Experimental Design B/C

[fozendog]

I am new to the event and I am doing it alone. I have participated in two invitationals and have finished with five minutes left. I have placed second and fifth. Is this good?

...You brave soul.

[zyzzyva980]

That's very impressive for doing it alone. (That's really, really good). When you get to higher levels of competition though (i.e., regionals, state if your team makes it) you'll be best off with a partner or two to ensure that you maximize the number of points you earn.

[ninjapenguin]

I am new to the event and I am doing it alone. I have participated in two invitationals and have finished with five minutes left. I have placed second and fifth. Is this good?

...You brave soul.

That's very impressive for doing it alone. (That's really, really good). When you get to higher levels of competition though (i.e., regionals, state if your team makes it) you'll be best off with a partner or two to ensure that you maximize the number of points you earn.

Thanks guys, but I want to continue it alone. Any tips?

[EastStroudsburg13]

Use your time very wisely is probably the best advice. If you can continue to do well alone, then more power to you, but the vast, vast majority of people have at least one partner, and most do it with two. If you continue with Experimental Design in Division C, I would definitely highly recommend that you have at least one partner.

[Skink]

This goes for any event but this event in particular: always attempt to bring whatever the rules allow such that you do not disadvantage yourself. This event is one of very few that allows three participants; there is reason for that. Preparing a write-up that is both legible and thoughtful that earns all of the points is very challenging to do on your own. And that's assuming you can perform the experiment solo! There are experiments that you might have to generate (according to the topic and materials) that require at least two people; supervisors will assume you will bring a team of three. The only reason I can think of where you would want to fly solo is if your team does not have 15 members. If you do, just bring a friend or two along!

As for tips, eh, it's the same as if you had three people. As noted, time will be an enemy. Have mental milestones for how long into the 50min you should be at for each section of the write-up such that, in most scenarios, you will finish in the time given. If you have difficulty meeting those milestones, it may be worth skipping around (and knowing ahead of time where you'd skip to) such that you get the most points possible.

[fozendog]

Yeah, similar to what Skink said, memorize both the rubric and the point values associated with each section, and when the event comes fill out the areas with the most points if not everything can be completed.
The easy ones that can be written quickly (in my opinion): Hypothesis, Variables (all), Materials, Procedure, Data Table, Graph, and Conclusion.
If you get everything right you can get an easy 78 points out of 126.
And as everyone has said, try to go in with a partner! If you can get 2nd by yourself, with two other people you have a good chance at getting 1st.

[SWAnG]

I've always wondered this: Eventually (usually at state and national level) everyone gets EVERYTHING on the rubric, but somehow they are able to people in such a wide range of places. How is this possible? I personally have done ExDes for the last 2 years and regardless of how perfect our lab write up was, we would never be able to get medals at state .

[fozendog]

I've always wondered this: Eventually (usually at state and national level) everyone gets EVERYTHING on the rubric, but somehow they are able to people in such a wide range of places. How is this possible? I personally have done ExDes for the last 2 years and regardless of how perfect our lab write up was, we would never be able to get medals at state .

I've been taught to get a perfect score, then, if possible, add more and make everything look pretty. This is honestly one of the most subjective events in Science Olympiad and making things look nice could make the difference between perfect scores.
For non-perfect scores there are tie breakers in the rulebook.

[SWAnG]

Is it possible it could be based on the type of experiment done as well? Like maybe you HAVE to use bar graph, or should've used line graph

[fozendog]

Is it possible it could be based on the type of experiment done as well? Like maybe you HAVE to use bar graph, or should've used line graph

I guess, I don't think I have ever had to use a bar graph in this event. I think it's better to chose an experiment where you have to use a line graph because you can do linear regression as a statistic.