Year 10 project Due date: Tue June 26th 2012 Final submission of the project must take place

e on or before Tue 26th June 2012. Students must submit their project and have it signed off in room 32 before school on the due date (or before). Value The research project report is worth 25 % of your yearly assessment. Marks will be deducted for late presentation of any part of the project at a rate of 5 marks per day for three days, after which you will be awarded a zero, unless a medical certificate is provided. Tasks must be submitted to meet course requirements, even if a zero mark is to be awarded. Length of the project The written part of the project should not be longer than 4 typed pages single spaced 12-point font. Additional pages may be required for diagrams, photographs, tables and/or graphs. Guidelines and information - You must provide all equipment needed for the investigation the school cannot supply you with equipment. - The final report must be completed within the time available to you so that it is ready to hand in on the due date. - This project must be your own work. If you get ideas from other sources, you should acknowledge these in your bibliography. You will be penalised if you do this. You must not copy/share any part of this project with other students. - The purpose of the project is to allow you to apply some of the skills you are learning in class and to develop those skills in an activity over an extended period of time undertaking an investigation at home. The project is a compulsory component of the Stage 5 Science Syllabus. ________________________________________ Report Requirements Your report should explain to the reader what you did and what you found out, as well as presenting an analysis of your findings and any conclusions reached. There should be five clearly identifiable parts of your report. Hypothesis, aim, method, results, discussion and conclusion 1. Hypothesis: The hypothesis is a testable statement based on observations or critical thinking about a particular phenomenon. 1. Aim: Write a short statement that makes clear the purpose of the investigation. In planning this, write down exactly what you are trying to find out. Keep a journal or note book and jot down your ideas in your journal. Think of ways you could test your ideas (try to keep to simple experiments). 2. Method: Develop a plan of what you intend doing before you begin your investigation. Do not include this plan in your report. In your report, describe how you carried out the investigation using past tense, passive voice discuss this with your teacher (see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html). Plan your investigation carefully, using flowcharts if appropriate. If you find that you needed to change your plan, write down what changes were made and why they were necessary. In your method, state what measurements were made and how these were measured. Draw diagrams or include photographs to show how any equipment was used to conduct your investigation. 3. Results: Carry out your investigation and record all your observations and measurements. Present your data in a way that helps show the patterns or trends in your results. Consider using tables and graphs if these are appropriate. Keep your observations and results in a logical order. 6. Discussion: this section can include a report on what you did to make any measurements or observations valid and reliable. an identification of any variables and whether these were controlled or changed as a part of the investigation. how the variables were controlled. 5. Conclusion What did your results show you about the question, problem or hypothesis that you were investigating?

 Were your findings what you expected? If not can you present explanations or hypotheses concerning any discrepancies. Set out your report to make it easily readable and understood. ________________________________________ Skills Relevant to this Task (from the Stage 4-5 Science Syllabus) 5.16 accesses information from a wide variety of secondary sources 5.17 explains trends, patterns and relationships in data and/or information from a variety of sources 5.18 selects and uses appropriate forms of communication to present information to an audience 5.20 selects and uses appropriate strategies to solve problems 5.21 uses creativity and imagination in the analysis of problems and the development of possible solutions 5.22 plans, implements and evaluates the effectiveness of a variety of tasks independently and as a team member