Research stage
Choosing your topic
- You need to choose a relevant topic in physics to investigate.
- You must agree your topic with your teacher or lecturer.
Deciding your aim
Once you have chosen your topic, you need to decide what the aim of your investigation is.
Have a clear idea of what you want to find out. You will need to clearly say what the aim is and show that you have answered this.
Experimental research
- When choosing your experiment(s), remember that it/they must allow measurements to be taken.
- When carrying out your experiment(s), you must work either on your own or as part of a small group. If you are working as part of a small group, you must take an active part.
- Make sure you take a sufficient number of measurements over a wide enough range to meet the aim of your investigation.
- You must repeat measurements.
- You must estimate the scale reading uncertainty in all the measurements you make.
- You will use your raw experimental data during the report stage.
Internet/literature research
If you have gathered experimental data from a single experiment, you need to find data from websites, books and/or journals that is relevant to your experimental data. This could be:
- a table
- a graph
- data from diagrams or text
In your report, you will need to describe the physics relevant to your aim. You can gather extracts from websites, books and/or journals to help you write your description of the underlying physics. During the report stage you will need to show your understanding by writing this description using your own words.