Short Form (Verification of concept) – most of the hands-on activities done in a classroom are verifications/demonstrations of one or more scientific concepts. These types of activities should be written up in the science notebook as follows:
- What I did?
- What happened?
- Why did it happen?
Long Form (Scientific Method) – scientific experiments are also important in enhancing comprehension and critical thinking. Scientific experiments differ from verifications in that experiments are designed to test a hypothesis. Scientific experiments require a control and variables, verifications do not. Long form activity write ups should include:
- Question
- Research (Background Information)
- Hypothesis
- Experimental Design (Procedure)
- Results (Data Collection)
- Analysis (Discussion of meaning of results)
- Conclusion
- Suggestions (questions for further investigation)