Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Dear Researchers,

My name is Marrissa Hanely, and I'm doing a project on distractions. What I'm doing is I'm trying to find out which age group won't be bothered in distractions. What I'm doing is I'm getting 5 seniors, 5 adults, and 5 children of each gender and I'm going to look at the results (I gave them five tests each--math questions and thinking problems).

I have some questions.

1) I don't know what to put in the abstract part of my project.

2) I don't know what to put in the introduction because I can't find any resources on distractions.

3) I don't know what to put in the disussion part of my project.

4) Can you tell me where to get some background information on distractions, please? I beg you a million times. I couldn't find anything anywhere. And I don't know what I should put in my background information.

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Can you please answer these questions ASAP, please?
My Science Fair is due at the beginning of February.

Thanks for your help,

Marrissa Hanely

Marissa:

You may need to change your search terms to attention span, attention deficiet or ability to concentrate to get to information on distraction.

The abstract is written after the paper is completed and is a concise summary of results.

The introduction tells the reader what you are going to demonstrate with your paper in terms of what you find in the literature.

The discussion is a discussion of what you found with your experiments and how it relates to what you found in the literature. Look at like sitting down with a friend and explaining what you found and what it means.

As a last resort go to sciencebuddies.org and read the "How to" information.

If you need more help just sign on and ask.

Matthew W. Mulanax, Ph.D.

It's really hard to find some books at the library and the librarian tried her best and she found some books on the brain. I don't know if some brain background info would help. Also, I need to know what I should put into my background information (introduction).

Can you tell me what I should put if I can't find any info??
Please?

Thank-you,

Marrissa Hanely

Marissa:

Have you tried searching on Google with the key words - attention skills or attention deficit syndrom. The words attention and attention deficit should bring up a number of sources. Another internet source is Ask Jeeves.com. The Jeeves site allows you to ask specific questions rather than key words. Any information you pick up here will lead you further into the literature.

Your introduction will tell your audience what you want to do and why. You then add to the introduction as you collect information from the literature.
Matthew W. Mulanax, Ph.D.

Dear Matthew W. Mulanax,

Do you know of anyone that has a lot of background info on concentration, distractions, the functions of the brain, etc. Perhaps a doctor would know. But I don't know of any doctors that know these info. Could you at least tell me some, please? I might need their emails because that is the only way in which I can communicate better and I can remember and print the replies out.

Thank-you,

Marrissa Hanely

Matthew Mulanax,

Do you know of anyone that has a lot of background info on ageing, short-term memory, the functions of the brain, etc. Perhaps a doctor would know. But I don't know of any doctors that know these info. Could you at least tell me some, please? I might need their emails because that is the only way in which I can communicate better and I can remember and print the replies out.

Thanks,

Marrissa Hanely