Greenville Technical High School George P. Burdell
Physics (title of lab) 17 January 2016
Introduction – State the problem to be solved or the question(s) to be answered during the course of this investigation.
“The purpose of this lab is to answer the question…” or “…to verify the relationship between…” or
“to …to understand why…” or “…to solve the problem of…”
For a complete introductory paragraph, provide detail about what prompted your investigation in the first place, like “During our study of …”. Exemplary work will state potential benefits of the investigation, like “We will acquire a better understanding of …”
Hypothesis – Explain the phenomena being investigated, starting with the hypothesis in the form of, If… then… because… including citation of credible evidence supporting this explanation.
“If… then… because according to ___ (your sources)____(state their premise)____”
“If…” is typically the independent variable (the variable you manipulate). “Then… “ is the dependent variable (the variable you measure). And, “because…” is the premise stated by a credible source. Follow your hypothesis with a short paragraph providing background information which explains the premise. References to credible sources must be in proper format (MLA or APA) either as a footnote or in a bibliography. Exemplary work will cite more than one source.
Experiment Design – List the equipment and procedures required to conduct the investigation. Procedures include description of what data is to be collected and how it will be collected.
“To test our hypothesis, we…”
Don’t just say what you did, explain why, including anything you did to reduce errors or bias, like your experimental controls. Exemplary work will address issues of reliability.
Data – Organize the quantitative information collected during the investigation using tables and graphs, presenting data tables first, then graphical illustrations of the data. Show equations for any derived values and/or tell the reader what tools you used to make your calculations. Exemplary work will include statistics.
Analysis - Discuss the results of the experiment, summarizing the data in your own words, for the purpose of arguing whether or not the hypothesis has been supported.
“The data shows… which does (or does not) support our hypothesis.”
Following the above statement, you must concede sources of error by explicitly stating how experimental design, measurement accuracies, or other sources of experimental bias may have affected your results. Exemplary analysis will make comparisons to the results of others.
Conclusion – State explicitly whether or not your hypothesis has been supported. Then, regardless of whether or not your hypothesis was supported, explain what you would do differently next time if allowed to re-do the investigation, or what else you would do given the opportunity to continue the investigation.