Name: _____________________________________________________________ Block: ______

Laboratory Experiment Guide

Question: What question do you want to answer in your experiment?
(ex. Does raising the temperature in a classroom result in better test
scores?
Aim: The reasoning for conducting the experiment (i.e. describe your
question).
(ex. The aim of my experiment is to discover if increasing temperatures
raises test scores. Often articles are read about the classroom temperature,
and students talk about their comfort in a classroom. Some students say it
impacts their learning negatively, if the temperature is raised, while other
say it helps them pay attention and feel less sleepy in class. My goal is to
find with is true in order to better help teachers and administrators best
control the temperatures within their schools.)
Hypothesis: Your educated guess as to what the outcome of your
experiment will be. Explain why you chose this hypothesis.
(ex. If the temperature is raised, then students will not score better on
tests.)
I based this hypothesis off students inability to focus if they are
uncomfortable. They will have a harder time focusing on the classroom
instruction because they are worried about staying cooled down.
Variables: What pieces of your experiment are changed or stay the same.
Describe which variables you will manipulate (i.e. write out your dependent,
independent and controlled variables).
Dependent: The focus of your experiment, this will change (or not
change) when the scientist manipulates the independent variable. (ex.
Test scores)
Independent: The part of the experiment which the scientist changes.
(ex. Temperature of the classroom)
Controlled: The part of the experiment that remains constant. (ex.
The classroom, students and teacher)

Method: The procedure you use to complete the experiment. This section
should be written so anyone can pick up your experiment sheet and
complete the laboratory procedure (i.e. it should be clear and concise how
to run the experiment.) Often it is written as a step-by-step procedure, but
can also be written in a paragraph form.

(ex. The class will be divided into week long segments, with lessons
Monday-Thursday and a test on Friday.
The temperature will start at 70 degrees Fahrenheit (F), and increase
by 2 degrees Fahrenheit each week for 4 weeks.
o Week 1= 70
o Week 2= 72
o Week 3= 74
o Week 4= 76
Monday- Thursday, the teacher will follow the lesson plan procedure
given.
Friday, the test will be given.
The teacher will record the overall classroom test score each week and
record it on a data sheet.
A graph will be made from the data to see if test scores have
changed.)
Safety: What safety should you follow to ensure that your experiment is
completed in a safe manner for the scientist(s) and others in the room.

(ex. Students will be supplied with a bottle of water for each class.
The teachers and students will be suggested to wear proper attire for
warmer temperatures.
Only the temperature in one classroom will be changed, not for the
entire school.)
Equipment: What types of equipment will the scientist need to complete
the experiment.

(ex. Classroom
Students
Lesson materials
Test materials

Teacher
Thermostat
Air Conditioning Unit)
Results: The outcome of your experiment. This is usually represented by a
date table that is clear and has each unit represented clearly (ex. Length=
in meters). See the example below for a sample data table.
Week

Temperature (F)

1
2
3
4

70
72
74
76

Overall Test Scores

(%)
83%
79%
80%
75%

Graph/Chart: This represents the data that was collected in your

experiment. Often, it is represented in as a line graph, but sometimes other
graphs work better for the experiment the scientist is conducting. See the
example chart below.
Classroom Temperature vs Test Scores
85
80
75
70
65
60
Week 1

Week 2

Week 3
Temperature

Week 4

Test Score

Conclusion: Explain your results. You will draw an answer to your question
at the beginning of the experiment as well as address your hypothesis (was
it proven correct or disproven, explain).
(ex. My results should that raising the classroom temperature negatively
affect test scores. This answers my question of Does raising the
temperature in a classroom result in better test scores. My experiment has
shown that this is not true. The hypothesis I made also proven correct. From
Week 1 to Week 4 there as a drop in overall test scores for the students.

There was a slight bump of 1 point between Weeks 2 and 3, but overall the
test scores went down.
Evaluation: You will explain how your data was reliable (how do you know
it was accurate), what would you change about your experiment (think
about your method), and how could you improve or extend your experiment
to make it better. You will be presented with the questions: How reliable is
your data, what would you do differently if you were to complete the
experiment again, and how could you improve/extend the experiment.
(ex. How reliable is your data?
My data was not reliable because I only experimented with 1 class. This
does not give me a large amount of data and could greatly affect my results
because some students are more susceptible to heat than others.
What would you do differently if you were to complete the experiment
again?
I would change the method to include more teachers and students to get a
larger amount of data. This would result in have more data to work with and
see larger trends. I would also use classes from different subject areas and
grade levels to collect the best sample I can.
How could you improve/extend the experiment?
I would change how data was collected. I would have a variety of teachers
change the temperatures in their classrooms, as well as continue to raise
the temperatures for more weeks. I could see larger trends then over a 1
month period as this experiment was. I also would place multiple
thermometers throughout the room to check that the temperature stayed
constant, because the thermostat was not always accurate. This may have
altered my results and the validity of my experiment because the
temperature in the classroom was not accurate.)