Observation: During the winter, you spread salt daily on your driveway to melt the snow. In the springtime, when the lawn begins to grow, you notice that there is no grass growing for about 3 inches from the driveway. Furthermore, the grass seems to be growing more slowly up to about 1 foot from the driveway.Hypothesis:
This is an educated guess, or "best" guess, about what might be the explanation for the question asked.
Prediction:
What do you predict as an outcome for the controlled experiment (i.e. results) if the hypothesis is true?
Controlled Experimental Method:
The hypothesis is tested in a controlled experiment. one or several "Experimental" set-ups. The condition in the experimental set-ups are identical to the Control in every way, e.g. temperature, composition, shape, kind, etc., except for the one Experimental variable that is being tested. The results obtained from the Experimental set-ups will be compared to each other and to those obtained from the Control. If done correctly, any differences in the results may be attributed to the Experimental variable under consideration.
When designing an experiment, it is important to use multiples, (i.e. replicates), for each set-up, to avoid drawing the wrong conclusion. If the experiment only has one control and only one experimental set up with just one test subject in each, there is always the chance that a single living organism (test subject) could get sick or even die for reasons not caused by the experimental variable. And, because living organisms are genetically different, the results from just one test subject in a given set up may not be typical for the species as a whole. This could result in errors when interpreting the results. This kind of problem is avoided by using multiple controls and multiple experimental set-ups with multiple test subjects.
Be sure to provide sufficient details in your method section so that someone could reproduce your experiment.
The experimental method section should also state clearly how data (numbers) will be collected during the experiment which will be used to compare results in each test set up.
Results:
Since this is a "thought experiment," you will make up results according to what you think might happen if you actually did the experiment.
Results should include detailed raw data (numbers) rather than just a summary of the results. For example, if data are collected daily for five weeks, results should include the actual data from each day, and not just a summary of what happened at the end of the five weeks. Recorded results should match the experimental method.
Conclusion:
In this section, state clearly whether you reject or accept the hypothesis based on the (pretend) results. Discuss what this means in terms of the hypothesis, such as the need for additional experiments, or the practical uses or implications of the results.
Provide references in APA format. This includes a reference list and in-text citations for references used in the Introduction section.
Give your paper a title and number and identify each section as specified above.