Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Thank you! I will wait for your confirmation.

or, can I send my slides to scibuddy@sciencebuddies.org

ScienceBuddies is set up for you to communicate with the experts via this forum.

I suggest you sent your slides as a pdf file as an attachment, so I can start reviewing and helping you. I think you are going to run up against the ISEF deadline very soon.

Looking forward to seeing your slides.

Alright. Here it is. Please let me know.

Thank you so much for your time.

I've downloaded it. Perhaps you can delete the attachment yourself.

Warning: I have meetings the rest of today and evening so I will not be able to review this until tomorrow.

In the meantime, you might want to check the ISEF instructions for the presentation. I think they are pretty explicit about whether to include your procedures?

Thanks for uploading this. I'll respond by tomorrow evening.
Madeline

Thank you so much!

I will double check on the ISEF website as well for the instructions.

Looking forward to your comments and suggestions.

I skimmed through the first couple slides during my lunch break ... you need to follow the ISEF instructions for your slides - I believe the minimum font size is 14 pt. Check the other instructions ... I don't think they are optional.

More later ...

Hello Experimenter,

Remember as you read my comments, that I am not a microbiologist. I am a biostatistician/data scientist with experience working with medical researchers ....

This looks like a careful study with important results. However, even non-statistician judges will probably expect to see some of the statistical detail I note below!

1. Comments on your statistical design and analysis.

One major concern is that you do not describe the number of trials/observations at each of the treatment groups.

Similarly, I don't see that you describe the number of observations in your evaluation of the association between CFU/ml and Relative Fluorescence.

With respect to the motility experiments (Table 4), it would be helpful if you specified the treatment given.

The one statistical analysis which you report is a one-way analysis of variance. That is evaluating whether there were differences among the ?treatment groups. In the text below that table, you state different null and alternative hypotheses. I don't see how that test relates to your hypotheses as stated in the box just above the Methods section. I suggest that you consider using statistical analyses which provide appropriate tests of those hypothesis.

2. Other Comments:

I suggest that you explicitly label the box with what appear to be your hypothesis.

In your text, you use the phrase "proving the first hypothesis to be correct". Phrases like "rejected the null hypothesis" or "accepted the alternative hypothesis" are a better reflection of the statistical analysis. Science buddies has a project guide which might help explain how to phrase your hypotheses (null, alternative) and communicating your resultsl

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ience-fair

3. And, as I mentioned in my 2 previous posts, you need to carefully follow the ISEF guidelines for the format of your slides, including the minimum font. This may sound picky, but I think you should expect that they will be picky!

Let me know if you have any questions about these comments and Good luck at ISEF!

Madeline

Thank you so much! I reviewed your comments and will make the necessary changes.

I also had a couple of questions regarding your comments...

1. Can I simply put somewhere on the board that "triplicates were done for all experimental trials"?

2. Was there a problem with the one-way ANOVA test? I tested if there was statistical significance between the independent groups (the individual and combination treatments) compared to the control group. I also explained my null and alternative hypothesis in the discussion slide; I don't think I understood this comment.

Thank you very much for your time!

Hello Madeline,

Your feedback on my ISEF slides were very helpful last year.

Do you have a moment to look at my slides from this year and provide any feedback?

Thank you!

Hi Experimenter,

I'm glad my comments were helpful! I'll be glad to look at your slides for this year. I won't have time until about this time tomorrow, so if you are hoping that you (or I) delete the attachment as soon as I've viewed it, you might wait until then!

I'm looking forward to seeing your slides!

Madeline

Thank you so much for your response. I will upload my slides tomorrow evening!

Thank you so much for your response. I will upload my slides tomorrow evening!

Hi Madeline,

Can I upload my slides now?

Hi Madeline,
Please let me know when you get a chance. I will upload my slides.

Thanks again!