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I agree on all points.

Overthinking can be costly. We overthought the topic at state- energy conservation- for five minutes before I found a link for ramps. If we had that five minutes back, we finish our write up, we get first place (most likely, we took third w/o analysis of results) and we go to nationals. That's how much of an impact time has.

Fancy experiments may not even work as well as a simple ramp, pendulum, or anything else you've done and know you can do well

Also, make sure your calculators are functioning. Ours weren't, and when we had to do it by hand, I only caught one of my partner's errors at the last second.

what kind of topics have you encountred at state?

Last year, chemicals in different temperatures of water. This year, energy conservation.

colombiano wrote:what kind of topics have you encountred at state?

Last year, at B Division NY States, they essentially gave us a ball-and-ramp type setup. Simplest experiment ever.
The team in front of us somehow managed to miss the point, and attempted to bounce the three different types of ball that they gave us and compare bounce height >.< lol.

Wow. Before every tournament, our team has said, "If possible, we're going with a ramp." Pretty much the easiest experiment ever. I've heard some people do completely absurd stuff, though. "Hey, let's get over to a window and see if we can burn this disc using the sun's rays!" or something along those lines.

zyzzyva98 wrote:Wow. Before every tournament, our team has said, "If possible, we're going with a ramp." Pretty much the easiest experiment ever. I've heard some people do completely absurd stuff, though. "Hey, let's get over to a window and see if we can burn this disc using the sun's rays!" or something along those lines.

In a word: KISS.

That is, Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Best Experimental Design advice I can give. The problem statement is not where you show off. The conclusion and statistics are where you show off (although under C Division rules, there's not much room to show off on the statistics, because basically anything you could give them, you have to give them lol). If your experiment is simple, there's considerably less chance it could go wrong. If your experiment fails, you can still do a full-credit write-up, but it requires much, much more effort.

A more positive acronym would be "Keep It Simple for Success," but I would like to avoid the collective eyeroll.

Anyway, would the proctors take off for an overly simple experiment?

At my 6th grade science fair I missed out on a point because I threw it together at the last minute and it was not "academically challenging" (still got 74/77) but I don't really think there's anywhere on the Experimental Design rubric they can take points away.

Avis_de-Incendia wrote:A more positive acronym would be "Keep It Simple for Success," but I would like to avoid the collective eyeroll.

Anyway, would the proctors take off for an overly simple experiment?

No. Given the subjectivity of the grading of this event, a really obnoxious event sup might be inclined to view your write-up in a slightly less positive light, but in any case it's still better to have a simple experiment and a complex (but still clear and concise... I know, I know, it's difficult to have all three) write-up. Don't make it too hard for yourself.

Either acronym works Yours is more positive, this is true.

Couple Questions:

What is a condensed table?

How do you provide example calculations for the quantitative section?