About the Pre-fair Report

The Pre-Fair Report will provide the judges with summary information about your project. Judges will be able to review your Pre-Fair Report before they judge your project and will therefore be better prepared to ask you questions during the presentation of your project.

The following is an example form demonstrating how the Pre-Fair report should be completed. Please note that the project outlined is only hypothetical and that the protocol followed and data obtained may not be realistic.

If your observations and/or conclusions are not completed by the registration deadline, you may state that in your Pre-Fair Report and present the final information to the judges at the fair. The Pre-Fair Report MUST be completed during on-line registration.

Here is a pre-fair report example:

ACID ATTACK

QUESTION / HYPOTHESIS:

The study performed was designed in an effort to determine the effect of acid rain on plant growth. It is hypothesized that plants treated with an acidic solution will display slowed or even inhibited growth as compared to the control plants which were not treated with an acidic solution.

DESIGN / METHOD:

40 bean seeds were planted in separate pots. Subgroups were then formed and 20 plants were randomly designated to the control group which would not receive any acidic treatment. 10 plants were then randomly chosen to form the first experimental group which would receive an acidic treatment which would consist of a 0.4 M solution of hydrochloric acid (HCl) twice a week beginning immediately after sowing. The final 10 plants were designated to a second experimental group which would receive the 0.4 M HCl solution biweekly beginning after a two week, untreated growth period. All plants received identical nutrient solutions and were allowed to grow under similar lighting conditions. The experimental period was 10 weeks and the effects of acid treatment were gauged as a measure of the rate of plant growth over time.

OBSERVATIONS:

At the end of the ten week period observations were made and in general, it was initially quite evident that acid treatment did indeed affect the rate of plant growth however the significance of this effect was yet to be determined. The average height of the 20 control plants at the end of the 10 week period was 32.4 cm with a standard deviation of ± 3.2 while that of the 10 experimental plants whose treatment began at the time of sowing (Group 1)was 12.3 with a standard deviation of ± 6.1. In comparison the average height of the 10 experimental plants whose acid treatment began two weeks after sowing (Group 2) was 20.9 with a standard deviation of ± 4.7. Seeds that did not give rise to a plant were not included in these averages but were however compared between groups. There were 2 unsuccessful seeds in the control group as compared to 4 in experimental Group 1 and 3 in experimental Group 2. The average growth rates of the different groups were also compared and demonstrated a trend similar to that of the plant heights. All values obtained can be found in Table 2 in the report.

INTERPRETATION / CONCLUSIONS / APPLICATIONS:

As a result of the observations made, it can be concluded that acidic treatment does effect negatively on plant growth. The prominence of these effects seems also to be related to point in the plant growth cycle at which exposure to acid first occurs, with early exposure resulting in more stunted growth than late exposure. These results can, to a given extent, help in determining the effects of environmental sources of acid, such as acid rain, on surrounding vegetation. Acid rain is undoubtedly an important environmental concern and this project helps to quantify the possible effects acid rain can have on present and future plant growth.