Based on the terminology my students use, it appears that they think of every research project as an “experiment.” They are often surprised to learn that there are, in fact, many different types of research and that experiments make up only a small subset of these (especially among sociologists). My favorite is when students describe an interpretive ethnographic research project as an experiment, since I imagine the blood pressure of ethnographers rising at the mere thought of such an association.
Keep trying students, you’ll get it right eventually!
Memoirs of a SLACer 