What+not+to+do!

=Just some friendly words of warning=

=Plagiarism=

Actually this is not such a friendly word or it describes actions that are not too friendly and can ruin your whole entry. Plagiarism is the use of other peoples ideas or work and passing them off as your own. ie Copying or getting others to do your stuff and saying you did it.

No one wants that done to them and we shouldn't do it to others.

Here is the answer.
We all know that school students are largely learning from other people, teachers being a prime example. Others sources of learning are the internet, books, other people you know. This is all good and expected.

When developing a hypothesis for example you may well be responding to some ideas and statements that others have made but you want to observe for yourself and see the proof. This is excellent and should be done.

If however you have to enlist the efforts of other people in getting to the result you want and you present these, then you must acknowledge where they came from.

Examples:

"So and so" in their article in a particular book said "this or that" and my hypothesis is based on comfirming whether this is true or not.

I didn't have the equipment or skills to weld these bits together so I got my uncle to help me.

My mother provided some help to me in the experiments I did in her kitchen.

Build on other peoples knowledge but give them the credit for their part in your entry. You might not think it is noticeable to the judges but they are not fools and differences will be noticed. Be warned!