Spring Final Exam: Research Report and Presentation



Due Dates and other Important Dates:

Guest invitation due: Monday, May 11th for all students

Recipe card due on HUB: Friday, May 15th for all students

Dish due: the day you present

Final Draft of Research Report Due: Friday, May 15th, 2015 by end of 1st period.

Digital Presentation due on HUB: Monday, May 18th by end of 1st period

Present research to class and guests:

Wednesday, May 20th during class, 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM, for exempted seniors and group A

Friday, May 22nd during class, 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM, for Group B

Create a professional research report and presentation based upon the experimental design of your research topic, data collected and conclusions. The report is to be typed, include subheadings (in bold type below) for each portion of the experimental design. This report is worth 30% of spring final average. For exempted seniors, this report is worth a major grade in 6th six weeks.

Include the following in the report (these are subheadings as well):

• Title

• Driving Question (stated as a question)

• Your literature review on the topic, including works cited

• Hypothesis (if/then statement). It must be testable, as in, it must be written so that it can be proven or disproven.

• Materials List

• Safety Concerns, if any

• Procedures listed in numbered order. At end of Procedures section, label and identify control/experimental group, controlled/independent/dependent variables

• Data—title, label and display data in a manner that is easy for the reader to understand. Your data must be recorded electronically onto a digital table/chart, such as is made in Microsoft Excel, Word or other similar program. The table/chart must have headings across the top labeling the columns and down the side labeling the rows so that the reader knows the date the measurement was taken and to which trial that data point is assigned. Including an average at the end may be appropriate. Ask for advice about this. A graph is appropriate to include.

• Conclusion:

The conclusion is where you analyze the data for the reader, relate it to your hypothesis and suggest what the data means. Sometimes the data has inconsistencies or abnormalities. The conclusion is also where you will address these issues.

The conclusion needs to be written to include the following information in the following order. Make each part its own paragraph to aid the reader in finding it.

Restate your hypothesis (simply rewrite it so that the reader can be reminded of it)

State whether your hypothesis is supported, refuted or inconclusive

• Cite your data to support your claim of hypothesis being supported/refuted/inconclusive. In other words, bring data points from your data section into the conclusion and use the data to prove your claim. Use multiple data points to support your claim.

• In separate paragraph from the information above, interpret the data and results for the reader. Explain what the data means. Tell a story about the data, how it developed, how it changed. Imagine what caused things to change or not to change in some trials. Discuss the differences between trials, the differences between the control group and experimental group. Discuss any abnormalities that occurred that the reader needs to know that may have affected the outcome. Discuss any discoveries or results of the experiment that were unexpected. Discuss how these may have affected the outcome of the results.

Responses such as, “there were no abnormalities”, “or nothing unexpected occurred” will be considered lack of imagination on your part as something unexpected always occurs. No points will be awarded for such.

• In a separate paragraph from the information above, discuss what lead you to choose this topic. Discuss what this research means to our class goals, what it means to you and your interests in urban agriculture. How does your research contribute to horticulture and/or gardening?

• In a separate paragraph. Surely the results of this experiment did not completely cure your curiosity for this topic. Discuss what questions still remain for you in relation to the results of this experiment. What else do you still wonder? What else needs to be understood about this topic? Suggest several more driving questions in relation to this experiment that still need to be answered with more research. Discuss what you would do to modify the experimental design if you were to continue your research. What more do you need to know about or understand more to do this experiment more scientifically? What would you do differently? What would your next hypothesis be in relation to this work so that your experiment and results would be more accurate and precise? How would you modify the experiment to accommodate your new hypothesis? Answers like “I wouldn’t do anything differently” will not be accepted (no points earned) and will be considered avoiding the application of effort. Use your reason and imagination to address this section.

Other requirements of the Spring Final Project:

Digital Presentation: Design a digital presentation in powerpoint, prezi, windows movie maker or other. This must be submitted onto the HUB by the end of class on Monday, May 18th, 2015 for all students to ensure compatibility. Bring your presentation on a flash drive as a back-up. We do this to ensure it can be uploaded and check to make sure it is compatible with the classroom computer. Do not email it to me as it will be too large a file.

The presentation is to include the basic information of your experimental design including title, driving question, hypothesis , brief overview of your research, experimental/control groups, independent/dependent variables, control groups, brief review of your procedure, photos or diagrams or your set-up, photos of experiment in progress and at end of experiment, data, the basics of your conclusion (supported or refuted, how data supports you claim, abnormalities, expectations, meaning of results, how this supports our class and gardening, what you would do differently if you were to continue your research). This is worth 45% of the Spring Final Exam grade.

Healthful Appetizer or Dish: Provide a sustainable, organic and locally-sourced appetizer or dish and recipe card to share with our guests at our research presentation event. You must use at least 75% locally-sourced and organic ingredients. Bring evidence of how it is a local dish. You may use items from the garden. Exempted seniors and group A that are presenting their digital research project on the last day of regular class will need the dish on Wednesday, May 20th, 2014 at 7:45 AM. All other students in group B will need to arrange their dish for Friday, May 22nd at 8:00 AM. The recipe card is due on the HUB on Friday, May 15th. You must provide 5 copies of it on the day of your presentation. This is worth 20% of the Spring Final Exam Grade.

Guest for Audience: Create an invitation and coordinate a guest to attend our research presentation event. Invitations due for review and to be delivered by Monday, May 11th. Exempted seniors and group A need to coordinate a guest to attend on Wednesday, May 20th, 2015 from 8:00 AM to 9:30 AM. Students in group B need to arrange their guest on Friday, May 22nd from 8:00 AM to 10:00 AM. It is preferred that this guest be a gardener or someone connected to horticulture. However, WHS faculty or staff members or family and adult friends are welcome. Attempting to coordinate a guest is 5% of the Spring Final Exam Grade. If a does not attend, you are not penalized. If one or more guests do attend, you may earn up to 10 bonus points.

Research Proposal: This is due on the HUB on Friday, May 14th by the end of 1st period. The completed research proposal is worth 30% of spring final average.

Spring Final Exam:

Digital Presentation 45% of spring final project score

Written research proposal 30% of spring final project score

Healthful, Locally-sourced dish 20% of spring final project score

Guest for Audience 5% of spring final project score

**For exempted seniors, the research proposal, the presentation, dish and guest are worth two major grades in the 6th six weeks.

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