| comes to developing a science fair project students | | | | population and to compare it against the data collected |
| have a lot of options. They can develop an | | | | in your first year. You will need to illustrate the data |
| observational study, an experimental study or a timeline | | | | changes in graphs and charts. |
| study. This article will examine the timeline study. | | | | Third Year Timeline Study |
| What Is a Timeline Study? | | | | By the third year of your timeline study you will |
| A timeline study is what scientists refer to as a | | | | basically doing the same thing that you did in year two. |
| longitudinal study. This type of study measures | | | | However, this year you will have more data to work |
| changes that occur within a study population over a | | | | with so you will be starting to see trends in the |
| period of time. Since students generally have a limited | | | | changes to your selected variables. For example, if |
| amount of time to develop a science fair project, | | | | you are working on a medical science fair project then |
| timeline projects are going to evolve from year to | | | | you may start to notice that the treatment is either |
| year. | | | | working or not working for the population. You will |
| First Year Timeline Study | | | | need to make note about trends you are starting to |
| The first year that you work on your timeline science | | | | see, yet you cannot draw any concrete conclusions |
| project is going to involve the most work. During this | | | | on what this means, just yet. |
| year you will be setting up your hypothesis, your | | | | Fourth Year Timeline Study |
| experiment and selecting your test population. You will | | | | By the fourth year of your timeline study you will have |
| also need to collect baseline data from your test | | | | a lot of data to work. If this is the designated end of |
| population. This information will be used to compare | | | | your timeline study then you will need to do a more |
| test results to after each year. | | | | comprehensive analysis of your data. This analysis will |
| Second Year Timeline Study | | | | need to establish clear trends in your data and you will |
| The second year in your timeline science project is | | | | need to explain why you got the results that you got. |
| going to be pretty easy. The main components of your | | | | You may need to do additional research at this point |
| project have all ready been established. Your only | | | | to update the original background research that you |
| really work will be to collect data on your test | | | | did in year one. |