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Refining the
RESEARCH PROPOSAL

BY RICHEL A. HUGOS Grade 10 Research Teacher and Chemistry Teacher

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Designing
an Experiment
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EXPERIMENT
set of procedures that are used by
the investigator to be able to
collect the necessary information
that is needed to verify or test the
truthfulness of the hypothesis

all the essential conditions are

controlled so that the results can
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only be attributed to the
independent variable
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OBJECTIVES
Describe the steps in Describe the categories of
designing an experimental design.
experimentation.

Differentiate positive control Recognize the importance of

from a negative control. experimentation.
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CONTROL
GROUP
 comparison
 helps in making
valid conclusions
1. Positive CG
2. Negative CG
Title Page

Cautions people against the

potential dangers of being
close to a large source of
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POSITIVE CONTROL
GROUP

 receives a positive
control treatment, a
treatment that is
already known for a
particular effect
NEGATIVE CONTROL
GROUP

 receives a negative
control treatment
(this is without
treatment or a
treatment that will
not give an effect)
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EXPERIMENTAL
DESIGN
create a set of procedures to
systematically test a hypothesis.

A good experimental design

requires a strong understanding
of the system you are studying.
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Step 1: Define your variables
 You should begin with a specific research
question.
Example question 1: Phone use and sleep
You want to know how phone use before bedtime affects sleep
patterns. Specifically, you ask how the number of minutes a person
uses their phone before sleep affects the number of hours they
sleep.

Example question 2: Temperature and soil respiration

You want to know how temperature affects soil respiration.
Specifically, you ask how increased air temperature near the soil
surface affects the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) respired from the
soil.
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Step 1: Define your variables
 To translate your research question into an experimental
hypothesis, you need to define the main variables and
make predictions about how they are related.
 Start by simply listing the independent and dependent
variables.
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Step 1: Define your variables
Extraneous
Confounding
Then youvariable
variables
need to isthink
any
(a.k.a.
variable
confounders
about that you’re
possible or confounding
not and
extraneous
investigating
factors) are athat
confounding typecan
of extraneous
variablespotentially affect
variable
and consider thethat
how outcomes
aremight
you related
ofcontrol
your
to a
research
study’s
themindependent
study.
in and dependent variables.
your experiment.

A variable must meet two conditions to be a confounder:

1.It must be correlated with the independent variable.

This may be a causal relationship, but it does not
have to be.
2.It must be causally related to the dependent
variable.
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Step 1: Define your variables
 Finally, you can put these variables together into a diagram.
Use arrows to show the possible relationships between
variables and include signs to show the expected direction
of the relationships.

increasing
Here we predict that the amounttemperature
of phone usewill
willincrease soil respiration
have a negative andhours
effect on decrease soil and
of sleep,
moisture,
predict an while decreasing
unknown soilofmoisture
influence will lead to
natural variation ondecreased soil respiration.
hours of sleep.
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Step 2: Write your hypothesis
 Now that you have a strong conceptual understanding of
the system you are studying, you should be able to write a
specific, testable hypothesis that addresses your research
question.
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Step 2: Write your hypothesis
The next steps will describe how to design a
controlled experiment. In a controlled
experiment, you must be able to:
1. Systematically and precisely manipulate the
independent variable(s).
2. Precisely measure the dependent variable(s).
3. Control any potential confounding variables.
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Step 3: Design your experimental
 How you manipulate the independent variable can affect
the experiment’s external validity – that is, the extent to
which the results can be generalized and applied to the
broader world.
treatments

 First, you may need to decide how widely to vary your

independent variable.
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Step 3: Design your experimental
 Second, you may need to choose how finely to vary your
independent variable. Sometimes this choice is made for
you by your experimental system, but often you will need
to decide, and this will affect how much you can infer from
treatments

your results.
Step 4: Assign your subjects to treatment
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How you apply your experimental treatments to your test

subjects is crucial for obtaining valid and reliable results.
First, you need to consider the study
size:
groups

“How many individuals will be

included in the experiment?”

In general, the more subjects you

include, the greater your
experiment’s statistical power, which
determines how much confidence
you can have in your results
Step 4: Assign your subjects to treatment
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 Then you need to randomly assign

your subjects to treatment groups.
Each group receives a different level
of the treatment (e.g. no phone use,
low phone use, high phone use).
groups

 You should also include a control

group, which receives no treatment.
The control group tells us what would
have happened to your test subjects
without any experimental
intervention.
Step 4: Assign your subjects to treatment
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When assigning your subjects

to groups, there are two main
choices you need to make:
groups

1. A completely randomized
design vs a randomized
block design.
2. A between-subjects design
vs a within-subjects design.
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“RANDOMIZATION”
An experiment can be completely randomized or
randomized within blocks (aka strata):

1.Sometimes
In a completelyrandomization isn’t
randomized design, everypractical
subject is
assigned to a treatment group at random.
or ethical, so researchers create partially-
2.random or even
In a randomized non-random
block designs.
design (aka stratified An
random
experimental design
design), subjects are where
first grouped treatments
according to a
characteristic they share, and then randomly assigned
aren’t randomly assigned
to treatments within those groups.
is called a
quasi-experimental design.
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“BETWEEN SUBJECT /
In a between-subjects design (also known as an independent

WITHIN SUBJECTS”
measures design or classic ANOVA design), individuals receive
only one of the possible levels of an experimental treatment.

In medical or social research, you might also use matched pairs

within your between-subjects design to make sure that each
treatment group contains the same variety of test subjects in the
same proportions.

In a within-subjects design (also known as a repeated measures

design), every individual receives each of the experimental
treatments consecutively, and their responses to each treatment
are measured.
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“BETWEEN SUBJECT /
Counterbalancing (randomizing or reversing the order of

WITHIN SUBJECTS”
treatments among subjects) is often used in within-subjects
designs to ensure that the order of treatment application doesn’t
influence the results of the experiment.
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Step 5: Measure your dependent
Finally, you need to decide how you’ll collect data on your
dependent variable outcomes. You should aim for reliable
and valid measurements that minimize research bias or
variable

error.

Some variables, like temperature, can be objectively

measured
Experiments
with
How preciselyareyou scientific
measure
always
instruments.
your dependent and
context-dependent,
Others
variable may need to
alsoexperimental
a good affects the
be operationalized
kinds
designofwill
statistical to turn
take intoanalysis
account you them
can
all of into
useunique
the measurable
on your data.
considerations of your
observations.
study system to produce information that is both valid and relevant
to your research question.
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