3. Background – Research on your topic
Abstract:
Summarizes entire lab or article so the reader knows if they need to read the rest of the
paper. It is NOT a background. When someone is doing research on a topic, abstracts
allow the person to read a quick summary and decide if the study is beneficial to them.
Parts of abstract:
Beginning sentence that describes overall topic.
Sentence stating hypothesis and whether the results were supported or refuted.
Sentence describing your overall basic procedure.
Sentence describing the overall reason for your experiment.
Summary sentence of what the results revealed.
4. Scientific Question – should always have the IV and DV
Hypothesis—Underneath the hypothesis, make sure you label the IV
and DV. For example, IV=, DV=
Make sure you include H1 and H0 hypotheses.
Procedure—
Write this in a series of NUMBERED steps NOT paragraph form.
6. Analysis—
What happened? Why? Include a discussion of the numbers. Quantify your results. If you used
a particular analysis tool such as Chi-square analysis, include it here.
Conclusion—RESTATE your hypothesis exactly as written. Accept or reject your
hypothesis. Discuss why (using data) you accept or reject your hypothesis. Make sure to
NEVER use the words prove or disprove. ClaimEvidenceReasoning.
7. Claim: A statement of a student’s understanding about a phenomenon or about the results of an
investigation. A one-sentence answer to the question you investigated
It answers, what can you conclude?
It should not start with yes or no.
It should describe the relationship between dependent and independent variables.
Evidence: Scientific data used to support the claim
Evidence must be:
Sufficient—Use enough evidence to support the claim.
Appropriate—Use data that support your claim. Leave out information that doesn’t support the claim.
Qualitative, Quantitative, or a combination of both.
Reasoning: Ties together the claim and the evidence
Shows how or why the data count as evidence to support the claim.
Provides the justification for why this evidence is important to this claim.
Includes one or more scientific principles that are important to the claim and evidence.