An example of the Experiment Design page of the report is as follows:

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

Problem

Do bean plants grow taller with ACME or Generic Brand fertilizer?

 

Hypothesis

I predict that the answer to the problem is that bean plants given ACME fertilizer will grow taller than bean plants given Generic Brand fertilizer.  ACME fertilizer plants will grow the tallest because bean plants require nitrogen to grow and ACME fertilizer contains more  nitrogen than Generic fertilizer or no fertilizer.

 

Independent Variable

The independent variable that is purposely changed before the experiment to test what will happen is the brand of fertilizer that is given to the bean plants.  The brands of fertilizer that will be tested are ACME and GENERIC brand fertilizer.

 

Dependent Variable

The dependent variable that is measured numerically, recorded during the experiment, and answers the experiment's problem is the daily height of the bean plant measured in centimeters.

 

Control

The control group of the experiment will leave out the independent variable by not giving any fertilizer given to this group of bean plants.

 

Materials

The equipment, consumable supplies, measurement devices, and safety equipment required for this experiment include: 15 bean plants (each 10 centimeters tall) in 3 inch clay pots in potting soil, sun, Generic fertilizer, ACME fertilizer, triple beam balance, 250 mL beaker, metric ruler, watering can, safety goggles and gloves.

 

Constants

The constants that are kept the same because they could affect the dependent variable of the experiment include: same type and amount of soil, same size pots, plants are the same type, plants are the same height to begin with, plants are all healthy, plants are grown at the same temperature, and plants are given the same amount of fertilizer, water, and sunlight.