Experimental Design B/C

[butter side up]

General rule of thumb: this event is about being able to design, run, and write up an experiment in a set period of time.
From experience, the best way to practice is to grab some objects, get ahold of a rubric, and run your practice like a competition environment. Try dividing up the different sections to different people, practice time management, and learn all the minute details of the rubric. This is an event where a few points either direction can mean the difference between a gold medal and not medalling. Once you've run the experiment, go back over your write-up with a fine-toothed comb and an eye for detail.
Does this clearly convey my meaning? Does the phrasing sound scientific and professional? Would it be easy for a judge, who might be in a hurry, to find where all my calculations are? After the first few runs, don't use the rubric during the write-up, and see if you are still getting all the points.
Also, a word of warning: if the supervisor provides you with a direction or topic for your experiment, follow that direction. You can be second-tiered or docked points for not following directions. And always clean up after yourself.

[deezee]

yeah the advice above is great. oftentimes one of the hardest things (for me, personally) was managing time. Generally, allot 5 minutes or so to devise an experiment. THEN start working. This could save a lot of time because you know everything you need to do. Our team personally splits the roles into writer, doer, and math(er) that way, unless the teams get changed around a lot, we have 3 super efficient people that are good at what they do, and everything turns out fine

[butter side up]

yeah the advice above is great. oftentimes one of the hardest things (for me, personally) was managing time. Generally, allot 5 minutes or so to devise an experiment. THEN start working. This could save a lot of time because you know everything you need to do. Our team personally splits the roles into writer, doer, and math(er) that way, unless the teams get changed around a lot, we have 3 super efficient people that are good at what they do, and everything turns out fine

Yeah, there is generally a splitting of roles along set lines. We also have a writer, who usually starts right away. Our math person and grapher both run the experiment, then begin doing their respective jobs. However, you want to be careful of training too specifically. This event often conflicts, and you don't want the only person who knows how to write a decent procedure, or the only person who can calculate a regression analysis gone, with nobody to fill the gap. If someone needs to be thrown in, their partners should know enough about the others' jobs to be able to help. Likewise, if someone is running a little behind (OH CRUD, there's only five minutes left and I'm still on experimental errors!), you want someone who might be done to be able to do other parts.
That being said, if everyone has a specialty, that means that you can charge right into competition and everyone can do their jobs, and you can be sure that everything will be done. This eliminates wasting time dividing jobs and makes it more likely that everything will be completed, and completed well.

[emmamcgorray]

What is the weirdest/hardest experiment you have ever conducted in Experimental Design?

[strawberrygirl]

What is the weirdest/hardest experiment you have ever conducted in Experimental Design?

There was this one invitational where they gave us a tub of water and a sheet of aluminum foil to conduct our experiment

[CulturallyScientific]

-Red food coloring
-15 potato cubes (27 cm^3)
-15 carrot cubes (27 cm^3)
-3 ice cubes (27 in^3)
-2 pairs of forceps (tweezers)
-Water
-7 pipettes
-a box of crayons
-a scale
-fishing line
-table

.....my partners and I had no idea what to do. What would you have done?

[mnstrviola]

How does the surface:area to volume ratio of a vegetable cube affect the absorption of food coloring?

Basically use 5, 10, 15, 20, and 27 cm3 cubes. 3 of each size, and a set for each vegetable. Weigh each of them before and dunking them in a food coloring solution for 20 minutes. The IV would be the SA:V ratio and the DV would be the weight gained after being dunked in the solution.

[Skink]

There was this one invitational where they gave us a tub of water and a sheet of aluminum foil to conduct our experiment

Maybe they didn't have anything else in large quantities...

-Red food coloring
.....my partners and I had no idea what to do. What would you have done?

What was the topic?

[CulturallyScientific]

There was this one invitational where they gave us a tub of water and a sheet of aluminum foil to conduct our experiment

Maybe they didn't have anything else in large quantities...

-Red food coloring
.....my partners and I had no idea what to do. What would you have done?

What was the topic?

They didn't give us a topic, but one of my partners was guessing maybe bio?

[butter side up]

What is the weirdest/hardest experiment you have ever conducted in Experimental Design?

Well, I'd say weirdest would be the one where we were given LIVE MEALWORMS and compared the surface they were crawling across to their speed. I didn't know we could be given live animals...
Hardest is a manner of opinion, and what you make of it. There was an instance where we were given paper and a compass (the drafting tool, not orienteering) and no prompt, no explanation. This simply stretched one's imagination. Another one was where we were explicitly told we had to build a trampoline-thing using a paper clip spring, which was simply hard based on construction.