How to Conduct an AgriScience SAE The Science Workbook: Student Research Projects in Food - Agriculture - Natural Resources

Identify the Problem (What question do you want answered?) Narrow enough to investigate Of interest to researcher May modify an existing project Don't worry about title at this point

Formulate Hypothesis (what do you expect? A statement to be proven or disproved A scientific guess Should predict a possible result Search literature of other related research

Research (hit the library and the internet) Contact university researchers National Ag library, Use inter-library loan Use note cards on books, articles, etc. The science fair project index, scarecrow press, 1983

Design Investigation (how you are going to do this) Controlled experiment is most common Use control group & experimental group Anticipate sources of experimental error Have adequate subjects in each group Repeat the experiment 2-3 times Follow guidelines for care & use of lab animals

Write Proposal (tell your teacher what you are doing) Write out a statement about the : –Problem –Your hypothesis –What you found in the literature –The design of your experiment Get feedback from your teacher Get feedback from university researchers

Collect Data (record your observations) Record data into prepared tables Record non-statistical data in notebook Report data - mean, median, and mode Standard deviation will show extreme values

Draw Conclusions (what this data means) Accept or reject your hypothesis What is relationship of the variables?

Write Report (Becoming a scientific author) Abstract (condense paper to a one page) Introduction Background Statement of problem Hypothesis Experimental design Analysis (include tables & graphs) Conclusions References