Assignment Paper

Your report needs to follow this format (don’t forget your headers for each section):

1. Introduction.

Introduce your investigation, provide background information about microclimates in the San Francisco Bay Area (a minimum of three citations is required here), and explain what you are investigating and why it is important to investigate it. Here’s a hint, we are interested in microclimates and the driving forces behind their development here in the Bay Area.

• Construct hypotheses. Use what you learned in your background research to generate the believed outcome of your investigation. For example, SFSU has more tree cover than the Dogpatch neighborhood, so I believe SFSU will have cooler temperatures throughout the day. Your report must make a minimum of three hypotheses, one for each location.

Purpose/Motivation: Rewrite the objectives or purpose of the lab in your own words. This can be 1-2 sentences.

Background information: Provide the necessary background information about the topic or subject you are conducting your investigation on. With your background info you should be proving to the reader that you are well versed in the subject at hand, e.g., you know what you are talking about. This section of your Introduction should be anywhere from 4 – 6 sentences (or its own paragraph) and should contain multiple in-text citations.

Hypothesis: In 1-2 sentences, state your hypothesis, which is an explanation of what you expect the results of your experiment/investigation will be. ALWAYS INCLUDE A HYPOTHESIS IN YOUR INTRO!! Your hypothesis should go at the end of your Introduction.

2. Discussion.

Link the data you summarized in Results to your three hypotheses. It is perfectly okay for your data to prove a hypothesis wrong (actually this is by far the most important aspect of scientific progress). Address where the data supports or goes against each of your hypotheses. Provide reasons why you think each of your hypotheses was either confirmed or rejected.

The Discussion section is where you analyze and interpret the data from your Results section and determine whether your hypothesis was accepted or rejected. Describe in words what the data mean. Answer any specific questions that were posed in the lab assignment here in the Discussion section.

This is also where you would discuss any mistakes you might have made while conducting the investigation or any errors that may have occurred while compiling your data. You may wish to describe ways the study might have been improved.

Write several sentences interpreting your results and what they mean. Think back to the information you researched for your introduction, and state why you think the data trended the way it did. Furthermore, provide a sentence, or two, explaining whether or not your hypothesis turned out to be true or if it was rejected. Cite any sources you refer to in this section. Finally, create a few sentences describing any potential issues with the data and your analysis. If errors are occurring, where are they and why are they happening? How could this be solved?

3. Conclusion.

Finally, state your final conclusions about microclimates in the Bay Area. Often one scientific investigation raises additional questions that were not part of the original question. Obviously, temperature does not tell the whole story of weather and microclimates in the Bay Area, so address what other questions that arose while you conducted this investigation?

The Conclusion is 1 – 2 paragraphs of writing where you summarize ALL of the main points of your lab assignment. The Conclusion is not a two-sentence blip where you state how much you “enjoyed doing the assignment”. For your Conclusion you need to provide a summary of the following:

• Purpose of the lab and your motivation for conducting the investigation (1-2 sentences).

• What your hypothesis was and whether it was accepted or rejected (1-2 sentences).

• Your results (1-2 sentences).

• What your results mean and why the reader should care about them (2-3 sentences).

• Acknowledge any mistakes or errors in your investigation (1 – 2 sentences).

• Questions that came up for you while doing this assignment OR ideas for future investigations (1 – 2 sentences).

• Purpose of the lab and your motivation for conducting it (1-2 sentences).

• Restate your hypothesis and whether it was accepted or rejected (1-2 sentences).

• What your results were (1-2 sentences).

• What your results revealed, why the reader should care about them, and how it relates to sustainability in the Bay Area (2-3 sentences).

• Acknowledge any mistakes or errors in your investigation (1 – 2 sentences).

• Questions that came up for you while doing this assignment AND/OR ideas for future investigations (1 – 2 sentences

4. References (a minimum of 3 is required)

If your research was based on someone else’s data, or if you cited facts or other research in the introduction that require documentation, then you must list these references. Chicago, MLA, and/or APA are all acceptable.

Rubric:

Introduction:

What aspect of the Bay Area are we interested in and why is it important? Clearly states the paper’s purpose.

Background research provides solid evidence that will help make a prediction of the data results

This section provides at least 3 resources to support the background research.

Construct hypotheses:

Hypothesis 1: Well defined hypothesis for location 1

Hypothesis 2: Well defined hypothesis for location 2

Hypothesis 3: Well defined hypothesis for location 3

Discussion:

Link the data to your hypotheses.

Address where the data supports or rejects your hypotheses.

Conclusion:

Final concluding statements about microclimates in the Bay Area.

What other questions arose for you while you conducted this investigation?

Location 1:

SFSU / Sunset

High

Low

Sept 20

85

57

Sept 21

89

62

Sept 22

73

56

Sept 23

76

54

Sept 24

73

53

Average

79.2

56.4

Location 2:

Daly City

High

Low

Sept 20

79

61

Sept 21

83

54

Sept 22

66

50

Sept 23

67

52

Sept 24

73

55

Average

73.6

54.4

Location 3:

Mill Valley

High

Low

Sept 20

82

54

Sept 21

88

57

Sept 22

76

58

Sept 23

80

53

Sept 24

80

56

Average

81.2

55.6