• Collect information on a topic of interest and identify patterns and cause-effect relationships. This is like an experiment in that you are analyzing cause-effect relationships, but this type of project can be done on cause- effect relationships you cannot measure directly, like;
1) affect of volcano eruptions on rice field production;
2) affect of human migration of elephant population;
3) how nearness of oceans affects temperature and precipitation of cities.
This type of project is exactly like an experiment except that you may use another person's data to draw original conclusions of your own. You still have a hypothesis, materials, analysis and so on.
[In grade 8, this year, we are comparing weather patterns and geography at two cities in different locations to see if there are patterns caused by geographic phenomena like oceans and mountain ranges. This kind of research would be an "investigation."]
