Abstract? Falling Dominoes...

[CorinneNGaleaK]

My son is in the finishing stages of his science experiment. He basically did " how does the spacing of Dominoes affect the rate at which they fall?" He has already done his research, hypothesis and has conducted all of his trials. He kept accurate detailed data and has made his charts and has written a conclusion. Here's where we're stuck... I might be over thinking it, which is probably the problem
We're stuck on the abstract!
Relating his science experiment to a real life situation...
When dealing with d=rt most real life situations are about two separate things/people/objects moving towards each other at different speeds and figuring out who will get there first or when they'll meet in the middle...
Maybe I'm confused about how to word an abstract!
Or what it is!
Do we state the obvious...
Ex:
Have you ever wondered if the spacing of dominoes would effect the rate at which they fall?

Idk... PLEASE HELP!

[theborg]

CorinneNGaleaK,

Welcome to Science Buddies and thank you for your question. The fun stuff is done (i.e. the experiment), now comes the writing, often the hardest thing to get motivated about! As I learn almost every day in real life...it's not done until the paperwork is done!

The thing to remember about abstracts is it is a very short, normally only a couple hundred words or so, description of the project. It is designed to let the reader know what the project was, enough details about the proceedures to understand what the experiment was, what the hypothisis is and results. It should still include the following major categories just in a very brief form: Introduction, Problem Statement, Procedures, Results, and Conclusion. One of the main purposes of the abstract is to motivate the reader to be so interested in what you did that they want to read the full report and/or hear your presentation on the subject.

If you haven't been, Science Buddies has a project guide, located here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ndex.shtml
which has a section on abstracts, with examples, located here: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ract.shtml

To get the writing juices flowing, I suggest writing about the project without regard to size. Sort of a free style writing, and then edit down into a concise description of the project within the size requirements, if there is one. Just pretend you are describing the project to a friend on the phone...You'll give enough detail so they understand, you'll try to keep it interesting enough that they won't hang up, and you'll keep it short by concentrating on key points without going into ALL the gory details so your arm doesn't fall asleep holding the phone.

[deleted-71771]

I have found the best way to write an abstract is to prepare it at the end when all other writing tasks are complete. In this way, you can summarize the experiment once all the other thoughts are put on paper.

Good luck.