Making
Your Report A Winner:
We are going to give you some very specific instructions on how to write
your report.
Your report
tells what you did and how you did it.
If you
follow step-by-step what you did and say it plainly, your report will
be both accurate and easy to do.
If you
have access to a computer and can find some help from someone who knows
how to use one, you might find your report easier to do.
This is
because a computer with a word processor will automatically center and
space your report. If the computer has a spreadsheet like Excel or Works
or one of a lot of others, you can also make great graphs.
The library
has computers you can use, and the librarians will give you a little
help to get started.
NOTE: Click
here to download a blank template
that you can simply type your information on.
Some of
the web links will also give you great ideas for writing your report.
COVER
PAGE
Center all information down the middle of the page
3 inches from the top is the where the first line begins
Name of science class
1 inch lower - teacher's name
1 inch lower - research topic
2 inches lower - student name, double space, followed by full address
on the next two lines
1 inch below address - the complete date
TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Purpose ....................................................................................
put page #
Acknowledgements ....................................................................
put page #
Materials and Methods ...............................................................
put page #
Results .....................................................................................
put page #
Conclusions ...............................................................................
put page #
Bibliography ..............................................................................
put page # PURPOSE
What do you plan to do?
What is your hypothesis?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Identify people or companies or anywhere that helped you to do this
project, such as "colleges, etc."
MATERIALS
& METHODS
List of materials used and how you assembled them together.
Step-by-step details of how you conducted your experiment. Use charts,
graphs, photos, art, anything to clarify your thoughts and work.
RESULTS
This is the outcome of your experiment. Also, the data, findings and
results. Log of daily work on experiment.
CONCLUSION
Talk about findings and results. Do they agree with your hypothesis?
If not, do you see where they disagree? Look at results. Your thoughts
here are very important to judges.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Alphabetical listing of all resources
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Jenna's
Diary — February 19th
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I took my notebook and my instructions for writing the report
to the library today.
I
also brought along a blank disk my brother gave me. We don't
have a computer at home, but he had some disks so he let me
use one.
When
I got to the library, the librarian helped me download the blank
word processing template from the SF Zone site the library has
on their web pages. The template lets you just put your information
in for your report.
I
saved the template to my disk, then I started filling in the
information.
It took me about an hour, writing isn't easy for me. I saved
the draft to my disk, and the librarian showed me how to print
it out.
I
took the disk and the printout home.
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February
20th
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I sat down with my mom, and we looked at my draft. Mom showed me
where I left some stuff out, and I wrote the changes down in my
notebook.
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February
22nd
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I
went back to the library today. The librarian helped me open the
word processing copy of my report and I made the changes that
mom and I talked about. I saved the document and printed it out.
Then
the librarian helped me create a spreadsheet.
I
don't know anything about spreadsheets. The librarian helped me
print it out and I took it home to ask my dad to help me. He uses
a spreadsheet to manage his business.
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February
23rd
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After
dinner, dad sat me down to help me with the spreadsheet.
"Well
Jenna, you need to show the growth of grass in each different
type of soil."
"I've
got all the numbers in my notebook, dad."
"Great,
lets look at it." He looked at my notebook for several minutes
then said, "You need to have columns for each type of soil,
and use the rows for the data from each date. You also need a
column to show how much water you added."
I
took a ruler and drew four lines down a notebook page. At the
top I wrote the four different types of soil. Then, I put a date
on each line down the page.
"Okay,
Jenna. Now you can go to the library and enter the data into the
spreadsheet."
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February
25th
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I
was so excited to see if I could make the computer spreadsheet
look like the paper model I drew. I used the library's computer
to fill it out.
I
labeled column A "Date". Then I labeled column B "Clay";
column C "Gravel"; column D"Soil" and column
E "Sandy".
Next,
I put the dates down column A, starting in row 2. I stared with
January 26 and went down until February 15. I then put all my
measurements into the spreadsheets. When there was no data, I
just left the cell of the spreadsheet blank.
When
I finished, this is what it looked like:
| Jenna's
Observations |
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Date
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Length
in Millimeters
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Water
in Millimeters
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Clay
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Gravel
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Soil
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Sandy
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26-Jan
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25
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27-Jan
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28-Jan
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25
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29-Jan
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30-Jan
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31-Jan
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25
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1-Feb
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2-Feb
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3-Feb
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4-Feb
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5-Feb
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4
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25
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6-Feb
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7-Feb
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6
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1
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25
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8-Feb
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1
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7
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2
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9-Feb
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1
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8
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3
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25
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10-Feb
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2
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8
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3
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4
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11-Feb
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2
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9
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4
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25
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12-Feb
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3
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9
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4
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13-Feb
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3
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10
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5
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25
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14-Feb
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3
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12
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5
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15-Feb
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5
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12
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6
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25
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The
librarian then helped me print it out.
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February
27th
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I took my spreadsheet to Mr. Eisnaugle at school.
"This
is very good Jenna," he said. "Let's go down to the
computer lab and Mrs. Anderson can help us turn the data into
a graph."
Mrs.
Anderson sat with me. After opening the spreadsheet, she helped
me turn it into a graph.
Now
I felt like I was ready to put my presentation together.
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