SCIENCE PROJECTS, EXHIBITS, AND FAIRS 1
Science Projects 1
Project Exhibits 2
Science Fairs 2
YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT 4
Choosing the Topic 4
Where to Get Help 8
Documenting Your Work 9
EXHIBITING YOUR SCIENCE PROJECT 11
Planning the Content of Your Exhibit 11
How Exhibits Are Judged 12
Designing Your Exhibit 16
About Color 25
Completing Your Exhibit 27
COMPETITION AND ITS REWARDS 30
QUO VADIS? 34
APPENDIX I—NUCLEAR SCIENCE PROJECT IDEAS 37
APPENDIX II—NUCLEAR ENERGY-RELATED INVESTIGATIONS AND APPLICATIONS 47
APPENDIX III—SUGGESTED REFERENCES 48
APPENDIX IV—WORKING WITH RADIATION AND RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS 50
APPENDIX V—SUPPLIERS OF RADIOISOTOPES 51
APPENDIX VI—INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FAIR RULES 52
United States Atomic Energy Commission
Division of Technical Information
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 64-65589
1968
[Illustration: Interviews help AEC Special Awards judges identify
the most outstanding nuclear-related exhibits entered in each
National Science Fair-International. Here, Elizabeth Winstead of
Jacksonville, Florida, explains her irradiated fruit flies to Dr.
Paul W. McDaniel, AEC Director of Research and a Special Awards
judge at the 1963 national fair, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Selected
as one of the 10 winners, Miss Winstead and her science teacher
spent a week at the Commission’s Argonne National Laboratory near
Chicago.]
ROBERT G. LeCOMPTE majored in English (A. B., St. Benedict’s, 1935) and
has worked primarily as a communicator—reporter, house-organ editor and
photographer, military-information officer and instructor,
public-relations consultant, and information and exhibits specialist. He
joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s staff at Albuquerque, New Mexico,
in 1951, transferring in 1957 to the AEC’s Headquarters, where he is
Exhibits and Education Officer in the Division of Technical Information.
His concern with science stems from aviation writing, World War II
service as an Air Force pilot and technical-intelligence officer,
science-news reporting, and requirements for presenting AEC
scientific-technical developments to the lay public. He has been
involved in science fair activities since 1960, when he began the study
which led to establishment of AEC Special Awards for outstanding
nuclear-related exhibits at the National Science Fair-International.
BURRELL L. WOOD is a chemist (A.B. in French and B.S. in Chemistry,
Presbyterian College, 1940; M.S. in Chemistry, University of Georgia,
1942; Ph. D. in Chemistry, University of North Carolina, 1952). In 1953,
while head of the Chemistry Department at Furman University, Dr. Wood
organized a statewide science fair program in South Carolina. He moved
to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in 1957, and
expanded that state’s program by organizing four regional science fairs.
He joined the staff of Science Service in 1960 and edited _Chemistry_
magazine and “Things of Science” experimental kits. In 1961 he joined
the Atomic Energy Commission’s Headquarters staff and is now Exhibit
Coordinator in the Division of Special Projects. He served at the
National Science Fair-International in 1962 and 1963 as a judge of
nuclear-related exhibits considered for AEC Special Awards.
Atoms at the Science Fair
Exhibiting Nuclear Projects
by ROBERT G. LeCOMPTE and BURRELL L. WOOD