How to Write an Analysis/Discussion for a Science Project
Science project presentations are made up of an introduction, hypothesis, materials and methods, experimentation, analysis and discussion. The introduction gives the background information pertinent to the question you are addressing, and the hypothesis presents an educated guess that answers the question. For example, if the question is "why do birds have feathers?", the hypothesis might be "feathers make birds waterproof." Experiments are designed with the intention to prove or disprove the hypothesis. The goal of the analysis and discussion sections is to explain the results of the experiments in reference to your hypothesis.
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Instructions
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Explain & Theorize
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For analysis, state WHAT happened in each experiment. Exclude any WHY statements about what you observed. For example, "In our first experiment, I tested feather permeability by (brief experimental outline). I allowed the feather to sit for (time amount) without observing any change in the water droplets." This should be done for each experiment and should build up a body of evidence toward some final result.
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The discussion section covers the WHY. Take all of your experimental evidence, already clearly outlined in the analysis, and make some judgments about why you think you got the results you did.
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Answer the following points: How does the data reflect back to your hypothesis? Were you right? Were you wrong? If you were wrong, what do you think is correct now? What experiments would you do to confirm this more thoroughly?
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Now that you have evidence, do the results make sense? For example, what if feathers did make birds waterproof? Yes, that makes sense because birds have to live outside in the weather! If they don't make sense, consider in the discussion why you disagree with the results and what may have caused them--how the data was collected, insufficient tools, etc. (It is fine to disagree as long as you report what you actually observed in the analysis).
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If the analysis and discussion sections are combined, simply combine the ideas stated above. Describe each experiment and state what you observed and what you think it means. Repeat for each experiment. As you accumulate data, refer back to your hypothesis and build your body of evidence.
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Tips & Warnings
Remember: the point of the hypothesis is not to be right, but to have something solid to test! Disproving your hypothesis is valid science! In fact, it's worthwhile to do your analysis during your experimentation. Let your results guide you toward understanding the problem. You can change your hypothesis after every experiment if need be. It's what happens in real scientific research..
