Introduction:
All practical investigation reports should start with an introduction to the investigation. This introduction should achieve several things:
· Introduce the physical concepts and demonstrate your understanding of them
· Introduce the problem/concept you are investigating
· Introduce the variables, parameters and limits of this experiment
In this task you are expected to identify all the possible variables but then only test one of them. You may do so some preliminary investigations to refine your parameters and limits. You document this process in the method, not here. Usually you should work on the intro at the start and the middle of the report writing process and refer to it when you are writing your discussion, evaluation and conclusions
Aim: You have given all the detail above so this is a succinct statement of what it is you are trying to achieve is all that is required
Hypothesis: Not all investigations may have a hypothesis to be tested, but if you are trying to solve a problem or discover something you didn’t already know then you should include one. It should be reasoned, it is not a guess. You must give your best idea of what you expect to happen or what results will show given your understanding of the concepts, which you have outline if your introduction.
Equipment:
This may seem obvious but with the list of equipment should come some detail about anything you created or altered to achieve your results and diagrams or photos of the set up.
Method:
The method is broken into two parts. You should start with a paragraph outlining your development of the prac, describing any preliminary experiments you did to help refine the limits and parameters and problems you encountered and how you overcame them. It should outline all safety precautions you took (see risk management below).
The second part is numbered steps taken to gather your data. This must be clear and anyone should be able to follow it and repeat what you did exactly. However you do not need to include statements such as ‘the data was recorded into excel’ or method of your analysis techniques.
Results:
The results section of your report should show summary tables only, all raw data should be included in an appendix. This should be clearly labelled and all data tables must be clearly identified so the reader can refer to them if needs be.
Data in summary tables should always include confidence intervals or uncertainty (See page 441- 444 of your text)
Results should include observations. This is VERY important and often overlooked by students. You must be observant in your experimental work, don’t just record the value or reading. You will be penalised in your marks if you neglect to make observations.
Analysis: The analysis is where you create graphs or illustrations of your data to better interpret them. You may use your data to calculate values to compare with known values or use them in known relationships. If you use any mathematical manipulation one worked example must be given in the analysis. You may provide models based on known relationships to compare with your data.
Graphs of any derived or summary values should include error bars.
Discussion: This is where you look at your results and analysis and discuss what you have found. If you made a hypothesis you should address this first, discussing if your results indicate what you thought would happen. Be specific; draw the reader to your analysis to back up your claims. You are trying to prove a point with the evidence you have gathered. If your results do not support your hypothesis make sure you detail this too, again leading the reader to see why they do not support your original idea.
You should then try to explain your results in detail. Draw back to the theory outlined in the introduction and explain how your results do or don’t follow that theory. Even if your results are well support, they will not be exact. You should discuss the reliability of your results. You should try to explain anomalies or variations as best you can.
If your results do not support your hypothesis you need to discuss what might be the problem. This could be a faulty premise at the start or issues with your method of data collection. Do not just blame errors for poor results. This will not get you many marks. You need to demonstrate your understanding of the physics. How has an error/problem in your method affected the results? Are they larger/smaller? Did they shift the graphs? Do they change as measures change? Are there outliers? Can they be explained?
This is also where look at the method in detail and review whether it was the best way to do things. You should identify any limitations you had and how they could be overcome. You should also discuss how you could improve your method.
Your last paragraph in the discussion should be leading the reader to your conclusion. You are using the evidence to come to an idea and you are leading the reader to agree with your idea so you are trying to make a convincing argument.
Conclusion: This is the final statement about what you have found. Your conclusions must link back to your Aim and address your hypothesis. Your discussion above has led to this but it should also stand alone, which means you may have to repeat you reasons again but with less detail and without explicit reference to data (you may still make general reference). You should also develop ideas as to where this conclusion may lead to further investigations.
References:
You should give a list of sources you used in developing this report. The accepted style for most university papers is the Harvard style, though may journals have their own style requirements. For purposes, you will be expected to reference your work using the Harvard style. The Swinburne university library has a great site to help you find it here: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lib/researchhelp/harvard_style.html in particular the flash video ‘A Practical Guide to Harvard AGPS Referencing’ is a must see. So take the time to watch it.
Appendices:
Data tables: Clearly labelled tabulated data tables.
Risk management:
You will need to create the risk assessment sheet using the one from the background activity as a guide and using this website:
http://www.riskassess.com.au/
Additional analysis or preliminary experiments: If you need to do some initial work to determine parameters and limits or to develop conversions or relationships that support your work but are not part of the experiment you may put them in the appendices