It’s important to be specific when writing up practical work. It’s not really up to the reader to fill in the blanks here because lots of research is original and if it’s never been done before your readers will struggle. Here are some tips to ensure you are specifics and accurate (great science word) from beginning to end.
First: your hypothesis
Your hypothesis must name your dependent and independent variable and state a directional relationship between them. If you want help here I recommend trying to get the hypothesis badge at http://achieve.community.edutronic.net/stage-2-ws/hypothesis/
Sources
And once you have a hypothesis you’ll need to look at the source you used to write it or research it. The sources must be easily located using the information you provide. Webpage titles and URLS. And authors and titles of books. Remember you should always try to explain which was the most useful and why. This proves you can analyse sources.
Comparison
Often you’ll compare you results to others work. This is essential in science as it allows you to do three things
- Check for anomalies in your results
- Compare trends and patterns in both set of results
- Checks that your results are reproducible
Remember reproducibility can show that your results are valid and.
Methods
Most y11 students are excellent at writing methods. One thing commonly forgotten though is to be very specific about what you will measure and how you will measure it. What you will measure should take a few words to describe. A simple word like length, size or weight is unlikely to be enough. Also ensure you include the units and the instrument with which you will take your measurements!
Other methods
There are always other ways of doing things. You should have chosen the best way for you. What made yours better? Why not use the other? Would it take too long? Would it be inaccurate or wasteful or too expensive? Have a think and explain this fully. It’s easy to be unclear here.
Tables
If you’re not certain you can draw a proper results table I recommend you check out this stage 1 Raw Data badge which will guide you. Pop along to Catch Up one Monday for help. Remember that dependent and independent variables should be present with their units!
I’ll update with more as we move along,
KC