Help all my hard work is GONE!

[Fifi]

help me pleeaaseee!!! my project is due in 2 days and I still didn't do my graphs nor conlusion nor results!!!! well i have planned out what i was supposed 2 do but everything went wrong!!! this is what i was supposed to do:

This is my procedure:
1.Send consent forms to each of the subject’s legal guardian. (Explain in the consent form what your project is about and what they are required to do.)
2.Divide the subjects into two groups: the control group and the experimental group
3.Choose a science article appropriate for the subjects’ age that contains at least seven to ten facts.
4.Design a test for the information in the science article.
5.Teach the experimental group several mnemonic techniques (study method) that could be useful for a test. Tell them to choose one or more techniques to help them retrieve the information on a test.
6.Give the science article to both the experimental and control groups and tell them to study its contents for a test tomorrow.
7.Give the test to the subjects the next day.
8.Mark the tests and compare the average scores for those of the experimental and control groups.


well, i plannned to do my experiment on students in my school about 2 weeks before the due date. so i talked to a grade 7 teacher and she give me the suitable times when she has her 2 classes of grade 7's (one class is control group the other is experimental) and i planned to do it on those days but the teacher couldn't photocopy the tests and articles so i had to change the date with the teacher. well the next sheduled dates i couldn't do the experiment because school closed because the weather was bad. so then i scheduled it again with the grade 7 teacher and the closest she could give me was thurs and friday and my project is due on tues. so i told her to give them the test herself so the subjects would take seriously and they would actually study for the test. well i guess she didn't tell them the test counted for marks because hardly anybody studied. and when i came to mark the tests nearly everyone had a blank test with no answers filled in. WHAT am I SUPPOSED to DO NOW????? i don't have time to do the test over nor do i have enough data to write a conclusion and results!!! PLEEEEEEEAAAAASEEEEEEEE help me!!! I worked so hard on my project and i wanted so BADLy to enter the Science fair and win something and i wanted to get a good mark this year so PLEASE help me!!! i don't want all my hard work to go to WASTE!!!

Thanks for your time!

Fifi

[carolinethorn]

Hi Fifi,

I'm sorry to hear about this. I thought it was an interesting project. I think you should still write it up for the science fair. You still can do a lot with the introduction and method section. You had to do a lot of work for that - you can talk about informed consent and how you designed the questionairre and the mnemonics.
You can also put the tables for the results - indicate how many blank answers were given. state what statistical test you would have done if you had the data to do them.
The conclusions are as you described - that you don't have enough data to make a conclusion.
BUT you learned a really good lesson.
Science is hard. Especially doing science with human subjects. And people often get negative results, or cannot collect enough data for analysis.
So this is something that you can put in the discussion or future work section. Its also something that to talk about with the judges. Remember to look at it from a scientific point of view - try not to get emotional about what happened but point to ways to improve the experiment or data collection aspect.

I think it shows more about what you are capable of than if you had done a project that has been done lots of times before and you knew what the answers would be.
good luck and try not to be too disappointed,

-caroline