A notebook, a scrapbook, a draft book? A place you can summarise your findings and not lose them.

The first thing most people do when starting a project is starting a new word document or notebook to start collecting ideas and keeping them together. Science is no different. “Log Books” are an essential part of every project. They must accompany your project when it is displayed. The point of a project is not to make a logbook. A logbook is just a really helpful safe place where you can put project related stuff so you don’t lose it.

Your logbook can be hand-written, it should show how much work you have done and it indicates the way you have thought through your project.

If you keep a digital logbook, remember to keep all versions of your work – and any comments you may have added. It should show the progression of your work and the changes you have made. You will need to print a copy of your digital logbook, to be viewed by the judges at the fair.

A logbook can be all these things:

DIARY – to keep your thoughts and ideas in, to plan how you will use your time, and to keep a record of what you did and when
WORKBOOK – to record your method, the mistakes you made, your improvements, the things you need to do and the things you could do
NOTEBOOK – to record notes from conversations with teachers, interviews with experts and ideas from family and friends
RESEARCH BOOK – to record the information you gained from textbooks, the Internet, libraries, businesses
DRAFT BOOK – to write out drafts of all your final notes and to change and revise them to make them better