Experimental Design B/C

[blazer]

Can my parents watch me during this event, because I don't want them to have to go if they can't watch me do my event?

There are actually very few events where they can watch you- mostly only building events. For most, if not all lab and study events, no spectators are allowed.

One can even get into trouble if a parent is too close in a building event. One must take every precaution to avoid student-to-parent communication and especially parent-to-supervisor communication when something goes wrong.

[cngu23]

Can my parents watch me during this event, because I don't want them to have to go if they can't watch me do my event?

There are actually very few events where they can watch you- mostly only building events. For most, if not all lab and study events, no spectators are allowed.

One can even get into trouble if a parent is too close in a building event. One must take every precaution to avoid student-to-parent communication and especially parent-to-supervisor communication when something goes wrong.

I thought building events such as towers and gravity vehicle could be freely spectated.

[blazer]

I thought building events such as towers and gravity vehicle could be freely spectated.

Of course they can be and, in fact, at nationals, events such as gravity vehicle and robot arm are typically held in a gym to better facilitate viewing. After all, that is part of the fun of building events and a major selling point of Science Olympiad. I am just saying competitors need to be careful so no problems arise.

[solakmagic]

In reference to giving a rationale for the hypothesis and for the SOC, what kind of format is best accepted??
Also, for Qualitative Observations, how do you like to organize your observations?? We normally just list certain observations, but are more specifics required??

OH, and does anyone know a good place to see a perfect, completed Experimental Design?? I can't find any on the wiki. Perhaps I'm not looking closely enough...

[EpicFailure]

In reference to giving a rationale for the hypothesis and for the SOC, what kind of format is best accepted??
Also, for Qualitative Observations, how do you like to organize your observations?? We normally just list certain observations, but are more specifics required??

OH, and does anyone know a good place to see a perfect, completed Experimental Design?? I can't find any on the wiki. Perhaps I'm not looking closely enough...

For the rationale, we just say something like "We think this is because..." or "Our rationale is...". We list the qualitative observations too, although, you can write observations in a paragraph in chronological order to show that you wrote observations throughout the experiment.

For the "perfect" write-up, this might help.

[qwerrecd]

Well, I'm not sure where to post this, so it's going here. We had our regional event today, and I was in Experimental Design. We followed all of the rules, put in all of the required elements, and had consistent data throughout. It was a perfect run. However, we placed 10th out of 13 teams who showed up. We are suspecting that something happened to our write-up, like they lost part of it or something. We suspect this because last year we only completed about 60% of the required elements and placed 5th. What would it mean if our hypothesis is correct (that they lost part of the write-up)? Or am I just being overconfident?

[EpicFailure]

Well, I'm not sure where to post this, so it's going here. We had our regional event today, and I was in Experimental Design. We followed all of the rules, put in all of the required elements, and had consistent data throughout. It was a perfect run. However, we placed 10th out of 13 teams who showed up. We are suspecting that something happened to our write-up, like they lost part of it or something. We suspect this because last year we only completed about 60% of the required elements and placed 5th. What would it mean if our hypothesis is correct (that they lost part of the write-up)? Or am I just being overconfident?

Another possible explanation is that your experiment/Statement of Problem didn't fit perfectly with the topic so you might have been dropped down to tier 2.

[qwerrecd]

Well, the topic was to find the reaction that produced the greatest temperature change between water and NaCl, water and CaCl2, and water and sodium bicarbonate. We followed that to the letter, getting consistent data for all 3 reactions.

[illusionofconfusion]

At state, our supervisor gave us a choice between two very specific experiments. Is it normal for participants to not have to create their own experiment?

[foreverphysics]

Define "very specific".