Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 19th, 2010, 6:44 pm
ALWAYS make sure you have quantitative. Always.
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Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 19th, 2010, 7:43 pm
The lesson was definitly learned... Luckily, it was only an Invitational, and not anything that counted for real....
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 20th, 2010, 9:53 am
oh yeah...we forgot we needed a quantitative so when we went to make the graph, it made no sense...
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 21st, 2010, 4:49 am
We've had some graphing trouble too. One of the guys on my team is out "math man" who does all the graphing and we're always arguing with him at the beginning of our experiments about whether or not he can graph what we want to try to do.
That said, we've ever had a problem with bar graphs vs. line graphs. We won our state competition this year and did decently at nationals last year, both with bar graphs.
That said, we've ever had a problem with bar graphs vs. line graphs. We won our state competition this year and did decently at nationals last year, both with bar graphs.
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 21st, 2010, 10:03 am
You can't argue with someone, you've got to trust them. It sounds like you did well enough at competitions so don't let this tear your group apart.
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 22nd, 2010, 12:49 pm
Thanks. And we won't. Please don't be too alarmed. Our team is simply rather argumentative by conception--we've all been friends for years and years. I guess it's just part of our thinking process or something. My point is just that while statistics and trends are much easier to do for line graphs, you can still get a lot done with a bar. Good point about trusting your team members though. You can't do it all by yourself. If you tried, you'd run out of time, though I'm guessing that would be the least of your problems. I know I'm nothing at all without my team! 
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 24th, 2010, 5:33 pm
I was at Regionals today and had the MOST UNFAIR, IMPROPER Experimental design.
Okay, so first of all, they gave us an experiment to do, which they really shouldn't have, but I could deal with that. Then, I look at the experiment and realize that IT'S NOT EVEN AN EXPERIMENT!!!!!! It was "design an object to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 8 feet." WHERE IS THE EXPERIMENT THERE????
Then, on the packet to write in, we don't see anywhere to do a graph, so I ask where we should do a graph. And the proctor's like, "Don't do a graph, because you're not doing multiple trials."
At this point we're all like "
" anyway, but then we realize that the proctor gave us definitions within the packet. Fine. Until we realize that the definition for Independant Variable is 100% wrong!!!!!! It said: "The Variable that does not affect the other variables..." 
We still had to do the rest of the rubrick, but needless to say, we didn't do very well....
Okay, so first of all, they gave us an experiment to do, which they really shouldn't have, but I could deal with that. Then, I look at the experiment and realize that IT'S NOT EVEN AN EXPERIMENT!!!!!! It was "design an object to prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from a height of 8 feet." WHERE IS THE EXPERIMENT THERE????
Then, on the packet to write in, we don't see anywhere to do a graph, so I ask where we should do a graph. And the proctor's like, "Don't do a graph, because you're not doing multiple trials."
At this point we're all like "
" anyway, but then we realize that the proctor gave us definitions within the packet. Fine. Until we realize that the definition for Independant Variable is 100% wrong!!!!!! It said: "The Variable that does not affect the other variables..." We still had to do the rest of the rubrick, but needless to say, we didn't do very well....
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 24th, 2010, 5:42 pm
wow i thought we had a bad topic at an invitational but that really tops it off!
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 24th, 2010, 5:58 pm
i don't know about everybody else but i have a good felling about this event for nats and i found a really good way to study
Re: Experimental Design B/C
Posted: March 24th, 2010, 6:01 pm
In general, I love this event. It's always been one of my best.
If you don't mind sharing, I would love to know what your study method is. I personally find that just straight-forward practice is the best way to study... Do you have a different method?
If you don't mind sharing, I would love to know what your study method is. I personally find that just straight-forward practice is the best way to study... Do you have a different method?