Hi SciFi,
Are you talking about this project? https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p022.shtml
I don't see any reference to a sample size of 500. Maybe that was from this page? https://www.sciencebuddies.org/mentorin ... ants.shtml
Five people is probably not enough, even if they are totally random. Whether your results would be meaningful would depend on how large a difference you saw between your two groups. Smaller differences require larger numbers of samples to be significant.
You are doing a great job of exploring alternative project ideas. Have you settled on this topic as your final choice for a science fair project? If not, I recommend that you not spend too much more time deliberating. Please keep in mind that any worthwhile topic you choose will have challenges and difficulties. I do always recommend that students choose a project that is appropriate and interesting for them, but at some point, you've just got to get the job done.
Hello.
Thank you for your reply. Yes, this is the project that I've decided to work with since I've already notified my teacher. I think the idea of this project is quite interesting to discover. In accordance to this project, how many project do you think might be enough to test for this project to result with accurate results? Can you recommend me an exact quantity of people? I was thinking of testing people with addition questions. I was planning to test the age groups listed below. Can you please let me know if these age groups are varied,will give me interesting,sufficient, and accurate data to convey, and how many people I should test in each age group? Any other comment/suggestions would also be greatly appreciated.
1) Adults between 25-40 years of age
2)Children between 8-14 years of age
3)Teenagers between 15-17 years of age
I would go with the recommended minimum sample size on the project description, which is 10+ people. If you are going to do multiple groups, you'll probably want 10+ people per group. Of course, the more people you can test, the more likely you'll be able to show a significant difference.
Since the point of the experiment is to see how distractions affect people's concentration, you want your subjects to concentrate on their test. The idea is to give them a simple math test in which they will have to think to solve the problems. Using a calculator on a simple math test will take a lot of the concentration out of it! You can administer your test however you want, but I would suggest not allowing the use of calculators. Having your subjects do addition without a calculator will demand enough concentration that you should see measurable differences in performance with other distractions.
I was marking the tests done by children when I noticed that a lot of the questions were left unanswered. Also, the group of children wrote in the same timings! What do I do now? The deadline of my science fair project is approaching very fast (I was given an extension, but now that's arriving very soon)! However, the children gave me good insight to how they felt between the first test and the second test. Will the incompletion of the math questions affect my results? Can you please give me feedback and support as to how to solve this source of error? I was thinking of performing this test with children in their classroom during school, after seeking permission from their teacher, of course. Is there another way of solving this problem, though?
Please reply, ASAP!
Thank you very much, I genuinely appreciate the help!
So the main problems are that (1) you are not sure how to handle unanswered questions and (2) "the group of children wrote in the same timings". Right?
For #1, I suggest grading these tests just like a teacher would grade them. You might want to ask a math teacher how they would assign points to these tests. Usually, if an answer is left blank, teachers give 0 credit. Other considerations in scoring the tests are that some teachers give partial credit for partially correct answers (while others do not), and more difficult questions are usually worth more points. Rather than just assigning a single score to each test (for example, 90 out of 100) it might be more interesting and challenging to look at the different types of responses, for example: correct answers, incorrect answers, and questions left blank.
For #2, I'm not sure what you mean. What were the "timings"?
Don't worry. It sounds like you have done a very nice experiment and you will have a lot to show for it.
OK. Why is that a problem? I haven't seen your procedure, so I don't know what you expected to get as responses, or what you plan to do with those times.
Thanks,
Chris
The procedure states that I'm supposed to allow the students to take all the time that they need in order to complete the tests. I followed this procedure while I was testing the young adults and adults. However, in order to satisfy the childrens' parents, I had to play a recorded classical song for the first test, and test the children with the equivalent time span for the test in which the students completed without listening to any music. Since I am comparing the effect of age on multitasking, the procedure stated that I have to calculate the total time it took for each of the age groups in completing both of their tests. Because I did not follow the procedure properly while testing the children, wouldn't this procedure affect my overall findings? However, I also noticed that the children were not able to answer several questions that involved the use of decimals, and when the children attempted them, a majority of the children got those questions wrong. Regarding this observation, do you still think that the method in which I used while testing the children would affect my overall results?
It is very unlikely that your results would be anywhere near accurate if you only tested 5 people. Because people are all so very different, when you are doing an experiment or survey involving people it is necessary to get data from many, many people. It is also important that the people you get data from are randomly selected from within your sample population so that you don't introduce any systematic bias.
Let me know if this makes sense and if you have any further question.
Ref.: My previous post.
Actually, I tested more than ten people from each category. I even tested people who I am not very familiar with, as well. As stated in my previous post, my problem is that I tested the children by following a procedure different from the procedure I used in testing the young adults and adults. Will this harm my overall results, in any way?
SciFi1 wrote:Ref.: My previous post.
Actually, I tested more than ten people from each category. I even tested people who I am not very familiar with, as well. As stated in my previous post, my problem is that I tested the children by following a procedure different from the procedure I used in testing the young adults and adults. Will this harm my overall results, in any way?
Please reply, ASAP!!
Thank you.
You cannot compare the experiments if you used procedures. In this case, the change you made was massive-you fixed the time to take the test instead of letting it be as much time as needed. You should discard this trial (youngest children) and only use the other two.
The deadline of my science fair project is approaching very fast (I was given an extension, but now that's arriving very soon)! However, the children gave me good insight to how they felt between the first test and the second test. Will the incompletion of the math questions affect my results? Can you please give me feedback and support as to how to solve this source of error? I was thinking of performing this test with children in their classroom during school, after seeking permission from their teacher, of course. Is there another way of solving this problem, though?
