earth science ; Drops on a penny lab

Drops of Water:  Measurement and Error

Instructions:  DO NOT WRITE ON THIS HAND OUT!  You and your group mates will be practicing the steps of the scientific method, conducting an experiment and writing-up a lab. 

·        On a separate sheet of paper (NOT in the notebook) write the names of the members of your table that actively help with all parts of the mini-lab; this will be your lab write-up.

·        Write out the question given to you below, include the label Question:

·        Write out Hypothesis: and then your educated answer to answer the question.  Remember to discuss with your tablemates about how to make an educated guess then record the hypothesis on your lab write-up.

·        Continue writing the label for each step (Q, H, M, P, D & C) and following the hints for each step.

Question:  How many drops of water can a penny hold?

Hypothesis:  What is your educated guess to answer the question?  You may compare a penny next to a single drop to help you with this.

Materials:  Record every item used for data collection

Procedures: Record Step by step directions of how you used each material listed in your experiment to find your answer, include diagrams that help illustrate complex procedures. Final procedures should be more complex than those listed in your RD.

Data table:  Have room to include fifteen+ trials of data collection.  Yes, do the experiment at least fifteen times, (5 trails per person) make sure everyone in your group has an opportunity to collect data by doing the experiment.

Analysis:      What is your average number of drops? Show an example of how you calculated the average  # of drops for the trials you did. Create a data table showing the average drop # for your group. Make a bar graph of your trails and the average # of drops.

Conclusion:             This should be in paragraph form and not just answers to the following questions

Prompts: Did you answer the question?   Do your results compare to the other tables?  Explain.  How might error have occurred in your experiment?  How can you redo your experiment to attain more accurate results?

Bonus Points:  if you finish early, you may earn bonus points for conducting a next step to this experiment.  You are limited to the materials provided on your person & you must make another lab write up.  You may also include a graph of your data for e.c.