When telling the story of your project, whether in a report or display, here are the sections we recommend using. You might be familiar with more traditional sections like Purpose, Hypothesis, Method, Materials, etc., but these aren’t very effective at telling a good story and getting your audience to connect emotionally with your project. Why is your project important? Why should people care about the question you were trying to answer or the problem you were trying to solve? Use the following sections to effectively communicate what you learned, your results, and why they matter.

Note: Your educator may ask you use different sections or word limits for your project report or display, but still consider how you are communicating the story of your project, straight to the point, and getting your audience to care about your project.

Summary

This is sometimes called an abstract, and it is the first section people will read about your project. But, it should always be written last so you can properly capture all the other sections you’ve written. This summary quickly tells the story of your project and should encourage people to read more. Good STEM communication is about writing for the level of your audience. Unless you’re instructed not to, your summary should be written for a middle school (age 11-13) audience – avoid scientific jargon and acronyms. That way, more people can understand and connect with your work. Keep it brief (we suggest max. 150 words).

Ask a family member or friend to read it:

• Does it interest them?
• Do they understand what you did and why?

A recommended format would be:

• One sentence to introduce the question or problem and spark interest.
• One or two sentences describing what you did.
• One or two sentences summarizing the main results or explaining your solution.
• One sentence describing why your results were important.

Why?

Your Initiate and Plan steps

Tell your project story! 

Explain what got you interested in your project topic and why it matters (we suggest max. 250 words).

Some ideas you could include in this section:

• Why did you do this project?
• What or who inspired you to do this project?
• What question were you trying to answer or what problem were you trying to solve?
• Who could benefit from your project?
• How can it make your community, country, or the world a better place?

How?

Your Perform and Record steps

How did you perform your experiment or develop your solution?

Give an overview of the steps you took, but don’t worry about including every little detail. Your step-by-step procedure and materials list, along with all your data and other rough work should be captured in your logbook. That way, your audience can look at this information if they want to, but it doesn’t bog down your storytelling (we suggest max. 300 words).

If you are sharing your project online or to a public audience, to protect your ideas and work do not include your technical details (e.g., your entire code base, detailed schematic drawings, etc.). Save the technical details for your project logbook that people can look through at your project (whether a physical logbook, or on a device to access a digital logbook). Learn more about how to protect your ideas here [link]. Figures, photos, or prototype sketches can be used to show what you did.

Some ideas you could include in this section:

• How did you do your background research?
• How did you identify relevant and trustworthy sources of information?
• What was your experiment or design process?
• How did you design and test your solution or prototype?
• What materials did you use?
• How did you collect your data?
• How many samples did you test?
• How did you control the variables?

What?

Your Analyze and Interpret steps

Tell us your results! What did you find out?

This is where you share the most important data that came out of your project and what you found out. This will likely be the longest section of your project (we suggest max. 500 words).

Some ideas you could include in this section:

• What are the main results or findings of your project?
• How does your prototype work?
• Graphs, tables, and/or figures of your results.
• Discuss your results.
• If you used statistics, explain why you chose the methods you used.

Show your results using graphs, tables or figures that summarize your data and support your conclusion. Leave your raw data in your logbook. Please, don’t include every graph or table – only the ones that show the important results from your project! Click here to learn more about how to analyze your data [link] and click here to learn more about how present your data clearly with graphs or figures [link].

So What?

Your Analyze and Interpret steps

Tell us why your results are important and what they mean.

Use this section to share what your results mean and why they are important  (we suggest max. 250 words).

Some ideas you could include in this section:

• What are the conclusions you can draw from your results?
• What did you learn from your results?
• How do your results compare to other research?
• Why are your results significant?

What’s Next?

Your Analyze and Interpret steps

Tell us how you could extend your project.

This is where you explain the future of your project and where you could take it next. Get your audience excited about further research and improvements you could do (we suggest max. 100 words).

Some ideas you could include in this section:

• What could you have done differently?
• How could you improve your project?
• What are the next steps?

Thanks

Tell us about the great people who helped with specific parts of your project!

Did someone help you refine your question or problem? Provide materials or equipment? Assist with experiments or design/testing? Help you analyze or present the results? Whether it was a mentor, parent, teacher or other supporter, thank them and explain what they helped you with and how it your project better. Keep it brief (max. 150 words).

References

Tell us where you got your information, ideas and images!

All ideas, thoughts, data, statements or images that are not uniquely your own should be referenced. The best way to keep track of your sources is in your logbook as you go. If you are referencing your own content from a previous project (click here to learn more about continuation projects) should also be referenced.

References are typically listed alphabetically at the end of your project in a bibliography. We encourage the use of APA formatting for all your references. There are different ways to cite your sources (your educator may request a particular style), but APA style is often used in STEM. You can find more information about how to set up your references or bibliography here [Link].

Here are three examples of APA references:

• Journal articles:

Denisov, I. G., & Sligar, S. G. (2017). Nanodiscs in membrane biochemistry and biophysics. Chemical Reviews, 117(6), 4669-4713.

• Webpage:

Health Canada. (2024, Oct. 2). Outdoor air pollution and health: Overview.

https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/air-quality/outdoor-pollution-health.html

• Books:

Eby, G. N. (2016). Principles of environmental geochemistry. Waveland Press.

• Generative AI:

Anthropic. (2025, May 20). Essential grammar topics for high school graduates [Generative AI chat]. Claude Sonnet 4.

https://claude.ai/share/329173b2-ec93-4663-ac68-4f65ea4f166d

Tip:

If you are building a display for your project, grab your viewers’ attention with an important result from your project or something interesting you learned (a takeaway statement). Make this a big section on your project display, or at the start of a report. Learn more about the importance of a good title and takeaway statement here, and check out this resource for creating an effective project display.