📊 How to make a results table

The shape of the table

Every results table here has the same shape, so anybody can read yours:

• Down the side: the levels, one row for each thing you tried.
• Across the top: Try 1, Try 2, Try 3.
• The last column: the mean, from 4th grade up.
• In the header: the unit, so everyone knows what the numbers are.

Draw the table before you start testing, with the levels already written down the side. Then, while you test, all you do is fill in boxes, and you can't forget a try.

The results sheet prints this shape for you, blank or filled in from your project, with graph paper underneath.

A filled-in example (made-up numbers)

For the pendulum you change the length of the string and count how many swings it makes in 15 seconds. These numbers are made up to show the shape. Yours will be different, and yours are the ones that count.

The header reads: String length | Try 1 | Try 2 | Try 3 | Mean (swings). Then one row for each length:

• 20 cm: 17, 16 and 18, so the mean is 17 swings.
• 40 cm: 12, 11 and 13, so the mean is 12 swings.
• 60 cm: 10, 9 and 11, so the mean is 10 swings.

Read across a row and the three tries sit close together, which is a good sign. Read down the mean column and you see the pattern the test was looking for.

Where the mean goes, and how to find it

The mean goes in the last column, one in each row. To find it, add up the tries in that row and divide by how many tries there were.

For the 20 cm row: 17 + 16 + 18 = 51, and 51 ÷ 3 = 17.

If it doesn't come out even, round to one number after the decimal point, like 16.7, and round every row the same way. Here's what fairs usually expect from the table at each age:

• 1st–3rd: Levels and tries, numbers or pictures.
• 4th–6th: Units in the header and a mean column.
• 7th and up: A mean for every level of both tests.

So a 1st or 2nd grader can skip the mean altogether. A table of tries, or a row of tally marks or little drawings, is plenty.

Fill it in as you go

• Write each number the moment you measure it. A number you try to remember later isn't really data.
• Never rub out an odd number. Draw one line through it, do the try again, and say why in your logbook.
• If something odd happens on a try, like the string catching on the table, put a small star beside that number and explain it under the table.
• Write the unit once, in the header, not after every number.
• Keep the table even if it gets messy. Copy it neatly for the board, and bring the messy one along too.

Then turn your means into a picture with how to draw a bar graph.