Do Now Which methods are most important to proving your hypothesis? Aim: Learn how to write a methods section; review results. Continuation of Lab Report Project

Methods Section

What goes in the Methods Section The purpose of this section is to describe your research design and the method of data collection. You should tell the reader how you are doing your research and why you adopted these particular methods.

What Goes in the Methods Section Describing the materials used in the study Explaining how the materials were prepared Describing the research protocol Explaining how measurements were made and what calculations were performed Stating which statistical tests were done to analyze the data

An example of a poorly written method section from a biology report We did a serial dilution by pipetting 0.9 ml broth into labelled tubes, then adding 2 drops (0.1ml) of the original culture to tube 1, 2 drops of tube 1 to tube 2, 2 drops of tube 2 to 3 and 2 drops of tube 3 to tube 4. Mix the tubes and spread a loopful (0.01 ml) of each tube onto a different quadrant of a labelled agar plate.

An example of a poorly written method section from a biology report We did a serial dilution by pipetting 0.9 ml broth into labelled tubes, then adding 2 drops (0.1ml) of the original culture to tube 1, 2 drops of tube 1 to tube 2, 2 drops of tube 2 to 3 and 2 drops of tube 3 to tube 4. Mix the tubes and spread a loopful (0.01 ml) of each tube onto a different quadrant of a labelled agar plate.

An example of a poorly written method section from a biology report We did a serial dilution by pipetting 0.9 ml broth into labelled tubes, then adding 2 drops (0.1ml) of the original culture to tube 1, 2 drops of tube 1 to tube 2, 2 drops of tube 2 to 3 and 2 drops of tube 3 to tube 4. Mix the tubes and spread a loopful (0.01 ml) of each tube onto a different quadrant of a labelled agar plate. The personal pronoun we could have been avoided by using the passive voice (a serial dilution was carried out). Keep explanations as simple as possible. Avoid unnecessary repetition. In the present tense, this reads like an instruction, not a description of what you did. The past tense should be used (The tubes were mixed…)

What’s our Methodology? We used different methods for each of the different tests. Do we need to write about every test and every method that was used? Lets write a list of steps used in the methodology on the chalk board.