Monday, September 30
- In the materials and methods section, you need to list the materials you used and then give a step-by-step account of what you did during your experiment. Be as specific as possible.
- Be sure to use metric units for throughout the paper. You cannot use feet, inches, pounds, etc. You must use centimeters, meters, kilograms, liters, etc.
- Don't copy/paste this list from a website! Only list the materials you actually used. For example, if you are recreating an experiment you found on a website and the website says use electrical tape or duct tape, only list the one you actually used. Did you use electrical tape or duct tape? The materials can be in a bulleted list, but the procedure must be written in paragraph form.
- Give step-by-step instructions, but do not use bullets or a numbered list. You need to explain exactly what you did...each step of your experiment. It needs to be clear and precise so that another student could do exactly what you did after reading your paper. Make sure to write the procedure in paragraph form!
- Identify your independent and dependent variables. Your independent and dependent variables need to be identified when you explain your procedure. In the battery example, the amount of time the flashlight stayed lit depended on the type of battery used. So, the independent variable was the type of battery, and the dependent variable was the length of time the flashlight stayed on.
- Don't forget to explain where your experiment took place and the conditions of the experiment. Were you inside or outside? Was it night or day? What was the temperature?
Be sure to look at the rubric for this section! The rubric says you must do four things in this section:
List all materials with appropriate and specific metric measurements.
Tell where your experiment took place (inside, outside, etc.)
Your procedure is written in paragraph form with step-by-step instructions, and independent and dependent variables are correctly identified.
The procedure is so well written that another student could follow your procedure and recreate your exact experiment.
List all materials with appropriate and specific metric measurements.
Tell where your experiment took place (inside, outside, etc.)
Your procedure is written in paragraph form with step-by-step instructions, and independent and dependent variables are correctly identified.
The procedure is so well written that another student could follow your procedure and recreate your exact experiment.