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How to write a background paper for your science project:The background paper is simply background research. The research should be on one or two broad topic(s) that the science project is pertaining to. For example, a science project asking if people can taste the difference between regular and diet soda should have background research on the sense of taste. It should include how our taste buds work, how much variation is there from human to human, is there any scientific research indicating our other senses can affect taste? It should also include research on soda: What are the ingredients in soda? What are the ingredients in diet soda. Etc. The background information should not include any details about the student’s science project itself. It should not include their personal ideas, their project idea, their hypothesis, or their procedure. The purpose of the background information is that the student uses several (3 or more) legitimate sources to educate themselves in a broad area on the background of their project. A well written research paper, however, often requires more than 3 sources. Legitimate sources are educational texts, periodicals, books, magazines, or websites that are not involved in buying or selling products. An excellent place to start is an educational website for NC students called , the password is wiseowl. Go to middle school zone then click on student research. Once a search has been submitted, click on sort by: and choose relevance.The background info should be 1 page typed, single spaced using Times New Roman normal (not bold) font, 12 pt, 1 inch margins. Included pictures or charts will not count toward the 1 page length. All sources should be sited at the end of the paper. Any quotes used need to also have the source at the end of the quote. All pictures should include a source (ex: website address or book/magazine notation) by the picture itself along with at the end of the paper. I have attached two example papers: an example research paper that I personally wrote to show a higher level paper for the older grades, and a more basic research paper for those in the younger grades. The paper I wrote is about batteries. I pretended my science fair project would be “How long can I power my cd player on 2 alkaline batteries?” Attached is a paper I compiled from the research sources listed. Notice it is all in my own words except for the quoted info. I have asked students to double space the rough draft (which would be about 2 pages then) so I can edit it. The second paper is one I found online along with an example science project. The project question was “Will colored versus black and white printed words affects human memory?A few more examples…a project concerning food affecting dreams should have background information on sleep in general. Questions to be addressed in the background research: What are the stages of sleep? What are humans sleep patterns and demands? How is sleep related to health and lifespan? What stage of sleep do people dream in? Is there any scientific literature on whether food affects our dreams? Research and writing…A difficult but nevertheless important lesson students must learn is to compile information from several sources into one fluent paper. While I can accept 2 or 3 short quotes, a paper cannot be copying information from different sources and pasting it all together. Many students think changing, adding, or removing 2 or 3 words in a sentence is putting it in their own words, but it is not. This is still plagiarism. Plagiarism can be simply following paragraph structure of another work while changing out words with synonyms. For proper research students should gather 3 or more sources of information they can understand. Read all 3-4 sources first. Double read anything confusing until you get it; or ask a parent or teacher to help you understand it. Then sit with a parent or friend and practice telling them what you have learned from the sources, while not looking at the sources. The parent or friend can help you make sense of your information. At this point you can begin writing your paper. You should not translate any source sentence to sentence, but read a couple of paragraphs, then write a paragraph of their own, without looking at the source.Other recommended resource websites:: wiseowl excellent middleschool research site links to many kid level science sites – same as above kid friendly search engine on science - excellent website with a list of science research sites for kids organized by topic - American Museum of Natural History –this has a variety of resources from videos to articles to interviews tons of informative science videos and research –an amazing resource with videos and articles. earth and space science website with related articles on art and humanity. covers motion, heat, light, and motion, electricity topics -covers many plant related information - higher level website about plants, incredible information – news articles about all topics from all over the worldBatteries by Emily WilleyBatteries are small containers that store electricity. They actually store the potential to create electricity. When you are not using a battery, there is no electricity being made. Only when a battery has both sides connected does it make electricity. Batteries are referred to as electric cells. Different batteries have different numbers of cells.Let’s look at the basic parts of a battery. Batteries have a positive and a negative terminal. The positive terminal is usually a metal called a cathode and the negative terminal is a different metal called an anode. Some batteries, like the batteries we use to power flashlights and radios have the cathode on the top and the anode on the bottom. Some batteries, like a car battery or a 9 V battery, will have the terminals beside each other. Batteries also have electrolytes in them. The electrolyte in a battery is a liquid chemical that contains positively and negatively charged particles. These particles interact with the different metals of the anode and cathode. This causes the anode to have excess electrons, or a negative charge and the cathode to lose electrons and have a positive charge. The electrolyte won’t let the positive anode interact with the negative cathode however. If it did, it would short out the battery and it would not work. Instead there is a slight build up of opposite charges that don’t move until you connect the anode and cathode of a battery to a wire. The wire allows the electrons to move much more easily through them than the electrolyte. The built up electrons on the anode, run through the wire and through the load attached to the wire such as a light bulb, then back to the cathode since opposite charges attract. Since the electrolyte makes the metal cathode want to be positive, these extra electrons are now able to move through the electrolyte over to the anode, where they are needed. This circular path of electrons produces the electricity in the battery. talking about batteries and electricity, it is important to know exactly what electricity is. The simple definition of electricity is the flow of electrons. But what are electrons? Electrons are tiny particles that carry a negative electric charge. Electrons are found orbiting the nucleus, or center of an atom. The nucleus of an atom contains positively charged protons and neutrally charged (not charged) particles called neutrons. Electrons are much tinier than protons and neutrons and are found very far away from the nucleus, whizzing around in what is called an electron cloud. “If you wanted a proper size comparison the size of the earth in comparison to the sun would be a pretty close visualization.” can flow in two different ways. It can go in one direction only, and we call that direct current. It can also flow back and forth in opposite directions. This is called alternating current. Our home outlets provide us with alternating current. Batteries make a direct current. When electrons flow, they flow by jumping from atom to atom. A wire is not just an empty space that electrons fly through, but instead it is made up of atoms that hand off electrons like a hot potato. there are many kinds of batteries, the most common household battery is probably an alkaline battery. These batteries use two chemicals to react: zinc and manganese oxide. Alkaline batteries got their name from the type of electrolyte used in the battery. The electrolyte is alkaline instead of acidic like some other batteries. Sources: ) (EXAMPLE) Background Research?MemoryMemory is a very important part of learning.? It is the ability to remember something that has already been learned.? If there wasn’t memory, everything would be "for the first time." Memory is stored in the parts of the brain called the hippocampus and the thalamus.? They are located inside the cerebral campus, which is one of the three parts of your brain.? The hippocampus curls off the end of the cerebral campus.?Scientists don’t really know how memory works but they know that it involves a chemical change in the brain’s one trillion neurons.? Every time you learn something new, a new path is made.?Loss and ImprovementYou lose memory either when you don’t think about a thing for a while or when it gets confused.? According to interference theories, when you forget, one memory gets confused with another.? For example, when a friend moves you may think of her old phone number instead of her new one.? Memory can be improved and exercised by using mnemonical devices. Mnemonical devices are things like rhymes, clues, mental pictures, mind games and other things which help you remember things.? You associate two different thoughts to help you remember, for instance,? plane leaves at two o’clock and plane has two wings.? "ROY G. BIV" is a mnemonical device for the colors of the spectrum: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.?The Different Kinds of MemoryThe three main kinds of memory are short term, long term and sensory.? Short term memory help you remember for a short to medium amount of time.? For example, when you remember a phone number, you remember it long enough to go from the phonebook to the phone to dial the number.? If you try very hard, you can transfer something from short term to long term memory.?Long term memory helps you remember for a long period of time.? It is so powerful that some information stored can last a lifetime.? Some examples are, a friend’s birthday or memories from when you were a child.? Sometimes you can forget a memory, but if you see or hear something familar, you remember it.?Sensory memory (also known as immediate memory) is for things you hold in your memory for such a short amount of time that most people don’t even know about it.? For example, you may look at a picture, when you turn your head and walk away, you don’t even remember it.?Most people have visual memory, not to be confused with photographic memory which 5% of young children have.? Photographic memory is very rare in adults. People who have photographic memory can take a picture in their mind and remember exactly what it looked like, or read a book in their mind.?Other kinds of memory are motor skill and factual.? Motor skills are things like walking and riding a bike.? It makes it possible for you to do them without thinking.? Factual memory is used to remember telephone numbers or the story line of a book.?ColorColor really isn’t what most people think.? Color is light reflecting off the pigment in the objects you see.? If you’re looking at a shirt, the light bounces off the pigment and hits your eyes and all other colors absorb in.? You see just the color that is reflected.? That’s why you can’t see in the dark.?The primary colors are blue, yellow and red.? If you mix them you get secondary colors.? For instance, if you combine blue and yellow you get green.? Yellow and red make orange.? When you combine red and blue, the result is purple.? If you mix all of them equally, you get black.?Every color has an opposite. The opposite of back is white, green is red, orange is blue.? You see the opposite in an after image.? To see an after image you have to stare at a picture for about 30 seconds.? Then stare at a white surface and you see the picture in its opposite color.?Although blue, red and yellow are primary pigment colors, blue, red and green are the primary colors of light.? If you mix all of the colors of light equally, you get white.? When you mix red and blue you receive a purple light.? If you mix red and green you get a yellow light.? A combination of blue and green results in a blue/green light.? Also, if you shine a light through a prism, you get the colors of the spectrum: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.? When you shine a light through a prism you separate the colors.?BIBLIOGRAPHYBaddely, Alan.? "Memory,"? Science and Technology, vol. 10, pg. 674-675Baddely, Alan.? Your Memory: a Users Guide, United Kingdom: Prion, 1993 ................
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