Abstracts
An abstract is another part of your written report. The purpose of an abstract is to supply someone viewing your project with a brief explanation of your efforts. An abstract should be no longer than two hundred and fifty (250) words. It too will be word processed, in its own folder and on the table with your project.
An abstract is made up of the following parts of your written report: purpose, method, results, conclusion and any possible applications. Remember that it must be 250 words or less. Therefore, the details of your method and results could be excluded.
As an example, let’s look at the fictitious experiment of John Student. “I germinated seeds and grew four plants of the same species for four weeks. I made the growth medium by measuring equal amounts of sand, peat moss, dirt, and vermiculite. I measured their height and placed one under yellow, red, orange, and green light. One plant started at 5.2 cm, two at 5.1 cm, three at 5.3 cm and four at 5.5 cm. I gave them 10 mLs of water every other day. I was careful to keep the temperature constant.”
In my abstract, I could summarize this by saying – Four plants, growing under different colors of light, were measured every day for four weeks. All other variables were kept constant.
The results can also be summarized. For example in my experiment above, I would not include the daily measurement of each plant, but I would summarize the pattern that I found. My abstract might read, “After four weeks, it was obvious that the plant under the red light was the healthiest and growing the fastest. It grew 2.1 cm.; yellow grew 1.9 cm., orange 1.8 cm., and green .8 cm.
In my final abstract below, I labeled all of the parts. DO NOT include labels in your abstract.
Abstract
The purpose of my experiment is to determine if different colors of light have any impact on the rate of growth of a species of plant (purpose). Four plants, growing under different colors of light, were measured every day for four weeks. All other variables were kept constant (method). After four weeks, it was obvious that the plant under the red light was the healthiest and growing the fastest. It had a total growth of 2.1 cm. In comparison, yellow grew 1.9 cm., orange 1.8 cm., and green 0.8 cm. (results). Therefore red light supports the growth of this species of plant better than yellow, orange, or green (conclusion). This information is important to people who grow plants under lights in greenhouses. They should invest in bulbs that emit more red wavelengths of light rather than the other colors or just fluorescent light (application).
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