Coaching Centre
Chapter 8: Independent Research Project Notes
How to plan, run and report your own scientific investigation: choosing and refining a research question, judging sources, designing a valid experiment, risk assessment, research ethics and First Nations knowledge, measurement uncertainty and errors, processing and graphing data, evaluating results and writing a scientific report.
Sections
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8A Choosing a research question Mastered
The kinds of investigation you can do, how to find a topic that suits you, how to narrow a broad idea into a focused, testable research question, and how to plan the project with a timeline and a logbook.
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8B Researching and judging sources Mastered
Primary and secondary sources, how peer review works, how to judge whether a source is reliable (including AI chatbots), writing a short literature review, respecting First Nations knowledge as a source, and referencing in APA style.
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8C Designing a valid experiment Mastered
Writing a hypothesis with a reason, the difference between a control group and controlled variables, choosing the values of the independent variable, why sample size and replicates matter, randomisation and blind testing, and choosing equipment.
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8D Risk assessment Mastered
The difference between a hazard and a risk, rating risks with a likelihood and consequence matrix, the hierarchy of controls, safety data sheets, writing a risk assessment for your own investigation, and staying safe when working at home or in the field.
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8E Research ethics Mastered
Why research needs ethics approval, research with people (informed consent, privacy and anonymity), research with animals (the Australian code and the 3Rs), and respecting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge through Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) principles.
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8F Accuracy, precision and uncertainty Mastered
What accuracy, precision, reliability and validity mean, the resolution of instruments and reading uncertainty, absolute and percentage uncertainty, uncertainty from repeated trials, systematic and random errors, and percentage error, with a pendulum experiment to measure g.
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8G Processing and graphing data Mastered
Building results tables with trials and means, types of data, choosing the right graph including histograms and scatter graphs, lines of best fit and outliers, calculating and interpreting a gradient, interpolation and extrapolation, and using spreadsheets.
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8H Analysing and evaluating results Mastered
Describing trends and correlations with data, why correlation is not causation (hidden variables, reverse causation and chance), writing a discussion, evaluating validity, reliability and accuracy with specific improvements, and writing a conclusion that answers the aim.
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8I Writing and presenting your report Mastered
The sections of a scientific report and what goes in each, writing an abstract and a method someone could repeat, scientific writing style, figures and captions, academic honesty and AI, and presenting your research as a poster or talk.
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8J Research project review Mastered
A summary of the whole research project chapter, a checklist to use on your own project, key words, and a mixed test on questions, sources, design, risk, ethics, uncertainty, graphs, evaluation and report writing.