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mnstrviola wrote:Ah yeah, I think event supervisors shouldn't pretty much force you to do an experiment (shooting gummi bears is the only thing I see there) though I would have gone with "how does the distance you stretch back a rubber band affect how far a gummi bear flies".

I'm not sure on how the spoons were, but I'm guessing they weren't really graph-friendly. By using something measureable like the distance you pull back a rubber band, the data is more quantitative and it's easier to collect your results. If the spoons were of varying sizes that might have worked, but if they were varying materials you'd have to order them using some kind of arbitrary measurement.

They were different sizes, thankfully, except for the two plastic spoons.
But we didn't really want to mess with shooting stuff and dealing with distance pulling back the rubber band, distance shot, etc. We were already rushed on time as we started late on the event, and had around 45-50 minutes I'd say instead of the normal 55.
As for the graph, my partner did that, didn't really pay attention as I was filling out possible experimental errors, we used a bar graph and used the distances for each trial on each material of spoon so basically it went like.

Trial 1 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon
Trial 2 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon
Trial 3 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon

Repeat with 3 other spoons.

Bozongle wrote:
They were different sizes, thankfully, except for the two plastic spoons.
But we didn't really want to mess with shooting stuff and dealing with distance pulling back the rubber band, distance shot, etc. We were already rushed on time as we started late on the event, and had around 45-50 minutes I'd say instead of the normal 55.
As for the graph, my partner did that, didn't really pay attention as I was filling out possible experimental errors, we used a bar graph and used the distances for each trial on each material of spoon so basically it went like.

Trial 1 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon
Trial 2 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon
Trial 3 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon

Repeat with 3 other spoons.

Oh, cool. Just curious, what did you guys use for the control? It seems I'd just use a gummi bear sitting by itself...

mnstrviola wrote:

Bozongle wrote:
They were different sizes, thankfully, except for the two plastic spoons.
But we didn't really want to mess with shooting stuff and dealing with distance pulling back the rubber band, distance shot, etc. We were already rushed on time as we started late on the event, and had around 45-50 minutes I'd say instead of the normal 55.
As for the graph, my partner did that, didn't really pay attention as I was filling out possible experimental errors, we used a bar graph and used the distances for each trial on each material of spoon so basically it went like.

Trial 1 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon
Trial 2 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon
Trial 3 Distance bounced for Plastic Spoon

Repeat with 3 other spoons.

Oh, cool. Just curious, what did you guys use for the control? It seems I'd just use a gummi bear sitting by itself...

Drop the gummy bear on the table without a spoon to bounce off of.

I've got a few general ED questions:

Tiebreakers have always bothered me. Say two teams get all the points on the soinc rubric (or maybe they each miss one from a category other than the listed tiebreaker categories). Then comparing the point totals in the order listed in the rules doesn't help, since the teams are tied. Is it just up to the event supervisor to choose a winner based on which he/she thinks has a better overall writeup?

The other question I have is a rubric question. Under Qualitative Observations, there's a point called, "Observations about results given." How do you get that point? Considering the point after it, "Observations about procedure/deviations" do you basically rehash some of your experimental errors (perhaps in more of an "observation" form) to get those two points?

First of all, qualitative observations are about qualities, so in general there should be very few numerical measurements mentioned in this section, except to describe the independent variables.

"Observations about results given" may seem too obvious, but it makes more sense in the context of all four qualitative requirements. Also listed is "Observations about results not directly relating to DV", so I always interpreted "about results given" as "Observations about results DIRECTLY relating to DV", or observations about the property you are measuring. Say you are measuring the period of various pendulums - "The long pendulum swung the most slowly."

"Observations about procedure/deviations" is notes about how you may have have to alter your procedure once you began the experiment, notes on how you had to conduct your measurements, or notes on how the procedure itself did not go as expected.

"Observations about results NOT directly relating to DV" should not be about the procedure or the property you are measuring. It could include comments on how the object you are measuring behaves aside from the measured property... For example, if you are observing a chemical reaction, comment on bubbles produced, color changes, etc.

For "Observations given throughout the course of the experiment", just make sure you have enough observations to show that you were collecting important information about all steps, as opposed to just writing down the three other things required in the rubric.

I would also take note that each category says "ObservationS" with an "s". Don't be lazy here; write down multiple notes to make sure you cover all important aspects of your experiment.

I know about using significant figures when measuring. But I wonder about the number of digits you should report after doing a calculation. Does it matter? I would guess you should go to two decimal places.

B division? You would report data to the first uncertain digit. Re: other sig fig rules like after a calculation, they don't apply to you due to Science Olympiad's sig figs policy.

How do you operationally define a varible?

kittybug65 wrote:How do you operationally define a varible?

Say what units you use to measure the variable.

hi everybody! ok i really need help with this one topic. i am so stuck! any ideas?
1 buzzer
1 lemon
1 tomato
1 battery
1 penny
1 paper clip
1 ice bath
1 hot plate
1 thermometer
i was thinking since the only measurable dependent variable seems to be temperature or time, the experiment could be about heating the ice bath using three different heating methods - the hot plate, the battery, make a lemon battery. but then i thought those independent variables aren't really at 3 levels...so then i thought the battery, make a lemon batter, and make a tomato battery. but how in the world do you make a lemon battery and tomato battery using only the materials they give you? so then i was thinking maybe we can heat the ice bath using the hot plate and time how long it takes for the ice to melt using the different levels/powers of the hotplate (like you know how you can switch the hotplate to different levels) but then again, we only have one ice bath container probably, and heating the hot plate to differentlevels would take too much time
also, do you think they would give us an outlet to plug the hotplate into, or are we just given a plain hotplate?
so if you could give me some help with ideas, that would be fantastic!
thanks!