Choose two nonhuman species that interact with each other, such as bees and flowers, or predator and prey species, or two species that compete. Or, you can consider the effect of an environmental factor on living nonhuman organisms, such as the effects of light or sound on plants or animals, or how food preference, or nutrient quantity/quality affect plants or animals. These are just a few examples. Your observations may lead you to many other types of questions about living organisms, their interactions, and requirements for life.

Start with an Introduction/Observation and move through the steps of the scientific method as outlined below. Your paper should follow this format.

Remember, you don’t have to actually do the experiment, just write what you would do to test your hypothesis. The experiment you create to test your hypothesis should contain a control and treatment group and be detailed enough that it could be reproducible by others.

Observations/Introduction:

Describe your observation.
Include background information about your observations that you have found using references.
List and cite references using APA format.
Question: Ask a question about the observation that you have made.

Hypothesis: Write a statement that describes your explanation for the observation and question.
Prediction: What do you predict as outcomes (results) of this experiment? (An if-then statement)

Controlled Experiment and Methods:

Describe the experiment.
Describe variables to be held constant.
Note variable to be tested.
List controls.
Tells what data will be collected.
Describe how only one variable is being tested at a time, while others are held constant.
Results: Give the results (data) for the experiment. This will be created (imagined) by you because you are not actually doing this experiment.

Conclusion/Discussion:

Do you reject or accept the hypothesis based on the results?
Discuss what this means in terms of the hypothesis, or need for additional experiments, or perhaps practical use of the results.