How to Write a Conclusion for a Science Project
As a student, you should know how to write a conclusion for a science project especially if you are pursuing a science course because you are bound to write one at some point in your academic career. The conclusion is the last section of the project report and it summarizes what you discovered during the project or based on the results of the project in less than or in one page- school.discoveryeducation.com.
The lab project report is basically a description of the experiment from the beginning to the end. It describes procedures, analyzes data and reports results. Your report should demonstrate what you learned from the project or experiment.
Why you should to know how to write a conclusion for a science project
A good conclusion should be an integral part of your science project report. This is because the conclusion is the section where you reiterate the main findings of the science project while giving readers a clear overview of the entire science project or experiment. It indicates that you effectively learned the major objectives of the assignment or the experiment.
During the process of executing a science project, you ask a question at the beginning; perform an experiment and record results. As such, the conclusion of your science project should be simple and plain answering the question that was asked at the beginning of the project. It should show that the science project served its intended purpose effectively. Knowing how to write the conclusion of a science project report enables you to come up with a conclusion section that is concise, clear and straight to the point- sciencefairproject.virtualave.net.
Steps to follow when writing a conclusion for a science project
The conclusion section of your science project should be a description of the main purpose of the project, the findings, their explanations and recommendations for future projects or study.
To write the conclusion of your science project:
- Restate the main or overall purpose of the project.
Example: This experiment’s purpose was to find out how bean plants’ growth is affected by stress by comparing bean plants’ growth when subjected to 15 days of stress with non-stressed bean plants acting as the control experiment.
- Report the major findings of your science project
This includes summarizing the data of the project report.
Example: There was no significant variation in the height of non-stressed plants and stressed plants. As indicated in the graph above, all stressed plants had an average height of 10.2 cm while on average all non-stressed plants had a height of 10.4 cm.
- State whether the data of the project supported your hypothesis
Example: Data from this science project did not support the hypothesis that the mean height of stressed bean plants would be dramatically lower than that of non-stressed bean plants.
- Show how the project or experiment can be improved
Example: This project was based on artificial stress sources. The plants were dug out at one time and then replanted. This experiment can be improved through real-life stressors’ simulation, including lacking nutrients and drought.
- Propose future projects or experiments
Your science project report should suggest future studies.
Example: Additional projects using different stress sources at frequent intervals can enhance the effectiveness of future science projects. Other crops can also be used for the same experiment including squash and corn. Perhaps, scientists may find chemicals that are released by plants when stressed.
Elements that show that you know how to write a conclusion for a science project
Readers can tell whether you really know how to write a science project’s conclusion or not. This is because there are elements of the conclusion that will make your science project complete.
These are:
- Answers to the questions
In most cases, a science project asks a question or questions. The asked question is what leads you to hypothesizing the results of the project or experiment. The conclusion should therefore include answers to the asked question. For instance, you may have asked, “What makes some bean plants grow faster than others?” The hypothesis could have been, “stress causes some been plants grow at a slower rate than others.” The conclusion of your science project should start by a restatement of the asked question and the hypothesis. This reminds readers about the research question while providing the basis for discussing the results.
- Summary of the results
The conclusion of a science project should summarize what happened after conducting the experiment or testing the hypothesis. This entails showing readers whether your guess was contradicted or supported by the experiment. Therefore, summarize results and show readers whether the results of the experiment proved your hypothesis correct or wrong. For instance, “data from the experiment confirmed the hypothesis because bean plants that were subjected to stress had a slower growth rate than non-stressed bean plants.”
Although the conclusion of a science project is the bulk of the project, it should present summarized results. This is because readers have read the entire discussion of the experiment and results in the other sections of the report. The conclusion should therefore include just a summary that reminds readers about the major results while concisely and clearly saying whether the project proved the hypothesis incorrect or correct.
- Learned lesson
The conclusion should tell readers whether the project was successful or not. Even if the experiment disapproved the experiment, you must have discovered or learnt something new. Use a few sentences to tell readers why the science project was important or how other scientists could benefit from the findings. Indicating the lesson that you learned from the project shows that you know how to write a conclusion for a science project since it shows the impact of the project. For instance, you can say, “Via this project, it can be learned that growth rate in plants is affected by stress. From the findings of this project it can be concluded that an environment that is free from stress factors is ideal for proper growth of plants.”
- Recommendations
Including recommendations entails considering the shortcomings of the project or ways that can be implemented to change the project’s procedure in order to make it more accurate or efficient. Remember that not every method is ideal for every science project. Therefore, finish the conclusion by recommending a replication of your experiment. For instance, you can recommend the use of other plants in the same project or experiment. If there were questions that were unanswered by your project or experiment, suggest ideas that future projects can use- www.ehow.com
Reminder and bonus hints on how to write the conclusion for a science project
- Summarize the results of the science project before you start writing the conclusion section.
- State whether the stated hypothesis was supported or contradicted by the results of your science project.
- If appropriate, indicate how dependent and independent variables indicated a relationship in your science project.
- Evaluate and summarize the experimental procedures and comment about their effectiveness and success.
- Suggest appropriate changes in the procedure or design of the experiment or/and possibilities of future studies.
Sample conclusion of a science project
“The objective of this science project was to determine the boiling point of pure or distilled water while confirming the accepted 100 degrees Celsius as the point where water reaches this point using three different experiments. The results of the experiments supported the hypothesis that the boiling point of pure or distilled water is 100 degrees Celsius. However, this happens only when water is distilled and at the sea level. The distilled water sample boiled at 100 degrees Celsius while other samples boiled at different temperatures. Therefore, this science project has proven that a slight change in the purity of water affects its boiling point at the sea level. However, other studies are necessary to determine other factors that may affect the boiling point of water apart from the seal level and impurities.”
Resist jumping into conclusions
Even when you know how to write a conclusion for a science project, you should avoid jumping into conclusions. You need to take time before you write this section of a science project report. For instance, ask yourself whether you can get similar results if you perform the experiment or project again. Before you write the conclusion, analyze the findings carefully to determine what exactly happened during the project or when testing the hypothesis.
Finally, take your time to determine everything that you learned from the project or experiment and why it is important. Your final conclusion should report the results of the project or experiment, hypothesis and whether it was supported by the findings, effectiveness of the procedure and suggest future studies.
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Sources
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/sciencefaircentral/scifairstudio/handbook/conclusion.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5378460_write-conclusions-science-projects.html
http://sciencefairproject.virtualave.net/conclusion.htm