Northeast Florida Regional Science and Engineering Fair

Analyzing the Results

Graphing Data

Now that your experimentation is done, you need to organize the results and make conclusions. Sometimes, scientists are fooled by looking only at raw data – making an incorrect assumption that the data does or does not support the hypothesis. Carefully follow the steps below or you may miss important information and new ideas suggested by your data.

There are three steps to this process:

  1. Organize your Raw Data

    Be sure to use neat, easily understood graphs and tables. Don't leave anything out, or skip any information. Some of the best science discoveries come from our "mistakes".

  2. Analyze your data

    Compare results from different trials or treatments. Remember you are just presenting the facts, not what you think it means. If you have unexpected results, try to figure out why. Was there a problem with how you developed your hypothesis? Did you make a mistake?

  3. Decide what it means

    Now that you know how accurate your data is, and some of the problems with it, you can draw your conclusions. What does your data really tell you about your question?

Things to Think About

Analysis

When you analyze your findings, you are taking the raw data information and explaining why you think things happened. You do this in your own words. Think of it as if you were telling a friend what happened and why you think it happened. In your analysis, you should be describing/answering these kinds of things:

Below is a link to Statistics Workbook to help you understand some statistics involved with your science project.

Statistics Workbook

Conclusions

Once you have completed your analysis, you are ready to conclude your findings. Your conclusion is basically stating whether or not your hypothesis was supported and why and how you would do this differently. It should cover the following: