2018-2019 Science Fair

Assess how you conducted your experiment.

● Please move this document to your s​ hared Biology folder.

● To complete this, you will need to refer to your project proposal.
● After you answer all the questions, remember to ​submit the document in Canvas​.

Sample size
1. Below, put what you planned for sample size and/or repeated measures (#9 in experimental proposal).
Initially, I planed to share this survey with Galloway and three other schools in the Atlanta area.

2. Below, put the actual sample size and/or repeated measures you completed by the deadline (February
5).
I got 38 responses and only sent it to Galloway.

3. If there are differences between your initial plan and what you completed by the deadline, explain
a) why they are different
I ended up changing my sample size from Galloway, an Atlanta private school, and an Atlanta public
school to just Galloway because getting other schools to agree to help me out was very difficult. I emailed
6 other schools and only 4 responded at all, out of those four only one actually considered helping. I then
went to the idea of using social media to try to get the link to teachers of other schools, that ended up not
happening due to the challenges of not being able to make sure that the link was spread around with the
post.

b) what you could have done differently to reach your goal on time.
I could have tried to jump through the hoops of school administrations differently, or planned on using
social media from the start. It would have been easier to do it through social media from the start because
I would have had more time to figure out some of the technical issues I encountered. I could have also
started out with the goal of just surveying Galloway, rather than two other schools.

Procedure
4. Below, paste a copy of your planned steps from your project proposal (#15).
● I am going to create a google form with these questions
○ Which of these places have you been - data is a bar graph
■ Willy’s
■ El Taco Veloz
■ Oriente Express
■ Dim Sum Heaven
■ Kathmandu Kitchen
■ Naanstop
○ Would you go to a or b - double bar
■ Willys’ vs El Taco Veloz
 ■ Oriente Express vs Dim Sum Heaven
■ Kathmandu Kitchen vs Naanstop
○ Then I would tell them which of these places were started by new or first generation immigrants
○ Would you like to change your answer:
■ Willys’ vs El Taco Veloz
■ Oriente Express vs Dim Sum Heaven
■ Kathmandu Kitchen vs Naanstop

5. Carefully look over your initial plans. In a numbered or bullet-pointed list below,
a) identify in detail things you actually did differently
● The list above is almost an exact copy (some wording changes to shorten) of the survey that got
sent out.
b) explain why you made each change.

Variables
6. In your proposal, find your standardized (#8) and extraneous variables (#10) and list them in the table
below.
Standardized variables Extraneous variables

How much time it took to complete the survey. They already know about all of the businesses or
they don’t like those food groups.

7. Standardized variable review:

Did you successfully standardize all the variables you planned to?
If not, explain why not.
I made the survey as short and to the point as possible, this made the amount of time less, therefore it
was more likely for more people to complete the survey.

8. Extraneous variable review:

Were there other factors (that you did not originally list) that you think could have affected your results?
Identify them and explain your answer.
Whether or not other schools in the Atlanta area would agree to help me out and give the survey out to
their student bodies. This was a major issue that occurred very early in the “testing” process, I had
planned to test two other schools as well as Galloway, but no other school I contacted agreed give the
survey to the student body.
Impact on Results
9. Think about all the ways the implementation of your experiment differed from your initial plans (your
answers to questions above).
Discuss how these changes may make your project stronger and/or make it weaker (i.e. make your
results more reliable or less reliable).

The largest issue I had while working on the collection of data was getting other schools to agree to give
their student body the survey. As said earlier, the way I decided to combat this issue and still get the
survey to other schools was through social media. During this process I had issues with getting the link to
stay with the post so that other people could actually get to the survey. In the end I decided to just survey
Galloway. Overall this weakened my project because the open mindedness of the Galloway student body
swayed the results to be more on the accepting side. This is good but I knew that about the Galloway
student body already, so it was not really a surprise, but some of the other schools in the Atlanta area
could have had dramatically different results, giving a better view of the larger Atlanta area.

Reflection on learning
In August, y’all shared your thoughts on what the point of school is. Many of your responses involved
building skills. You may recognize some of them in this list below, which has a few of my top priorities for
skills to build in this class.

10. Read over the skills and indicate with a comment where you feel you are with each, at this point in the
year.

I think I have I’m making progress. I’m struggling: I see This is a very weak
very strong I feel pretty good some improvement area for me. I don’t feel
skills in this about it. but it’s really hard. I’ve improved at all.

Design I know a lot more

experiments about how to design
a project and the
depth of work that is
often necessary, but
I feel like I still have
many things to learn
to make this process
easier.

Manage​ time & I worked

long term work very hard to
keep to my
schedule
because
early on I
waited to
long and it
caused a lot
 of problems
so I worked
to keep to it
after that.

Work​ ​well I felt like I

independently: was working
with focus, very hard
self-reliance, & and didn’t
initiative really get
very
distracted
once I was
really into
the project.

Own ​your own I think that I could

learning: take work with less fear
responsibility for of not knowing how
your work; to do something. I
know when you didn’t know how to
need help and do a few things, but
ask for it. was so scared to ask
the teacher that I
just asked my
friends because they
were things that I
should have known
how to do.