Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Im doing a project that tests the effects of sleep deprivation on people. I would like to be able to talk to someone for a little bit of information on my topic

Hello Jeffrey,
Thanks for posting your question on this forum. Sleep deprivation is a very interesting and important topic. I notice you already finished your project and was in the middle of analyzing your data, so good job to you.

What kind of information you would like to talk about? If you can be a little bit more specific about your problem and tell us more about your prokect , that would help us answer you questions better.

I am looking forward to hearing more about your projects .

Pak

I have attached our write up, but i just want to say that it is not complete, and i am just showing it to you for advice.
1. I would just like a little bit of background information about sleep deprivation, sleep disorders etc.
2. Our results do not make sense, and we acknowledge that we are dealing with people, and the experiment might not have been set up properly, but we would like help understanding the results.
3. Any advice to improve our write up in any way.

Thank you so much, it is a great help to able to talk to an expert (primary resource), and if possible could we have your full name, qualifications (etc) so we can acknowledge you in our presentation!

Hello,

Thanks for posting your write-up. Before going any further, I just want to make sure the write-up that you post it does not include figures and table. If that's the case, it would be helpful if you can put those figures and tables in your write-up , so that we can talk about how you can interpret from the graphs.

As for having an expert for background information, unfortunately , my background is not psychology nor medicine ( It is Molecular Biology ). If you are required to have expert interview on this subject , I would recommend you to post your request on "Interview Request" or perhaps other experts that are familiar with this topic might be able to jump in to help. Also, you should prepare some questions before you talk to an expert.

That being said, I can offer some general advices on your study.

First, your study is lack of control group. In your study, you conducted four different tests on four human subjects during the night (a reaction test, a math test, a circuit test and balance test) , in which you claim you are not able to find any consistent results. Bearing in mind ,the purpose of your study is to determine how sleep deprivation affect the performance of the subjects on those tests. However, we don't know how well those four subjects perform those tests under a “normal condition” in every other hour for eight hours . Therefore, We cannot make any meaningful comparison on the performance of those subjects.

Second, you need to include more details on the methods and materials . One of the keys for scientific experiments is Reproducibility. In other word, if I decide to repeat your experiment, I would be able to do so by following your write-up. For example, for the math test, you should include what kind of math worksheet you use or even attach the actual copy of the math worksheet on your report. Also, for the reaction test, you should include the source of the game you use. Finally, it is very common to include the brand and the model of instruments you use on the report as well.

Third, in Result section ,you need to separate the analysis of the results from the description of the results . This may sound strange to you, but all analysis of the results are usually presented in the discussion section. Technically speaking, result section should only be consisted of the description of the results. However, I notice some teachers allow students to combine both sections into “ Result And Discussion” . I would recommend you check with your teacher for the rules.

I hope this can help. Cheers !
Pak