1) Problem - State in question form.
2) Information - This section includes background research you do on your topic and any information you already know about the topic.
3) Observations - These are observations you made before you design your actual experiment. These observations help you decide how to design a reasonable experiment and what kind of measurements to take during your experiments.
4) Hypothesis / Theory - This is your guess at the answer to the problem. It is a guess based on your observations above and inferences you made from them.
5) Experiment! / Experiments - You may need one or more to gather evidence to help answer your question. For each you will need to:
a) List materials-
b) Write procedure - what exactly will you do? There should be enough details including all measurements so that someone else could do the experiment exactly as you did.
c) Make predictions - Answer the following questions ...if my hypothesis is correct, expect the following results from my experiment...if my hypothesis is incorrect, expect the following results from my experiment.
d) Results - What actually happened? This section should include your data table as well as the graphs and charts displaying your results. It should also include a written description where further explanation is needed.
6) Analysis / Conclusions - The reader should be able to read this section and understand the point of your experiments and what you believe the results tell you about answering the original question. Put the following information into the persuasive essay form:
a) Answer your original question. (Make your conclusion in one sentence, like a thesis statement)
b) Back it up with your observations, information, and now the results of your experiments.
c) Give possible explanations for evidence that goes against your final decision.
d) What could you have done to make this experiment better? (discuss any experimental errors)
e) Tie your information into the larger picture. These results are important because…
f) Talk about future experiments you could try in order to get more information on this topic
7) Share with other scientists