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EE help needed! (Biology EE no results?)


jonathanlai928

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Hi all,

My EE topic is "To investigate and compare the antibacterial properties of different forms of natural antibiotics" and my research question is "A comparison of the alleged effectiveness of popular natural antibiotics. Do manuka honey, garlic and medicinal Echinacea Purpurea reduce the growth of the bacteria Lactobacillus Casei strain Shirota?"

I have done the experiment and have taken pictures of every single petri dish with the results since I'm growing bacteria in nutrient agar so actual proof of the results isn't a problem and I have a control with no antibiotic in it to compare. The problem is that I didn't get any results :( E.g. there was no "halo" of inhibition shown by the antibiotic for all of the alleged natural antibiotics I used. How do I write up the results section of my EE???? Do I simply refer to the pictures of the petri dishes (in the appendix) and say that there was no inhibition and come up with reasons why this happened or will I get severely penalised if I have no results to be able to do e.g. standard deviation with.

I am stuck at the moment on how to write up my EE. My supervisor told me to go ahead with it but I can't contact him to ask him for any advice since he's on holiday at the moment.

Thank you in advance.

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hey i definitely feel ur pain about not being able to contact your teachers :/ but like all science experiments, they dont always turn up the way they plan. If i was in ur position, I would probably work on my conclusion first (as odd as that sounds) then maybe by the time you finish perfecting that you might be able to reach ur supervisor. Look for literature values for your experiment and find out what should have happened. Explain that in full detail and make connections as to why it didnt work out. since you have no results to prove that you completed the experiment correctly, its probably best to try your best to explain the heck out of it to make sure examiners know that u knew what u were doing.

And again, not all experiments go as planned. Sometimes, mistakes happen.. writing a lab shouldnt be like plugging in values into a formula. Not all labs turn out the same. and your not going to make up your results, that would be inaccurate. Simply state that your hypothesis has not been supported by your data and explain your proof. compare it with lit. values and construct an analysis that states your error, explains the error, states what was to be expected according to lit. values, and explains such values. Finish with a statement that combines both your observations and research.

and dont stress.. seriously, i mean if u think about it, data (or no data) doesn't always have to support your hypothesis, you might not be proving a hypothesis right, but u are ruling it out and thats something :)

but again, i would advise you to get in contact with your supervisor as soon as you can. This is simply an opinion.. I would definitely consult ur teacher to make sure she/he doesnt have other plans in mind.

Edited by IBwanting2survive
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hey i definitely feel ur pain about not being able to contact your teachers :/ but like all science experiments, they dont always turn up the way they plan. If i was in ur position, I would probably work on my conclusion first (as odd as that sounds) then maybe by the time you finish perfecting that you might be able to reach ur supervisor. Look for literature values for your experiment and find out what should have happened. Explain that in full detail and make connections as to why it didnt work out. since you have no results to prove that you completed the experiment correctly, its probably best to try your best to explain the heck out of it to make sure examiners know that u knew what u were doing.

And again, not all experiments go as planned. Sometimes, mistakes happen.. writing a lab shouldnt be like plugging in values into a formula. Not all labs turn out the same. and your not going to make up your results, that would be inaccurate. Simply state that your hypothesis has not been supported by your data and explain your proof. compare it with lit. values and construct an analysis that states your error, explains the error, states what was to be expected according to lit. values, and explains such values. Finish with a statement that combines both your observations and research.

and dont stress.. seriously, i mean if u think about it, data (or no data) doesn't always have to support your hypothesis, you might not be proving a hypothesis right, but u are ruling it out and thats something :)

but again, i would advise you to get in contact with your supervisor as soon as you can. This is simply an opinion.. I would definitely consult ur teacher to make sure she/he doesnt have other plans in mind.

All right. Yeah you have a good point and I'll just have to explain it more than others normally would to justify what I did but I guess that's okay :) THANK YOU SO MUCH I know what I've got to do now!!

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