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HINTS ON THE SCIENTIFIC APPROACH for Park Science Projects Save this page for reading or printing later off-line Observing This can only be done in the park. Have paper and pencil handy. Begin by just sitting quietly for five minutes in a useful spot and looking around. Shut your eyes and listen, as well as look, to get a feeling for the area. Now walk around slowly and look at things, collecting and recording as you go. Also remember to observe at different times of the day. Collecting Take paper or plastic bags to collect samples. Ask park management for permission to collect. Date your samples and record where you collected them from. With animals it is also a good idea to record the weather and time of day. Try not to disturb the habitat or environment of animals which you collect. Remember that leaves in closed plastic bags will sweat if left in the sun so remove them from the bag as soon as possible. Recording Take paper and pencil for on the spot recording. If you have no other plan you could simply keep a diary of your observations. Sketch or take photographs of areas and vegetation. Written labels on rough sketches are a fast way of recording. Try to work out why things look different from each other, eg. height, width, colour, texture, shape, and include these things in your record. Record the date, subject and place for every photograph at the time you are taking it. Describing Use scientific language and complete sentences in your final description. eg. Most beetles seemed to be eating bark, although it was impossible to be sure of this. When describing a shrub or plant remember to mention the height and general shape, the colour of the foliage, the size of the leaves, and whether there are flowers, fruits or seeds. When describing animals try to describe their environment as well as their appearance and behaviour. Follow general descriptions with particular examples. Drawing Draw diagrams with a sharp pencil and go over them with a pen or biro. Shade with coloured pencils. Decide early whether your drawings will be used in an oral presentation and if they will be big enough for the class to see. Use the squaring-up method when enlarging drawings. Draw as accurately as possible on separate sheets of paper and paste or staple drawings into your final project. Label parts of drawings with horizontal printing for clarity. Tabulating Tables break up text and make a scientific report easier to read. Make headings clear, even if they have to be quite long. Put in the units of measurement where appropriate. If you have lots of numbers break them into groups and perhaps use a summary table rather than listing all the numbers. Tables are often used for comparison of features. You could use a table summary of your observations, along with your other more detailed written descriptions. Graphing Data points on your graph should be clearly visible, eg. use a dot with a circle around it for each data point. Bar graphs should have the bars clearly shaded. Remember to name your axes, preferably in block letters if the names are not too long. Put the units of measurement on your graphs, or they will be meaningless. Shading corresponding graphs with coloured pencils often makes them easier to follow. Analysing Before beginning an analysis of your observations, try jotting down what you were trying to find out, along with some key words which you often used in your records.Look at your data (your records) critically and decide what you have most good data about. Jot down any new opinions about your subject which you gained as a result of doing the project. Work out whether your data provides evidence for your opinion. Concluding Decide whether you have enough evidence to make a generalisation about something which you have found out. Write the statement in scientific language such as "My project showed that......" and make this statement the first sentence of your conclusion. Also summarise in your conclusion the difficulties you had which might have introduced errors into your results. End on a positive note with suggestions for work which would extend or improve the validity of your results. Oral reporting Begin by clearly stating what your project was about. Try to convey enthusiasm for the project as you describe your methods and mention briefly some of the difficulties. Memorise beforehand a list of about 5 keywords. Use large diagrams or maps to break up your oral presentation, working out beforehand just how you will hold them up or show them. Have a definite conclusion to your oral presentation, including recommendations for future action if possible. top of page home | physics | junior science | authoring | order email: daresoftware@mpx.com.au