DESCRIPTION: This event will determine a team's ability to design, conduct, and report the findings
of an experiment. THE COMPETITION: A TEAM OF UP TO: 3 APPROXIMATE TIME: 50 minutes
1. Supervisors will provide teams with all the materials at a distribution center or in a container. The
materials will be listed on the board or placed on a card for each team. Both the card and die
container could be considered part of the materials. The identity of the materials is to remain
unknown until the start of this event and will be the same for each team. The students must use at
least two of the provided materials to design and conduct an experiment.
2. The event supervisor may assign a question or a problem that determines the experiment. If a
single question or problem is assigned, it should be the same for all teams and involve
relationships between independent and dependent variables (like height vs. distance), and have data.
which can be measured and graphed. If teams are allowed to choose the problem, the supervisor
may exclude certain problems like pendulums and/or provide a list of problems to choose from
using the same materials provided.
3. Students must bring safety goggles and a writing instrument. Students may also bring a timepiece,
a ruler, and a calculator of any type.
4. The students will be given an outline (patterned after the scoring rubrics) to follow when
recording/reporting their experiment.
5. When the teams are finished, all materials will be returned to the event supervisor along with all
written materials. The content of the report must be clearly stated and legible. SCORING: Scoring of the event will be done using the scoring rubric at the bottom of this page. Zero
(0) points will be given for an inappropriate or for no response. Points will be awarded dependent
upon the completeness of the response. Ties will be broken by comparing the point totals in the
scoring areas in the following order: 1) Total points for variables, 2) Procedure, 3) Total Points for
Analysis and Interpretation of Results. Any student not following proper safety procedures will be
penalized up to four points for each infraction.
EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN REPORTING FORM/RUBRIC
1. STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: (4 Points)
2. HYPOTHESIS: Including knowledge that coniributed to hypothesis(4 Points)
3. VARIABLES:
INDEPENDENT VARIABLE (S): Factor Being Manipulated (3 Points)
DEPENDENT VARIABLE (S): Factor Which Responds (3 Points)
CONSTANTS: (Controlled Variables) Factors That Arc Held Constant (4 Points)
4. STANDARDS OF COMPARISON: (Experimental Control) (3)
5. MATERIALS AND PROCEDURE: Including Diagrams: (8 Points)
6. QUALITATIVE OBSERVATIONS & RESULTS: (4 Points)
7. QUANTITATIVE RESULTS:
RECORD YOUR RAW DATA IN A TABLE (Including Use of Significant Figures Division C) (6 Points)
DISPLAY YOUR DATA USING GRAPHS (6 Points)
RELEVANT STATISTICS: (C Only-4Pls.) Including But Not Limited To Average, Line Of Best-Fit, Standard Deviation
8. ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS: (4 Points) Division B; (10 Points) Division C
9. POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTAL ERRORS (3 Points)
10. CONCLUSION: INCLUDE WHY YOUR RESULTS DID OR DID NOT SUPPORT THE HYPOTHESIS: (1 PLs)
11. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER EXPERIMENTATION BASED ON YOUR DATA & PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: (4 Points)
HINTS: 1. Statement of problem should not have a yes or no answer. 2. Experiment should consist of repeated trials.
3. The variables should be operationally defined. Recommended Reference: Students and Research, Kendall
Hunt, J. Cothron, R. Giese, R. Rexba, Kendall Hunt
2002-CC32
