BACKGROUND

2 RESEARCH
2.1 Key Info

Background research is especially important for engineering design projects, because you can
learn from the experience of others rather than blunder around and repeat their mistakes. To
make a background research plan— a roadmap of the research questions you need to answer --
follow these steps:

1. Identify questions to ask about your target user or customer.

2. Identify questions to ask about the products that already exist to solve the problem you
defined or a problem that is very similar.
3. Plan to research how your product will work and how to make it.
4. Network with other people with more experience than yourself: your mentors, parents,
and teachers. Ask them: "What should I study to better understand my engineering
project?" and "What area of science covers my project?" Better yet, ask even more
specific questions.
5. Use this Background Research Plan Worksheet (attachment 1) to help you develop
your own plan.

2.2 The Focus of Your Background Research

For an engineering design project, you should do background research in two major areas:

 Users or customers
 Existing solutions

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2.2.1 Users or Customers

1. Research your target user or customer. Everything humans design is ultimately for the
use of another human. (Think about it— even products designed for animals or plants are
first purchased by another human!) Your choice of target user will sometimes have a big
impact on your design requirements. For example, if you design something for a toddler,
you need to make sure that there are no small parts that could be swallowed. Some
customers are more sensitive to the cost than others, and so forth. You might describe
your target user in any number of ways. Here are some examples:
o Age (old, young, infant)
o Gender
o Occupation
o Hobby interests
o Amateur or professional
o Whether users have disabilities and require accommodations
o Size
o First-time user or experienced user

2.2.2 Existing Solutions

 Research the products that already exist to solve the problem you defined or a
problem that is very similar. No one wants to go to all the trouble of designing
something they think is new, only to find that several people have already done it. That
would be depressing! So, you want to investigate what's already out there. Only then can
you be sure that you're making something that more effectively fills a need. And keep in
mind that what is "better" depends on your requirements. You might want to build
something that's been around for hundreds of years, but do it with recycled materials
from around the house. The device might be old, but the construction materials new (or
used!).
 Research how your product will work and how to make it. When it comes time to
build their solution, savvy designers also want to use their research to help them find the
best materials and way to do things, rather than starting from scratch. Background

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 research is also important to help you understand the science or theory behind your
solution. If you are entering a science fair, judges like to see that you understand why
your product works the way it does and what causes it to perform better than other
products.

2.2.3 How to Conduct the Research

Engineers are lucky, because there are three ways to do research regarding users and existing
solutions:

 Observe users first-hand, either as they use a similar product or solution or in the
environment in which they encounter the problem.
 Examine and analyze similar products and solutions. Looking at similar products is super
important. Other engineers spent a lot of time designing them, so you might as well learn
everything you can from their work. And it is fun! You might even want to take similar
products apart! (Ask first!)
 Conduct library and Internet research.

2.2.4 Making a Background Research Plan: How to Know What Information to Look For

When you or your parents are driving a car, there are two ways to find your destination: drive
around randomly until you finally stumble upon what you're looking for OR use a GPS or look at
a map before you start. Finding information for your background research is similar. Since
libraries and the Internet both contain millions of pages of information and facts, you might
never find what you're looking for unless you start with a map! To avoid getting lost, you need a
background research plan.

2.2.5 Target Users

To help clarify the definition of your target user, you'll want to ask questions like this:

 Who needs _________?

 Who wants _________?
 Who buys _________?

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  What does my target user [a child, an elderly person, etc.] need or want in a _________?
 How much would my target user be willing to pay for a _________?
 What size should I make _________ for my target user?

2.2.6 Similar Products

Then, ask questions to help you understand products or programs that fill similar needs to the
need you identified:

 What products fill a similar need?

 What are the strengths and weaknesses of products that fill a similar need?
 What are the key, must-have features of products that fill a similar need?
 Why did the engineers that built these products design them the way they did?
 How can I measure my design's improvement over existing designs?

2.2.7 How It Works and How to Make It

These are some example questions that will help you understand the science behind your design.

 Who invented _________?

 How does a __________ work?
 What are the different parts of a __________?
 What are the important characteristics of a __________?
 How is performance measured for a _________?
 Where does _________ get used?
 What is __________ made of?
 Why is __________ made from or using __________?
 What is the best material, component, or algorithm for building ________? (You may
even ask this separately for the different parts of your device or program.)

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2.2.8 Talk to People with More Experience: Networking

One of the most important things you can do while working on your project is talk to other
people with more experience than yourself: your parents, teachers, and advisors. This process is
called networking. Some advisors or mentors may have had classes or work experience related to
the science involved in your project. Others may have used or even designed products like the
one you are researching. Ask them, "What science concepts should I study to better understand
my project?" Better yet, be as specific as you can when asking your questions.

And by the way, networking is something many adults don't expect students to be good at, so
you can probably surprise them by doing a good job at it! The best networkers, of course, enjoy
the spoils of victory. In other words, they get what they want more quickly, efficiently, and
smoothly.

The reality is we have all networked at some point in our lives. Remember how you "networked"
with your mom to buy you that cool water gun or "networked" with your grandpa to buy you that
video game you always wanted? Well, now you are "networking" for knowledge. Train yourself
to become a good networker, and you might just end up with a better project (and don't forget
that you'll get a little smarter too in the process). So take our advice: work hard, but network
harder.

2.2.9 Finding Information

 Find and read the general information contained in an encyclopedia, dictionary, or

textbook for each of your keywords.
 Use the bibliographies and sources in everything you read to find additional sources of
information.
 Search periodical indexes at your local library.
 Search the Internet to get information from an organization, society or online database.
 Broaden your search by adding words to your search phrases in search engines. Narrow
your search by subtracting words from or simplifying your search phrases.

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When you find information, evaluate if it is good information:

GOOD REFERENCES BAD REFERENCES

Come from a credible source Come from a source with poor credibility
Not too old Out of date
Not biased Not objective and fair, biased towards one
point of view
Free of errors Prone to errors
Properly cite the original source of all Do not cite where the information came from
information
Easy for other people to find or obtain Difficult for others to obtain

Bibliography
Overview

A bibliography is a listing of the books, magazines, and Internet sources that you use in
designing, carrying out, and understanding your science fair project. But, you develop a
bibliography only after first preparing a background research plan — a road map of the research
questions you need to answer. Before you compose your bibliography, you will need to develop
your background research plan.

With your background research plan in hand, you will find sources of information that will help
you with your science fair project. As you find this information it will be important for you to
write down where the sources are from. You can use the Bibliography Worksheet to help you,
just print out a few copies and take them with you to the library. As you find a source, write in
all of the necessary information. This way, when you are typing your bibliography you won't
need to go back to the library and find any missing information. The more information you write
down about your source, the easier it will be for you to find if you want to read it again.

When you are writing your report, you will use the sources in your bibliography to remind you of
different facts and background information you used for your science fair project. Each time you
use some information from a source, you will need to cite the source that it came from. To cite a
source, simply put the author's name and the date of the publication in parentheses (Author, date)
in your text. If the person reading your report wants to find the information and read more about

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it, they can look up the reference in your bibliography for more detail about the source. That is
why each source you use must be listed in a detailed bibliography with enough information for
someone to go and find it by themselves.

Your bibliography should include a minimum of three written sources of information about your
topic from books, encyclopedias, and periodicals. You may have additional information from the
Web if appropriate.

 Make a list to keep track of ALL the books, magazines, and websites you read as you
follow your background research plan. Later this list of sources will become your
bibliography.

 Most researchers want you to have at least three written sources of information.

 Write down, photocopy, or print the following information for each source you find.

COLLECT THIS INFORMATION COLLECT THIS INFORMATION

FOR EACH PRINTED SOURCE FOR EACH WEB SITE

 author name a) author and editor names (if available)

 title of the publication (and the title of b) title of the page (if available)
the article if it's a magazine or c) the company or organization who
encyclopedia) posted the webpage
 date of publication d) the Web address for the page (called a
 the place of publication of a book URL)
 the publishing company of a book e) the last date you looked at the page
 the volume number of a magazine or
printed encyclopedia
 the page number(s)

 The bibliographic information for different types of resources are located in different
places, so you may need to do some detective work to get all of the information for your
bibliography. Try looking in these places:

o the title page of a book, encyclopedia or dictionary

o the heading of an article
o the front, second, or editorial page of the newspaper
o the contents page of a journal or magazine
o the header (at the top) or footer (at the bottom) of a Web site
o the About or the Contact page of a Web site

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  When it is time to turn in your Bibliography, type all of your sources into a list. Use the
examples in MLA Format Examples or APA Format Examples as a template to insure
that each source is formatted correctly.

 List the sources in alphabetical order using the author's last name. If a source has more
than one author, alphabetize using the first one. If an author is unknown, alphabetize that
source using the title instead.

EXAMPLES OF BIBLIOGRAPHY FORMATS

There are standards for documenting sources of information in research papers. Even though
different journals may use a slightly different format for the bibliography, they all contain the
same basic information. The most basic information that each reference should have is the
author's name, the title, the date, and the source.

Different types of sources have different formatting in the bibliography. In American schools,
the two most commonly used guidelines for this formatting are published by the MLA (Modern
Language Association) and the APA (American Psychological Association).

Your teacher will probably tell you which set of guidelines to use.

 APA format for online sources

 MLA format for all other sources
 APA (author, date, page) format for citations in our articles
 Sample Bibliography: MLA Works Cited Format
 "Battery." Encyclopedia Britannica. 1990.
 "Best Batteries." Consumer Reports Magazine 32 Dec. 1994: 71-72.
 Booth, Steven A. "High-Drain Alkaline AA-Batteries." Popular Electronics 62 Jan.
1999: 58.
 Brain, Marshall. "How Batteries Work." howstuffworks. 1 Aug. 2006
<http://home.howstuffworks.com /battery.htm>.
 "Cells and Batteries." The DK Science Encyclopedia. 1993.

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ATTACHMENT 1 - BACKGROUND RESEARCH PLAN
WORKSHEET

1 Define the problem you intend to solve. 1.

[who] need(s) [what] because [why]: 2.

3.

4.

2 List the keywords and phrases from your 1.

problem and the topic in general.
2.

3.

4.

Now use your keywords to build some questions to guide your background research.
Develop at least two or three from each “question word”.

Don’t worry about whether you already know the answer to the question – you’ll find the
answer when you do your background research. And don’t forget to “network” with
knowledgeable adults who can help guide you towards good materials.

QUESTION Possible question (you Substitute your keywords (or variations of

AREA can think of others) your keywords) for the blanks in the previous
column. Write down the relevant questions
and use them to guide your background
research.

Target User Who need ___________?

Who want ___________?

Who buys ___________?

What does my target

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 user (a child, an elderly
person, whoever your
target user is) need or
want in a
________________?

How much would my

target user be willing to
pay for a _________?

How it Who
works? invented___________?

How to make How does a ________

it? work?

What are the different

parts of a __________?

How is performance
measured for a
___________?

Where does ________ get

used?

What is __________
made of?

Why is ___________
made from or using
________?

What is the best material,

component, or algorithm
for building _______?
(You may even ask this
separately for the
different parts of your
device or program)

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 a) What products fill a similar need?

4. Ask
questions to
help you
understand
products or
programs b) What are the strengths and weaknesses of products that fill a similar
that fill need?
similar needs
to the need
you
identified:

c) What are the key, must-have features of products that fill a similar
need?

d) Why did the engineers that build products that fill a similar need design
them the way they did?

e) How can I measure my design’s improvement over existing designs?

5. PLEASE LIST DOWN THE REFERRENCES!!!

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