Formal lab report data section

[athalia]

Writing up my lab has been difficult for me i cant seem to my data understandable. How would i make my data show support or dispprove my hpothesis. AN dhow does my predictions and null hypothesis come into play in the results.

[deleted-2131]

Athalia,

First off, what grade are you in? (A high school senior would be expected to do something different from 6th grader.) And, what type of data do you have? (e.g. numbers, pictures, words.) How many pieces of data do you have (10, 20, 100, 1000, etc.)

If you can provide some of this basic information, I will be able to help you present your data in a clear and understandable way.

What do you mean by preditions and null hypothesis? Did you do some sort of statistical anlaysis comparing a null hypothesis and alternative hypothesis? If so, which test did you use.


Looking forward to helping you more,

[nicolerumore]

You should organize your data by date and write down your observations for each date. Then it will be easier to go back and see if what you found out through your observations is consistent with your hypothesis-your original educated guess as to the experiment's outcome.


"Results or Data

The results section is where you tell your reader the actual numbers (or other data) that you got as you were doing the experiment. (In the tennis ball experiment, this would be a table with the different brands of balls and the actual heights each of them bounced on each trial.) You might also include a graph, if your data lends itself to it. But you do not tell your interpretation of the data - that's for the last section."
-http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/fair.html

"4) Keep a detailed notebook
Don’t cross anything out -- you might need to refer back to it later. Entries should be dated with the date and the number of days into the experiment. Include all observations. Don’t assume you’ll remember points and particulars. What might not seem important at the time might be an important result later, and might actually support your conclusion, so you’ll want an accurate record of it.

5) Collect data
Quantify your results by reporting things in numbers, not just observations. For example, say that your plants grew 1 centimeter. Don’t say that the plants "look bigger today than they did yesterday". Words like "bigger" mean different things to different people, so reporting your results using words can lead to confusion. You want to tell people exactly how much your plants grew."
-http://www.thesciencefair.com/guidelines.html

Hope it helps!