Is this a good project for a 8th grader?

[AlexaGirl22]

Which music helps concentration RnB v.s. Classical a good science fair project for a 8th grader who is advance? I want a project i can do for 9th as well. Is this a good project. Also how can i test this?

[grace7177]

Welcome to Science Buddies!

It looks like you're planning on doing a social science experiment.

To carry out this project, you will need several groups to complete the task.
For example, each person listening to R & B and classical music. On the other hand, the control group will not be listening to any music.

You might want to select your music genres as different as possible. For example, heavy metal vs. classical music because they consists of almost opposite assumptions.
I also recommend you to select songs almost equal length to the other genre.

You should select a concentration task ( a word search, a type of memory game, short passage/ answering questions etc.) that will be same for everyone.

After selecting a group of students (try to keep it in the same age group/ grade for reliable test measures), randomly assign each person a type of music ( each group should have the same number of people). Make sure you test the control group also! After experimenting, calculate the concentration task and take the average of each group. If you want to be statistically accurate, you can calculate an ANOVA (Analysis of Variance).

For 9th grade, I recommend you to check out this link http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-f ... deas.shtml, and start from choosing your topic of interest.

Hope this helps and good luck!

-Grace

[AlexaGirl22]

I
To carry out this project, you will need several groups to complete the task.

can i use the same people for each group and just have them listen to the different music.

[heatherL]

Hi AlexaGirl,

You have a very interesting project, and Grace has given you some excellent advice!

can i use the same people for each group and just have them listen to the different music.

You can do this, but it will make your experimental design and your statistical analysis a bit more complicated. If you decide to have all of your subjects perform all of the treatments (control - no music, R & B, classical music, any other music you choose), you will need to provide a different but equivalent task each time. To make sure that the different tasks do not influence the results, you will need to randomize the assignment of the different tasks among the different music treatments (so that you don't have all the same task for R & B, for example).

Once you collect your data, you will need to perform a repeated measures ANOVA (Analysis of Variance), since you will be measuring all of your treatments with every subject.

Let me know if this makes sense, or if you have more questions.

Heather

[AlexaGirl22]

Let me know if this makes sense, or if you have more questions.

Heather

I would let you know. Thanks

[AlexaGirl22]

Also what age groups do i need. I have
3rd-5th
Teens
20s-30s
30s
50s
over 70s

Or should i just use school grades. Which age groups would be better.

[heatherL]

Hi AlexaGirl,

If you are interested in seeing whether age affects your results, you can use all of the age groups you have! Remember to include as many people as possible in your study, and a minimum of 5 people (10 is better) per age group.

That said, the 3rd-5th graders might make it tough, depending on your task. If the task is too complicated for them, or involves a lot of reading, you might want to drop that age group.

Also, it would be a good idea to ask your subjects their musical preferences (what kinds of music they do and don't like) prior to the study, so that you can check whether their preferences influenced their performance.

Heather

[Megara7]

Heather has already given you a really good start, but I just wanted to add to it. Earlier this year, I responded to posts about a similar experiment which I'll provide links to below. These posts just explain the psychology behind what you're attempting to do, so it would be good for some background information.

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=8862

And

http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=9211

If you have any questions, feel free to post again on this thread, and I'll be happy to help!
Meg