Draw a Conclusion

Which results, if any, need to be discarded? Would it be appropriate to produce a graph of your results and if so, what type of graph should you draw and what should be on the axes? Sometimes, no further processing is required but in the vast majority of experiments, you will need to do at least some processing before you can come to the final conclusion drawn from your experimant.

Once the processing is done you can further analyze your work and look for any correlation between the independent and the dependent variables. Whilst doing this, you should always keep in mind the original hypothesis and refer to it in the conclusion you write. Start with a simple statement of any correlation that you find, for example, as the amount of fertilizer was increased, the plants grew taller which is exactly what I predicted in my hypothesis. It is then important to attempt to explain why this happened in terms of the science you know. Then you can start to try to put numbers onto the statement like when the concentration of fertilizer was doubled, the plants grew on average 10 percent taller.

Then you need to evaluate how valid your results are. To do this, you should have evidence to back up your claims. Just saying my results were valid and accurate is of no use. You should give specific reasons why you think they were valid and accurate (or vice-versa).

Lastly, you should try to identify any limitations in your conclusion and offer ideas for further investigation. An example of this might be since my results are for just one variety of plant, I could repeat the experiment with other types of plant to see if they were affected in the same way. If one of the limitations was that one of the variables wasn't properly controlled, suggest ways in which the experiment could be improved if it were to be carried out again.