreviations are avoided.
v. Depending on your data and objectives, you will probably need to use
different types of graphs to display your data. Data management software
packages, such as Microsoft Excel, contain many user-friendly options.
Consult with your agricultural education instructor and other experts to
determine what type of data summary works best for your project.
b. Perform statistical analysis.
i. This step is by no means a requirement when completing an Agriscience fair
project. While you can make general inferences based on the results of your
study, you cannot reject or support your hypothesis or state that your results
are significant unless you perform the proper analysis to confirm statistical
significance.
1. IMPORTANT: You cannot claim your results are significant unless
they are statistically significant.
ii. If you do choose to perform a statistical analysis, the steps are as follows:
1. State the research hypothesis
2. Select a test to perform
3. Calculate the test statistic
4. Select your level of significance and determine the critical value
5. Compare the calculated test statistic to the critical value
iii. Example:
1. State the research hypothesis
a. I hypothesize that adding drill cuttings from a drilling site to
soil will cause plants to grow larger than plants that do not
receive drill cuttings.
2. Select a test to perform
 a. In order to check my hypothesis, I need to test whether the
average plant height for the experimental group is higher than
the average plant height for the control group. I will use a
simple t-test to compare the average plant height of the two
groups.
3. Calculate the test statistic
a. You can use Microsoft Excel or other data management
software to calculate your test statistic. There are also many
online and text sources that can help you complete this
analysis. At the high school level, no one is going to expect
you to understand every little detail involved in the calculation
of this statistic (and the entire statistical analysis for that
matter). The point here is that you tried and you understand the
importance of using a statistical analysis to determine the
significance of your results.
4. Select your level of significance and determine the critical value
a. Lets say that I want to be 95% confident that drill cuttings
positively affect plant height. The critical value is based on
your desired confidence level (95%) and your degrees of
freedom (number of observations minus the number of groups
included in the test). Tables containing critical values can be
found online or in statistical textbooks. Microsoft Excel also
has functions to determine critical values.
5. Compare the calculated test statistic to the critical value
a. If the calculated test statistic is greater than or equal to the
critical value, then we can support our research hypothesis and
conclude that adding drill cuttings from a drilling site to soil
will cause plants to grow larger than plants that do not receive
drill cuttings.
b. If the calculated test statistic is less than the critical value, then
we do not have enough statistical evidence to support our
research hypothesis. Based on figure 1, we can see that the
average plant height for plants receiving drilled cuttings is
larger than the average plant height for the control, but the
difference is not significant.
c. Discuss results and complete additional analyses if needed.
i. After summarizing and analyzing your results, it is important to discuss your
results and give practical explanations for why these results may have
occurred. You can refer back to previous research and established theories to
explain why your experiment produced your results.
 ii. Example:
1. For our example, we notice that plant height increases as the
concentration of drill cuttings increases to a certain level, but then
additional cuttings seem to stunt plant growth. To gain a better
understanding of how these cuttings affect plant growth, we could
refer to previous literature and/or perform soil test to determine how
drill cuttings affect soil chemistry and nutrient composition. We may
also want to understand how cuttings affect soil chemistry and nutrient
composition because adding too many nutrients or other compounds to
the soil could produce negative environmental externalities.
7. Draw conclusions and discuss the implications of your results.
a. It is important to not only state your conclusions but also exhibit an understanding of
how your results could affect you, your audience, and the agricultural industry.
b. A good way to begin your conclusion section is to restate your objectives and refer
back to your hypothesis.
8. Communicate your results.
a. You have completed your Agriscience experiment. Now comes the fun partsharing
your experience with your target audience, whether that be your classmates, parents,
teachers, competition judges, the scientific community, the general public, or a
combination of any and all of these!
b. Written project report
i. The FFA Agriscience Fair and other science fair competitions have guidelines
for what to include in your report.
c. Visual display
i. Like the written report, most competitions have guidelines for your visual
display. However, you do have some freedom to be creative and design your
display to meet your projects requirements as well as your own personal style
and taste.
ii. Whether displaying your results on a poster or traditional science fair board,
the flow of contents should be relatively the same and should follow the
organization of your written report and the steps that you took in completing
your project. Boards and posters are typically split into three sections, and the
flow of material is often down and then to the right.
 Title
Materials and
Introduction
Methods Results/
Discussion

Objectives
Results
Conclusion

Hypothesis
Acknowledgments

Figure 2. One example of the flow of material on an Agriscience fair board or poster.

iii. Make your display as visual as possible. For example, use pictures to describe
the steps of your experimental design and methodology.
iv. Provide graphs and tables to showcase your results.
v. Never include tables of raw data on your visual display. Only include
summaries and analyses of your data.
vi. Any text on your board or poster should be no smaller than 18 pt font.
vii. Avoid colors that are hard on the eyes, such as red and yellow.
d. Interview
i. Never underestimate the power of a firm handshake, eye contact, and a clear,
confident introduction as you meet the judges and begin the interview portion
of the Agriscience Fair competition.
ii. Be enthusiastic about presenting your work to anyone who will listen!
iii. Be sure to highlight the importance and originality of your work as you begin
to discuss your project and again as you make your concluding remarks.