In this chapter, you will learn how experiments are structured. This structure or experimental setup is called the research design. The research design of an experiment determines both whether the experiment is likely to succeed and the reliability of its results.

By the end of this chapter you should be able to, list the main components of an experimental design, describe the purpose of having a hypothesis in a STEM-based research project, explain the importance of doing background research on independent and dependent variables, compare and contrast the individual entities or trials within the experimental groups, describe how constants are different from the control, explain why it is important to consider possible extraneous variables when you are designing a STEM research project, distinguish between quantitative data and qualitative data, and describe how recording only inferences may interfere with data collection. This free sample chapter also includes the Table of Contents, Preface, Introduction, and Index.