Doing the Experiment

Doing the experiment correctly and with the right amount of detail is just as important as writing your research paper. Look below for some critical points to remember when setting up your project.

Keeping Your Logbook

Before you start the experiment you want to make sure you note down some important things in your logbook. You can put just about everything in your logbook; the more detail, the better!

Click the composition notebook to the left to check and see if your logbook is being kept correctly.

Don't forget to include the following things as well:

1) Hypothesis, Materials, Procedure, Variables (what's this?), Data Tables, (what's this?), Results and Conclusions.

2) Pictures/Diagrams of your experiment

3) Labels or other important documents

Setting Up the Experiment

When you are getting ready to perform your experiment make sure you check the following things before beginning:

1) Safety precautions! Please read all warning labels and make sure you have the correct safety equipment before beginning your project.

2) Other factors?? Think of any other factors that might affect the outcome of your experiment. For example, can weather, amount of light, temperature affect how your experiment will turn out? Try to eliminate all possible human/environmental errors before starting your project.

3) Reread through your entire procedure to make sure you didn't miss anything important. The smallest deviation from the original procedure could affect your experiment.

Performing the Experiment

-When you are performing the experiment make sure to log everything down in your logbook. Jot down notes or observations as you go. Was there a certain smell or texture that might be important? Was a gas produced? Did it change color? etc.

-Fill in your data table with numeric information that can be converted to a graph later.

-Watch out for human/environmental error! If your experiment doesn't turn out the way you want it to, check to see if something else was affecting your outcome. Then try it again!

-Do multiple tests/trials! This is really important to add reliability to your experiment. The more times you get the same result, the more reliable your experiment is!

-Write down a summary of your findings (this is called your results). Explain what happened and why you think it happened. Finally, write an overall conclusion explaining what happened in your project and whether or not your hypothesis was right. Try to be specific and show what you have learned through this process.