If you are going to compare locations where sounds are heard you need to complete your observations during the same time of day. Both experiments will need to be done over several days and the amount of time you listen and document your sounds must be exactly the same. Remember, a good scientific experiment must be done a minimum of three times to be reliable. Be sure to conduct your experiment exactly the way you write your procedure, or be sure to change your procedure and redo your experiment. When conducting your experiments, document all of your observations using time, temperature, location, and any information that could be useful to your data.
Documentation is the key to investigative inquiry.
The reporting form for this experiment is set up for you to determine the time of day, the outdoor conditions, the number of sounds and the identification of the sounds if known. You may want to form several different groups and report your data first as a single group and then as an average of several groups for each location you choose. Procedural Steps for Conducting the Investigation 1. To help clarify what data you are to collect, review the Schoolyard Animal Sounds Reporting Form before beginning the experiment. Choose two to four locations on either the north, south, east or west side of the school to listen to animal sounds.