L20 - Writing the Abstract

The last task in a research report is ironically found on the first page of the report. It is advisable to leave the abstract to the last because there were changes during the experimentation that may sway the direction of the results in relation to the Hypothesis. 

Activate Learning 

The teacher may get the students to watch the Youtube Video on writing the abstract: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbCh94nJqIo (4:17 minutes) 

Promote thinking and discussion 

Get the students to discuss in their groups how would they summarise their research. 

The abstract paragraph basically summarises the research in the following series of questions: 

Part 1: What is the question and the aim of the paper? (OBJECTIVES) 

Part 2: How is the question solved? (METHOD) 

Part 3: What are the specific results? (RESULTS) 

Part 4: So what? How useful is this to Science and to the reader? (CONCLUSIONS) 

The challenge for students is to be able to write their little "summaries" concisely and precisely using the abstract paragraph. The general guide is that the abstract should be between 100 to 250 words. 

Facilitate Demonstration of Learning 

Students will post their materials into the abstract paragraph of the research report.  

Monitor and provide feedback 

Your teacher will check on your abstract after your draft report is submitted.