Conducting Your Investigation

1. Conducting Your Investigation Experiments, Journal, Follow up

2. Now that you have an investigation plan, you are ready to begin your investigation. • You will learn: • How to conduct a scientific investigation • Keep a journal of your experiment • Write a Follow up paper to complete your Investigation Report

3. Starting the Investigation • Gathering Supplies 1. Refer to your Problem Selection Worksheet and Investigation Plan to see what supplies and equipment you will need. 2. Determine where you will get your equipment Household items Hardware or discount stores Local laboratories (school or outside) Online (from scientific supplies company) 3. Record in your journal all supplies gathered and money spent.

4. Final preparation (Mentoring) • Seek advice and assistance from “experts” in the field of your study. Here are some of the places where you can ask help from: • University libraries • College and university professors • Doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals • Public and private agencies and government depts. • Any organization that supports regional science fair of your area (can check out science buddies or OCSEF and contact them)

5. Typical regional fair supporters • Amateur Astronomers Association • American Chemical Society • American Dental Association • American Meteorological Society • American Society of Civil Engineers • American Society for Microbiology • Eastman Kodak Company • Humane Society • Junior Engineering Technical Society • United States Space Foundation • Society of Women Engineers • US Department of Energy • US Marine Corps, US Department of the Navy • US Metric Association

6. Science Project Journal (The Diary of your investigation) • Important part of your scientific investigation • Others can benefit from your research if you keep a clear, complete and accurate record of your investigative work • Vital to the Investigation Followup you will write at the conclusion of your investigation • Keep this in you Science Fair Binder • Check and record your data at regular intervals, every time you work on your project

7. Format (Please refer to the samples given to you) 1. Begin each journal entry on a new page. Date: Entry Number ____ Time: Total Minutes this entry ____ Cumulative Total Minutes to Date ____ Work: __________________________ (Note: For final journal Observation: ____________________ entry convert minutes Data: __________________________ to hours to show many hours you work on your investigation)

8. Continuation 2. Keep your journal entries as neat as possible. Avoid so much erasures. 3. Can list down your data but much better to organize it in chart. Remember to use ruler, draw columns as needed, label each column and give a title.

9. What to include in your journal • A detailed description of the work that you do, including equipment and techniques you use, sketches are also helpful. • A record and analysis of the data – actual numbers and measurements you obtain. Use metric units, write down all data even if you think something is not significant. Analysis – all calculations you do with your data (average, formula) • Description of observations while doing the work. If your observation do not support your hypothesis, ask yourself why (but doesn’t mean your data is wrong). If you experience problems with the investigation ask yourself why these problems occurred. Record the answers in your journal. • Description of mistakes that you make or accidents that occur and a note on how to prevent or correct • Record of all the work you. A thorough journal should have 15 to 20 entries (one per page). It is not necessary to record work that you do for your display board or oral presentation.

10. When is your journal due • Your teacher will check it periodically, at least once a week (you can check our calendar) • Complete a Journal Check Report which will be given to you. This must be placed in your binder. These will be collected at the end. Make sure that it is complete to get complete grade.

11. Completing the Investigation • Data Interpretation – essential to have a good science project to reach a conclusion WAYS TO REACH A CONCLUSION - Average the numbers • Compare beginning numbers to each other • Compare beginning numbers to final numbers • Compare final numbers to each other • Compare averages to each other

12. (Please refer to Sample Journal for examples) • AVERAGE THE NUMBERS - Look at Sample Journal entry 14. Numbers have been recorded individually and then averaged at the bottom of the chart. • COMPARE BEGINNING NOS. TO EACH OTHER - Refer to Journal entry 14. Looking at the numbers, all plants started at ~ same ht.

13. COMPARE BEGINNING NOS. TO FINAL - Refer to journal entries 14 and 45. Ex. Grp A started at 4.2 cm (avg) and ended at 11.8 cm (avg). It grew an avg. of 7.6 cm. • COMPARE FINAL NUMBERS TO EACH OTHER • Refer to journal entry 45. Group A grew to be 11.8 cm (avg) Group B grew to be 14.0 cm (avg) Group C grew to be10.5 cm (avg)

14. COMPARE AVERAGES TO EACH OTHER • Refer to journal entry 45. Group A grew an average of 7.6 cm Group B grew an average of 9.7 cm Group C grew an average of 6.2 cm Looking at these averages, one can see that Group B grew the most, 2.1 cm more than Group A and 3.5 cm more than Group C.

15. Graph Descriptions • Next step in interpreting your data is convert it into graphs. This help you and others better understand your data and conclusion. • Graphs illustrate data in an easy-to-understand format. • Keep your graphs simple and accurate.

16. Characteristics of good graph • Drawn neatly (using ruler) or design in a computer • Large enough to be seen • Clearly show the difference (color or other methods) if items graphed together • Easily and quickly understood (do not have so many different items graphed together) • Include a key to explain colors or symbols used • With a title that tell their purpose • Have labels for each axis to indicate what it represents and unit of measure • Use equal intervals on each axis.

17. To learn how to use excel to make graphs • http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-a-basic-chart-RZ001105505.aspx?section=2 • http://spreadsheets.about.com/od/excelcharts/ss/column_chart.htm

18. Take note • Your completed graphs will be included in your Investigation Followup. • Remember to double check all mathematical calculations. • See handout given for different types of graphs and how to use them.

19. About the Conclusion • The final step in completing your investigation is to reach a conclusion about the outcome of your investigation. • Included in your Followup report and in a separate section in the exhibit display.

20. How to form a Conclusion Step 1: Consider Your Hypothesis: - when you form a conclusion answer the question: “Do these results support my hypothesis?” • Do not be discouraged if your hypothesis seems to have been incorrect. (Every scientist has made an incorrect hypothesis)

21. What if your results do not support our hypothesis? • Look through your journal for some unplanned event that happened during your investigation. Ex. Plant might have tipped over, fertilizer solution became contaminated, there was a variable originally you are not aware of. (To avoid faulty or inaccurate results, have more trials and very large sample size)

22. Step 2: Study Your Graph • Your graph will help you form a conclusion because they show the relationship between your variable and your results.

23. Conclusion students arrived at after studying the graph • According to the graph, Group B grew more than Groups A and C. Group B grew 2.2 cm more than Group A grew, and 3.5 cm more than Group C grew. Also, Group A grew 1.3 cm more than Group C. 2. The group that received the most nitrogen (Group B) grew the most; the group given a little nitrogen grew more than the control (Group C). From this he concluded that nitrogen does increase the growth of plants.

24. Use care when forming a hypothesis • Do not base your conclusion on a graph unless the graph shows an obvious result. • After studying the graph, the student concluded that nitrogen did not have a significant effect on leaf production because the one with large amount produced the same number of leaves. • In more extensive research this is not the case.

25. Writing the Investigation Followup • What should my investigation Followup include? • Procedure – a paragraph that reviews briefly what your investigation involved. Mention the following: a. sample size and/or how many repetitions you used b. Variables and control c. State if you followed or made changes in your Investigation Plan and describe them.

26. Continuation 2. Results/Data – a statement of the outcome of the investigation. Include mathematical statistics. Ex. “The plants in Group B reached an average height of 14.0 cm.” These results will be supported by charts and graphs illustrating the measurements (metric units) that you recorded in the investigation.

27. Continuation 3. Conclusion – a statement of the conclusion you reached based on the outcome of your investigation. Indicate whether it supported your hypothesis and why or why not. You may use some published data in your discussion (footnote the source).

28. Continuation 4. Bibliography (optional) – a list of any new references you used in doing your investigation (especially if you changed your procedure) or sources used to compare results with.

29. Enjoy Science!