Independent Research Project
Scientists use what they know about the world and how it works
and combine that knowledge with careful observations and
measurements of natural phenomena to discover new details
about how things work. This year we will establish a strong basic
understanding of the matter and the changes that matter
undergoes. Your project as science students is to use your
observation, measurement, and analysis skills to find out a
question that you may be interested to investigate to further
increase your knowledge.
The first thing you will need to do is to formulate a question that
will be the basis of your research. No more than two people may
work on a project together. Students may choose to enter the
science fair. Papers for the science fair must be filled and
submitted in advance (October). Please let your science teacher
know if you are planning to participate.
Attached are some guidelines to help you chose your research
topic and formulate a question. You should meet all of these
requirements.
It is suggested that you use one of the lab techniques that you will
develop throughout the year, including gravimetric analysis,
titration, calorimetry, spectroscopy, etc, to investigate the
relationship between two variables from the list below. You may
investigate other variables not shown here, but you must make
sure that all data is quantitative. You can also use Vernier probes
that are listed on the last page of this document.
Some topics are:
Mass
Volume
Concentration
Temperature
Absorbance of light
Reaction Rate
pH,pKa,pKb
Vapor pressure
Atomic structure
Surface area
Enthalpy of Reaction
Voltage
Molecular structure Pressure
Conductivity
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Buffer capacity
Amps
Boiling/Melting point
van’t Hoff factor
Lattice energy
Solubility
Molar mass
Electronegativity
Ionization energy
Toxicity
Heat of combustion Caloric content
Freezing point
depression
Viscosity
Boiling point elevation
In reality, once a question is formulated, it is submitted to a
government agency or private contractor that will review the
proposal, to either approve, decline, or edit it with additional
requests that they will require in order to fund the research. You’ll
be submitting your proposal to your teacher, who will review the
proposal and either approve, decline, or provide additional
requests for your project. Your proposal should be typed; double
spaced, and should include the following items:
 Experimental Question: A detailed statement of your question
 Rationale/Hypothesis: Explains what your question is trying
to answer. Why is it that answering this question is
important? What information will it provide, and why will be
beneficial? Some background research here will be useful to
help support your rationale and hypothesis, as well as
references to previous work done in this area (essentially a
rough version of the introduction of your report).If you
include references to previous work, please include a Work
Cited page.
 Outline of Experiment: An explanation of how you will answer
your question (i.e. a procedure of your experiment). This
section include a timeline that you will need to complete to
keep you on track and on time to meet your deadline, as well
as a list of materials needed and a data table you will use to
keep track of your data.
 Feasibility: Is it possible to answer this question soundly? Is it
possible to perform the experiment at school or at home?
Financially, is it possible?
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Each person in your group will be responsible for developing
their own question and submitting a proposal. You will receive
some class time before proposals are due to meet with your
partner and discuss the progress each of you has made. At that
time, you should each bring in your proposal so that your group
members may review them and give suggestions. Shortly after the
proposal due date, each group will meet with their science
teacher and present their different project ideas, and the best one
will be approved for the group to work on.
I will be looking for the following criteria when picking the best
project ideas:
 Chemistry related
 Materials/time needed are manageable
 Methods are possible (experimentation will lead to results)the more developed your plan is the more likely I will see as
possible/ understand your thought process.
 Hypothesis is reasonable based on information available on
the topic (the more developed your intro is the more likely I
will see this connection).
Once a week each group will be given a class time to work on the
project and briefly meet with their teacher to show the progress
you are making. You will need to complete an updated sheet (see
attached) to bring to the meeting, as well as your most up-to-date
edition of your report to show your progress.
In addition, once a week, students will fill out the Peer
Review rubric. This will contribute to the individual portion of the
IRP grade. Peer Review rubrics should be filled out honestly.
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Developing IRP Ideas
Choosing your topic and designing your experiment/investigation
is very challenging and important to the overall success of your
project. Please think deeply about what kind of project you want to
do. Consider:
1. Areas of interest in Chemistry, particularly areas that also
lend themselves to further investigation by you under the
confines of this project.
2. Areas of interest/comfort in science investigation methods
a) Do you want to go outside and collect original data
for a smaller-scale analysis?
b) Do you prefer to stick to data set that already exists
for a larger-scale data analysis?
c) Do you want to do a combination/comparison of (a)
and (b)?
d) Do you want to create a model of a phenomenon in
the lab that will provide results that can be applied to
the natural phenomena?
3. Students will have access to lab material during their
Chemistry class once a week. Students should plan
accordingly and maximize time with lab equipment.
Additional lab time will not be offered. This includes absence
due to sickness, fieldtrips, half days, and snow days. Plan
ahead!
4. Students will be provided with most materials in the lab. This
will include computers and the Verniers Probes. Spectronic
20’s will also be available for some groups. It is possible to
complete a wide variety of projects given the available
equipment. Students may be asked to supply some materials
if it deviates from the chemistry standard equipment.
Students must sign up for all equipment the class period
before the investigation time. This includes probes and
computers. Plan and sign-up early.
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Criteria for Acceptance of IRP:
All independent research projects must meet these criteria to be
acceptable:
CHECH OFF
Criteria for Acceptance
Is the topic on Chemistry?
Does this project have testable/
measurable hypothesis? Data
must be collected and analyzed
in order to support a
question/hypothesis posed.
Does the project attempt to
answer a question/describe a
relationship that cannot already
be answered sufficiently by
reading a textbook or other
common resource? Will it be
useful in describing current and
predicting future behavior?
 It is ok if you are
quantifying a known
relationship for predictive
purposes or collecting
your own data in the field
to support/test a known
relationship
 Generally “what is it”
questions are research in
textbook questions, not
research investigation
questions….
Are the methods realistic given
the materials and time
available? Do the instruments
or data sets exist that you
need? Do they measure what
you are trying to measure
accurately enough to be useful?
Are the data
collection/experimental design
good enough to eliminate
variables you want to hold
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constant?
Is the experiment safe and
humane?
Is it challenging enough to
involve students for a couple of
months of research and data
collection?
Other things to consider:
 How much data/ how many trials will you need in order to
have enough data to answer the question fully?
 If the answer to your question was “yes” or positive, what
would you expect the data to look like? What about if it is a
“no” or negative?
 What errors could occur in your procedure that might give
you a false positive answer? What experiments (controls)
could you do to rule out these types of errors? What about
false negative?
Vernier LabPro Equipment:
Sensors:
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Temperature probe- Range: -25°C to +125°C
pH Sensor –Range: 0 to14
Gas Pressure –Range: 0 to 2.1atm
Colorimeter-Allows to study the light absorption of solutions.
It can be used with Beer’s Law experiments, determining the
concentration of unknown solutions, or studying the changes
in concentration over time
 Conductivity – This probe has the ability to test for salinity,
total dissolved solids (TDS), or conductivity in water
samples. It can be used to investigate the difference
between ionic and molecular compounds, strong and weak
acids, salinity, or ionic compounds that yield different ratio of
ions. The conductivity probe can monitor concentration or
conductivity at three different sensitivity settings.
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