Conclusion Writing

How do we write a “good” scientific conclusion in science?

Why do we need to be able to do this?

• Accountability

• Closer to society

• Writing is a skill

• Proving the facts

“If an excellent experiment is summarized by a weak conclusion, the results will not be taken seriously.”

Purpose

• What is the question that you are trying to answer?

Q: How do we measure time accurately using the photogates?

Examples:

• In today’s lab I was investigating how to measure time accurately using the photogates.

• In today’s lab I was trying to understand how the photogates measure time.

• In today’s lab, I was trying to find the relationship between the two photogates and how they work together to measure time.

Hypothesis

• What did you think would happen. • Normally, you will write an “If…then…” statement.

Examples:

• I thought that the photogates would start when you enter one and stop when you exit the other.

• In this experiment, we predicted that time Tab would begin and end when going through Ta and Tb.

• Through this experiment, I thought that Ta would start the Tab time and Tb would stop the Tab time.

Results

Results

Example:

I found out how the photogates work. The time for Ta starts once I enter photogate A and break the beam. This also starts the time for Tab. Then, once exiting Ta the time stops for photogate A. The time for Tb starts once I enter photogate B and break the beam. The time also stops for Tab as soon as I break the Tb beam. This is the relationship between photogate A and B. This lab was looking at ways to measure time accurately. Reaction time with a stop watch showed me that that is not such a great way to measure time accurately. The time it takes to stop a stop watch would leave a lot of room for error.

Application

• How does this lab apply to your real-world OR a real-world situation? • Stop and think about time measurement• What about the photogates?

Example: • Using the photogates, I know that time could be measured

better in track and field. We could use them to time when a runner starts and stops more accurately.

• Using the photogates we could really improve the way in which we measured the Hoppity Hop. We only had hand-held stop watches which is not as accurate.

Conclusion

In today’s lab I was trying to understand how the photogates measure time. In this experiment, we predicted that time Tab would begin and end when going through Ta and Tb. I refute my hypothesis. I found out how the photogates work. The time for Ta starts once I enter photogate A and break the beam. This also starts the time for Tab. Then, once exiting Ta the time stops for photogate A. The time for Tb starts once I enter photogate B and break the beam. The time also stops for Tab as soon as I break the Tb beam. This is the relationship between photogate A and B. This lab was looking at ways to measure time accurately. Reaction time with a stop watch showed me that that is not such a great way to measure time accurately. The time it takes to stop a stop watch would leave a lot of room for error. Using the photogates we could really improve the way in which we measured the Hoppity Hop. We only had hand-held stop watches which is not as accurate.