Lab Procedure Flowchart

A quality lab procedure flowchart has five elements:

1. Experimental Set-up Diagram - A labeled diagram of your experiment, including relevant materials.
2. Input Arrow (“i”ndependent variable) - Identifies the thing “i” change in the experiment.
3. Output Arrow (“d”ependent variable) - Identifies the “data” gathered/measured with units.
4. Constants - Identifies the things that should remain the same for each member of the experimental group.
5. Control Groups - Identify the positive and negative control group in your experiment.

Example:

Carmen wants to know how different colors of light affect the growth of plants. She believes that plants can survive the best in white light. She buys 5 plants of the same species. She places one in white light, one in blue light, one in green light, one in red light and one in the closet. She measures their initial height on Day 1. All of the ferns are planted in 500 mL potting soil with Miracle-Grow and given 20 mL of water once a day for 2 weeks. After the two weeks, Carmen measures their final height in centimeters.