EXPERIMENTAL SCIENCE PROJECTS
The following material
assumes you are doing an experimental science project, and not a written report
to present information on a science subject. As you read the various steps, you
may want to follow along with an example
science project.
You notice something, and
wonder why it happens. You see something and wonder what causes it. You want to
know how or why something works. You ask questions about what you have
observed. The first step is to write down what you have noticed.
Find out about what you want
to investigate. Read books, magazines or ask professionals who might know in
order to learn about the effect or area of study. Keep track of where you got
your information.
Choose a title that describes
the effect or thing you are investigating. The title should summarize what the
investigation will deal with.
STATE THE PURPOSE OF THE PROJECT
What do you want to find out?
Write a statement that describes what you want to do. Use your observations and
questions to write the statement.
Make a list of answers to the
questions you have. This can be a list of statements describing how or why you
think the observed things work. Hypothesis must be stated in a way that can
be tested by an experiment.
DESIGN AN EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE TO TEST YOUR HYPOTHESIS
Design an experiment to test
each hypothesis. Make a step-by-step list of what you will do to answer your
questions. This list is called an experimental procedure.
Guidelines
for Experimental Procedures
- Select
only one thing to change in each experiment. Things that can be changed
are called variables.
- Change
something that will help you test your hypothesis.
- The
procedure must tell how you will change this one thing.
- The
procedure must explain how you will measure the amount of change.
- Each
type of experiment needs a "control" for comparison so that you
can see what the change actually did.
OBTAIN MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT
Make a list of the things you
need to do the experiments, and prepare them. If you need special equipment, a
local college or business may be able to loan it to you. Another source of
science materials are mail order supply houses such as Edmund Scientific in
DO THE EXPERIMENT AND RECORD DATA
Do the experiment and record
all numerical measurements made. Data can be amounts of chemicals used, how
long something is, the time something took, etc. If you are not making any
measurements, you probably are not doing an experimental science project.
Observations can be written
descriptions of what you noticed during an experiment, or problems encountered.
Keep careful notes of everything you do, and everything that happens.
Observations are valuable when drawing conclusions, and useful for locating
experimental errors.
Perform any math needed to
turn raw data recorded during experiments into numbers you will need to make
tables, graphs or draw conclusions.
Summarize what happened. This
could be in the form of a table of numerical data or graphs. It could also be a
written statement of what occurred during the experiments.
Using the trends in your
experimental data and your experimental observations, try to answer your
original questions. Is your hypothesis correct? Now is the time to pull
together what happened, and assess the experiments you did.
Other
Things You Can Mention in the Conclusion
- If
your hypothesis is not correct, what could be the answer to your question?
- Summarize
any difficulties or problems you had doing the experiment.
- Do
you need to change the procedure and repeat your experiment?
- What
would you do different next time?
- List
other things you learned.
TRY TO ANSWER RELATED QUESTIONS
What you have learned may
allow you to answer other questions. Many questions are related. Several new
questions may have occurred to you while doing experiments. You may now be able
to understand or verify things that you discovered when gathering information
for the project. Questions lead to more questions, which lead to additional
hypothesis that can be tested.
WHAT IF MY SCIENCE PROJECT DOESN'T WORK?
No matter what happens, you
will learn something. Science is not only about getting "the answer."
Knowing that something didn't work, is actually knowing quite a lot.
Experiments that don't turn out as planned are an important step in finding an
answer.