Experimental Design B/C

[nejanimb]

Without hesitation, I would recommend the Casio fx-115 ES for this event. Regression is really easy, and it has a nice input display that allows you to format your input in a table, just like you'd expect to. It's an incredible calculator.

[amerikestrel]

Thanks to all answers; I think I'll get a few and test them.

[quizbowl]

Yep, TI-30XIIS has a Stat mode, although it's a little awkward to use. It also gives you stuff related to your data under Statvar (once you're in Stat mode), although I haven't the faintest clue what any of the variables stand for, since I can't find the instruction manual that came with the calculator.

I'm pretty sure the Sx = standard deviation and the o thing x is nothing you need.

[zyzzyva980]

For TI-30X and TI-34

Stat -> Select "2-Var" -> Enter Data -> Statvars -> r represents the slope of the line of regression, Sx probably is standard deviation, I know b is the y-intercept on the line of regression, I haven't the slightest idea on the others

[butter side up]

Does anyone know, overall, how different the difficulty level is between B and C divisions? I mean, last year at Regionals for B division it was just me and one partner, all I had really done was read the rubric and look at some practice tests, and my partner had no idea what the event was about- I explained the rubric to him in the three minutes before competition started, and we got gold. The scoring at invites has been much tighter, and we need a nearly perfect score to place- is that closer to C division standard?
Also- does anyone know how obnoxious you have to be to get DQ'ed? Because I was starting to get worried when my partners in this event at an invites started singing. Relatively quietly, but still. There would have been a line of people waiting to chew us out if we DQ'ed.

[butter side up]

So what experiments have you guys gotten? (C division) Cause I got something stupid during states last year and I wanna be prepared for the worst this year~

Well, at invites this year we've been given:
1. flubber, a styrofoam board, different roughnesses of sandpaper, aluminum foil, olive oil and paper towels and made a ramp with different materials and timed the flubber's flow (the flubber was a glue/ borax thick white mixture?) that experimant was very messy and gross, but in the instructions they gave us the practical applications (glaciation) or we probably would have been stumped.
2. nails, a battery, wire, paper clips, styrofoam packing peanuts, sandpaper. They apparently wanted us to make an electromagnet- we made a pendulum and timed the period
3. paper and a compass (the kind that draws circles) we changed the angle the compass was open and measured the diameter of the circles it drew
4. paper clips, a square of cardboard, a bouncy ball, ruler, paper, and they told us to make a springboard of some type

Thanks for the information~ the first one seems ehh... but other than that -crosses fingers-

Yeah- that had to be the grossest experiment ever- it made me happy to be the writer on the team, so I could mostly just buckle down and let my teammates deal with the ick. By the way, has anyone been given a chemistry-type experiment? I'm living in fear that we will get one, and I know next to nothing about chem (we don't get chemistry until junior year) I hope that doesn't happen...

[butter side up]

For the qualitative results where they ask for results not directly related to the DV, I've had the scorers comment that what I wrote was "not relevant" and they docked points for it. Does anyone have suggestions for improvements? (That entire section of the rubric is difficult for me, actually) I've seen some other ideas, but I'm not entirely certain what is intended there.

[zyzzyva980]

First post: The differences are minute. Just a few changes to the rubric
Second post: We had a household-chemical related one for regionals. Baking soda and vinegar, easy experiment
Third post: Write down what you see, hear, and if relevant, smell, during the experiment.

And do try to keep it all in one post.

[Phenylethylamine]

First post: The differences are minute. Just a few changes to the rubric

The biggest difference is in the statistics. B only needs mean/median/mode/range, while C needs standard deviation and other more in-depth statistical analyses.

[quizbowl]

Which calculator would be best fit for it? We have both a TI 30 IIXS and a TI 34 II. Between those, which would be more beneficial? Or is there just one calculator that is supreme to all of these..