Experiment Design: Evaluation

You just designed an experiment. Now, after testing that design, it's time to reflect on your decisions and recommend ways that your experiment could be improved.

Even the most professional, controlled experiments will still have room to grow.

The scientists at CERN in Switzerland work tirelessly to improve their giant experiment. With each adjustment they hope to collect even more precise data to help us understand the origins of our universe. This is an ongoing process that requires effective daily reflection, evaluation and communication between scientists.

In your evaluation you will reflect on your experiment and communicate the ideas to your audience.  

Scientists working on the LHC at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland

The goals of your evaluation includes:

1. Explain the materials and/or procedure that was/were effective ways to collect data.
2. Explain improvements in materials used and/or procedure the procedure you chose. This is also a good time to explain human error in data collection and suggest ways this human error could be avoided if you did the experiment again.
3. Suggest extensions or new experiments that could be done to explore the same testable question.

***Try to think of more than one improvement for your experiment. The more improvements you suggest, the deeper thinking you are showing about your experiment. 

Check out an example of an evaluation from a lab report of Emma

Experiment Design: Conclusion

You've collected data and observations and reported them to your audience.  Now it's time to explain your thoughts and ideas about the data.

Think of yourself as the judge of a court trail: the evidence has been presented, witnesses questioned, and facts presented - now it is time for you as a judge to analyze the data and make a decision about what happened and why it happened.  

The scales of justice and gavel are used as symbols in a courtroom. The scale of justice represents the idea that decisions will be made by weighing the evidence in a fair manner. The gavel is used as symbol of the authority to make decisions.

The following goals of a conclusion include:

1. Remind your audience of the purpose of the experiment: Look at your testable question and hypothesis.  These contain the main variables and your reason for your prediction.  Summarize this main idea at the start of your conclusion.  Ex: The purpose of this experiment was to see if the amount of sunlight we give a bean plant affects its speed of growth.  
2. Share your main conclusion with a "concluding statement": Explain what you've learned from your data and relate it to your hypothesis.  Write this as the "main idea" of your conclusion paragraph.  Ex: The data supports my hypothesis that the more water we give a plant the faster it will grow.  or Ex: The data does not strongly support my hypothesis that water boils faster when it has salt in it.  or Ex; My data partially supports my hypothesis that the the type of liquid affects the time it takes for a substance to melt.
3. Supporting your main idea: Now it's time to support your concluding statement.  These next sentences should include information from your experiment as well as the science knowledge.  Look at your "because" statement in your hypothesis.  Can you add to this idea or explain the science behind your experiment now using the data you collected or further research?  What are the main things you observed or the most relevant data you collected that supports your concluding statement.

Things to remember: 

• It's not about you: Don't explain if you or your hypothesis were right or wrong, instead explain how the "data supports" or "data does not support" the hypothesis. 
• Focus is more important than length: A good summary will be focused on the main idea and include only the most important information related to the main idea.  
• Explain the very small: In this unit we are learning about how unseen particles (molecules and atoms) can cause physical changes in things we can see.  Try to apply what you have learned about, thermal energy, state change and particle movement in your conclusion. Ex: In the warm water the particles are moving faster. This faster movement causes the color to spread faster as the energy of the particles moves the colored dye around the beaker.