Tree Health in the ECS Forest

1. Tree Health in the ECS Forest • 7th Grade Class

2. Introduction • Writing a good introduction is an essential part to a scientific experiment! This will help us determine the methods we will use for our study.

3. Introduction • A good introduction will have the following: • Opening sentence • Research information • Justification for your experiment. • Hypothesis.

4. How to Write A Good Introduction: First, you want to write a good sentence describing why your study is important. This is the most important sentence in your paper! It will determine whether or not someone reads your paper.

5. How to Write A Good Introduction: For our study, you will want to write about why it is important to study tree health. For example, a good introduction sentence may state “Tree health can indicate the health of an entire forest.”

6. How to Write A Good Introduction: Next, you will want to write 3-4 sentences about tree health. You should use research to help you write these sentences.

7. Research You can use your textbook, newspaper articles, books, or the Internet to help you write these sentences.

8. Research Not all Internet sites have truthful information. Make sure that you get information from a truthful source. Wikipedia is not a source you should use.

9. Research If you do not reference where you found your information, it is considered plagiarism. Plagarism is a very serious offense and can result in expulsion from school. Plagarism is trying to pass someone else’s work off as your own.

10. Research However, if you reference information it can make your introduction really strong. To reference information, you must tell the reader where the research came from.

11. Research For example, let’s say that in Encyclopedia Britannica, I found out that the number of leaves on a tree relates to the health of the tree. A good sentence in my introduction would be, “the number of leaves on a tree has been shown to relate to the health of a tree (Encyclopedia Britannica).” By putting (Encyclopedia Britannica) at the end of my sentence, it tells the reader where I found this information.

12. Research Try to include the date in the parentheses also. If the article in Encyclopedia Britannica was from 2007, my sentence would look like this: The number of leaves on a tree has been shown to relate to the health of a tree (Encyclopedia Britannica 2007).

13. Research Try to find other studies on tree health. For example, let’s say that Dr. John Smith conducted a study on tree health. I could then make my introduction sound good by saying: In a previous study, it was found that the depth of soil affected tree health (Smith 2006). Again, by putting (Smith 2006) in parentheses, I am showing the reader that this is where I found this information.

14. How to Write A Good Introduction Next, you need to give a justification for your study. For example, maybe you think that studying tree health is important to determining the overall health of the ECS forest. You need to tell the reader why your study is important.

15. How to Write A Good Introduction Finally, you need to give your hypothesis. For example, maybe your hypothesis is that trees near the middle of the ECS forest will be healthier than trees at the edge of the ECS forest. You would say, “My hypothesis is trees near the middle of the ECS forest will be healthier than trees at the edge of the ECS forest.”

16. How to Write A Good Introduction Finally, you need to give your hypothesis. For example, maybe your hypothesis is that trees near the middle of the ECS forest will be healthier than trees at the edge of the ECS forest. You would say, “My hypothesis is trees near the middle of the ECS forest will be healthier than trees at the edge of the ECS forest.”

17. Homework Introduction on our study due on Monday Oct. 17th. Include at least 3 references.