Science honors students are required to complete a background research paper (literature review) and a bibliography.
A literature review means looking for information about the science project that you are planning. Reviewing books, journals, databases and recommended science websites on your topic, you will be better informed about what is already known and unknown. You can use this background knowledge to plan and alter your experiment. It will also help you interpret the results of your experiment and draw conclusions.
This paper discusses information related to the topic you are studying; it does not describe your experiment plan or procedure.
See pages 15-19 in the handbook for more details.
Figure 4.3 is a passage taken from a literature review for a high school project that studied the pH of snow around a coal-fired power plant. The review information was later incorporated into the introduction of the final report and poster.
Vickers, Tanya M. Teen Science Fair Sourcebook: Winning School Science Fairs and National Competitions. Enslow. 2009.
Teen Science Fair Sourcebook by 