Experimental Design B/C

[cconry]

Can you do something totally simple like does cutting a potato into a larger slice affect the weight?

[mnstrviola]

Can you do something totally simple like does cutting a potato into a larger slice affect the weight?

Yes, but the event supervisor may tier you down (like in the case of states last year) for "not enough materials" or simply "lame experiment". Try to find a balance between too easy that it's sad and too hard that you run out of time.

[hammer985]

Hey this is my first time competing in this competition do you guys have some tips you could give me?

[GinkgoBiolab]

Hey this is my first time competing in this competition do you guys have some tips you could give me?

Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice some more. Practice. Practice. Practice even more.
Seriously, though, this event is basically "practice makes perfect." Follow the rubric, work as a team...and make sure you write neatly (:

[butter side up]

Hey this is my first time competing in this competition do you guys have some tips you could give me?

Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice. Practice some more. Practice. Practice. Practice even more.
Seriously, though, this event is basically "practice makes perfect." Follow the rubric, work as a team...and make sure you write neatly (:

Yeah, this is seriously the best possible advice. This event requires excellent use of time, and a point or two in either direction can mean several places in standings. You want to just get a copy of the rubric from soinc.org, some materials, and just run practices like competition. Try doing it without the rubric after your first few attempts, and then get together as a group and grade yourselves. You want to be confident and methodical, and be able to write concisely and quickly- and that only comes with practice.
Follow any and all rules the proctor gives you, and if they give you a guideline to follow for your experiment, follow it.
Label everything, especially on data, stats, and the graph- you want to make it as easy as possible for the judges to find all the parts of your write-up.
Make sure your description of the variables are consistent- you don't want to refer to something by multiple names. If you decide you're using "ramp height," use ramp height for everytime it's mentioned. A lot of points are lost here.

[siciscio]

This has been a discussion among my fellow team mates and I for quite some time. If you are given alka seltzer tablets and water, and your testing how something affects the rate at which water dissolves, what would you do? ( another would be for proving Yeast is alive )

My team came up with breaking the alka seltzer in to different portions and using the amount of alka seltzer used as the independent variable. However, we weren't quite sure what we could do for the Standard of Comparison. We thought about using "zero' alka seltzer tablets, but would that give us infinite seconds or zero seconds since the alka seltzer neither began nor stop dissolving. We also thought about using 1 whole tablet as the standard of comparison, but that really isn't a base line... So does any one have any thoughts on this? Or how we could do this experiment differently so that we could avoid this problem? Thanks in advance

[EverybodyTalksJack]

I am new to experimental design. Any tips or an explanation of the event?

[zyzzyva980]

Try the Experimental Design Wiki

[mnstrviola]

This has been a discussion among my fellow team mates and I for quite some time. If you are given alka seltzer tablets and water, and your testing how something affects the rate at which water dissolves, what would you do? ( another would be for proving Yeast is alive )

My team came up with breaking the alka seltzer in to different portions and using the amount of alka seltzer used as the independent variable. However, we weren't quite sure what we could do for the Standard of Comparison. We thought about using "zero' alka seltzer tablets, but would that give us infinite seconds or zero seconds since the alka seltzer neither began nor stop dissolving. We also thought about using 1 whole tablet as the standard of comparison, but that really isn't a base line... So does any one have any thoughts on this? Or how we could do this experiment differently so that we could avoid this problem? Thanks in advance

I say that would count as zero seconds.

You say testing "how something affects the rate at which water dissolves", which I don't really understand. But I'd probably do something with how the surface area of an alka seltzer (same mass, just one pill whole or one pill crushed kinda thing) affects the rate of dissolving.

[siciscio]

Ah....... I'm not good at explaining things sorry or typing for that matter
I meant to say how something affects the rate at which alka seltzer dissolves or something like that. ( vaguely remember doing one on how pH affects dissolving time )
But thank you for the advice