Experimental Design B/C

[alexamezaga1]

To say at Florida states Exp. design was the weirdest thing I have ever done. So before the state director announced the experiment would focus on the topic of Optics, however usually in the past this just means the topic is focusing on angle of incidence, reflection or something similar. But I think our team knew we were in trouble when we saw that the event was taking place in an actual university optics lab. The test started with calculating focal length of lenses. And then the actual experiment involved having to calculate the colored version of an image hidden in a covered box. To do this you had to diffract white light and then hit the image in a dark box with Red, Blue, Green light. And then use a program to weight the lights to reassemble the real colored image. For our team this went horrible cause for one we were not really prepared for optics and then the lens diffraction part was way harder than the event supervisor made it sound. Overall, I was really annoyed as I understand you can incorporate certain fields into expriemental design which is what makes it a super fun event, however converting it to a full out Optics test really ruined the event for me. So yes you never know what you are going to get in Exp. Design..... for real.

I really wish that event supervisors would keep the spirit of the event of the actual design of experiments and not on having background knowledge in a myriad of science topics. I also get really confused when the event supervisors give you a question to investigate.... isn't that part of the rubric?

I know exactly it does ruin the spirit of the event. Again you can for sure give you a certain theme to focus on and I like that, but don't restrict the event down so they is only one possible lab that can be done. One of my favorite parts of this event is that it rewards thinking creatively and making simple and stupid experiments that other people may not think of.

I think anyone who participated in experimental design at Florida's state competition can agree that they were not expecting what they got. Of course because they had previously released the topic was optics, everyone was expecting to be given lasers and prisms or some refracting mechanism; however, they ended up DESIGNING the experiment for us and telling us to figure out how to do it ourselves. This completely took away from the point of the event (letting competitors derive their own experiment from a topic and materials given), and I really think it should've been thrown out. I know that the supervisor and volunteers just wanted to let us have fun with this specific optics topic - which, admittedly, I did - but I don't believe they realized what experimental design was as an event nor what every competitor was going in there expecting.

[Fluorine]

I think anyone who participated in experimental design at Florida's state competition can agree that they were not expecting what they got. Of course because they had previously released the topic was optics, everyone was expecting to be given lasers and prisms or some refracting mechanism; however, they ended up DESIGNING the experiment for us and telling us to figure out how to do it ourselves. This completely took away from the point of the event (letting competitors derive their own experiment from a topic and materials given), and I really think it should've been thrown out. I know that the supervisor and volunteers just wanted to let us have fun with this specific optics topic - which, admittedly, I did - but I don't believe they realized what experimental design was as an event nor what every competitor was going in there expecting.

I agree that the intentions were good. However if anything they could have just done an optics trial event. Rather than doing what they did honestly which was removing experimental design and creating a optics/physics lab event.

[Sciencegeekgirl]

For nationals, does anybody know if it is going to be Stations or a straight Experiment? (Division B)

Also would the best way to prepare just be doing tests and practicing with your team?

Thanks in advance.

[asthedeer]

For nationals, does anybody know if it is going to be Stations or a straight Experiment? (Division B)

Also would the best way to prepare just be doing tests and practicing with your team?

Thanks in advance.

I'd say it'd have to be a straight up experiment--I see no possible way Stations are possible in Experimental Design, especially at a Nationals level (I have not done ExD at Nationals before, this is mere speculation.)

Yes, I'd say so. Know the nuances of each of your teammates and know the rubric well.

[Fluorine]

For nationals, does anybody know if it is going to be Stations or a straight Experiment? (Division B)

Also would the best way to prepare just be doing tests and practicing with your team?

Thanks in advance.

I'd say it'd have to be a straight up experiment--I see no possible way Stations are possible in Experimental Design, especially at a Nationals level (I have not done ExD at Nationals before, this is mere speculation.)

Yes, I'd say so. Know the nuances of each of your teammates and know the rubric well.

Last year it was an experiment with a topic. (Pretty sure it was packing efficiency). So yes straight up experiment no Florida state 2016 stuff

[Panda Weasley]

For nationals, does anybody know if it is going to be Stations or a straight Experiment? (Division B)

Also would the best way to prepare just be doing tests and practicing with your team?

Thanks in advance.

I'd say it'd have to be a straight up experiment--I see no possible way Stations are possible in Experimental Design, especially at a Nationals level (I have not done ExD at Nationals before, this is mere speculation.)

There are actually a few states that sometimes use a station format for the event. Basically each station tests you on a different part of the Scientific Method. The very first test here http://scioly.org/wiki/index.php/Test_E ... tal_Design (by me) is an example of the stations format.
But yes, I agree, it is very very unlikely that Nationals will be in the stations format.

[asthedeer]

For nationals, does anybody know if it is going to be Stations or a straight Experiment? (Division B)

Also would the best way to prepare just be doing tests and practicing with your team?

Thanks in advance.

I'd say it'd have to be a straight up experiment--I see no possible way Stations are possible in Experimental Design, especially at a Nationals level (I have not done ExD at Nationals before, this is mere speculation.)

Yes, I'd say so. Know the nuances of each of your teammates and know the rubric well.

Last year it was an experiment with a topic. (Pretty sure it was packing efficiency). So yes straight up experiment no Florida state 2016 stuff

Yes, that reminds me--Last year's Nationals topic was packing efficiency where you tried packing crayons and some sort of round object into a fixed container, a glass or something of that sort, according to my teammates who DID participate in ExD at Nationals.

[Magikarpmaster629]

My team does well at regionals and state in ExD, but always does poorly at the national competition. One problem they said they have is that the supervisor doesn't read the full experiment, so this year (2016) they tried writing it in bullet points instead of the essay format (I don't do ExD, so I don't know exactly how this works); but they did even worse than last year (2015). Does anyone know how to get around the problem of the supervisor not reading the whole experiment?

[SenseiSushi]

My team does well at regionals and state in ExD, but always does poorly at the national competition. One problem they said they have is that the supervisor doesn't read the full experiment, so this year (2016) they tried writing it in bullet points instead of the essay format (I don't do ExD, so I don't know exactly how this works); but they did even worse than last year (2015). Does anyone know how to get around the problem of the supervisor not reading the whole experiment?

In order to make your responses more likely to be read, try to keep them short and still manage to fulfill the requirements of the rubric. A supervisor will be more inclined to read a two sentence research question rather than a long paragraph.

[Panda Weasley]

My team does well at regionals and state in ExD, but always does poorly at the national competition. One problem they said they have is that the supervisor doesn't read the full experiment, so this year (2016) they tried writing it in bullet points instead of the essay format (I don't do ExD, so I don't know exactly how this works); but they did even worse than last year (2015). Does anyone know how to get around the problem of the supervisor not reading the whole experiment?

In order to make your responses more likely to be read, try to keep them short and still manage to fulfill the requirements of the rubric. A supervisor will be more inclined to read a two sentence research question rather than a long paragraph.

The key is to keep responses short and sweet like Sushi said although I would hope the supervisor would be completely reading all of experiments. If the supervisor wasn't completely reading all of your school's experiment I would think they would be doing the same amount of reading on the others, therefore eliminating that potential handicap. What seems more likely to me is that the experiments are graded a lot harsher at Nationals. There might be something your team is doing in their report that is fine at the regional and state level, but with the more competitive atmosphere at Nats doesn't get full credit. I may be completely wrong though as I have never competed at Nats and I am not an event supervisor.