Saratoga STEM SCIENCE FAIR

WORKING JOURNAL
2014


Project Title:
ATTENTION STUDENTS

Scientists:
Josie Minz, Alyssa Regner and Abby Lewis





The Scientific Method
(P.H.E.O.C.)
Science fair projects involve discovering new information through the use of the scientific method. The
scientific method is a process by which scientists test their ideas.

Problem - state your problem. What question are you trying to answer.

Hypothesis - after doing some reading and research, the scientist makes an educated guess
about what the answer to the problem will be. This educated guess is called a hypothesis.

Experiment - the scientist sets up an investigation to test the hypothesis.

Materials - a complete list of materials needed to conduct the
experiment.

Procedure - a step-by-step description of the investigation.

Observations - the experiment is carried out. Measurements and other data are carefully
recorded. Often several trials are needed to get reliable results.

Data - the scientist organizes observations, measurements, times, etc.
by making graphs, charts and/or tables.

Conclusion - the scientist analyzes the results and writes a conclusion explaining whether the
hypothesis was correct.



PROBLEM

What problem (question) are you investigating?

The problem is kids dont typically listen to the current morning announcements which can result in them not
hearing crucial information. Therefore, we would like to test to see if there is a better way to grab the attention of students
in morning announcements.

Question format:
Is there a better way to capture the attention of students through the morning announcements instead of the
normal way over the loudspeaker?


Describe the observations that led to the problem you are investigating. Why did you choose this problem?
Describe why and how you are doing this experiment.

We chose this project because it is easily recognizable that students at our school don't listen to announcements.
To solve that problem, we would like to find a way that they would listen to the announcements. Maybe if students could
see the announcements visually, then they would direct more attention to the information presented. We are going to test
two days of the normal announcements with students filling out the survey and the same with the visual announcements.
We will only do two trials for each type of announcements because if we do more, then it would become too predictable
where students would know its going to happen; then our results wouldnt be as accurate.
The visual announcements will be set-up through the Google+ Hangout through YouTube as a live video.
By students filling out a survey with questions about what they heard on the announcements using each style, we
should be able to come to a conclusion on which type of announcements allows students to comprehend what was said,
better.




Helpful Hints:
Be sure that your problem is in the form of a question and that it can be answered through experimenting and
observing.
Choose something you do not already know the answer to.







HYPOTHESIS

What is your prediction (hypothesis)? Write this in the If, Then, Because...format.

Alyssa: If we test the number of announcements remembered when presented orally in the normal way and visually, then I
think that students will remember more of the announcements when they can see them visually because usually when you
see something you understand it better. It's just like comparing how what you would remember from a facetime chat or a
phone call. You are probably going to remember more of the face time because it is so close to interacting directly with
that person as if you were talking to them over the phone.

Josie: If we were testing to see if kids pay better attention to the morning announcements when they are presented through
the loudspeaker or when the announcements are presented on the smart board in class visually, then I believe that the
students will pay better attention to when the announcements are presented in a more visual display. I think this because
kids typically dont pay any sort of attention to announcements when they are just presented over the louse speaker orally
but if the students watch a video they typically pay better attention to what is being said. Not to mention that things when
presented visual people typically can remember better which is why certain colors are used in logos to catch the audience's
attention and make them remember their company. Not to mention, that some students ideal learning style isnt through
just hearing news its visually seeing or being taught someone which means that the new visual display of announcements
could be better fit for those students.



EXPERIMENT

MATERIALS
List the equipment and/or materials you will use to conduct your experiment. *Be sure all items are labeled with
quantity or amount needed.

The materials that we will need to conduct this experiment are as follows:
Announcements for the morning
One video camera (for the livestream announcement test)
One piece of technology per student taking the survey
Loudspeaker
One smartboard per classroom (for streaming the announcements)
Students to record their comprehensions of the announcements on the surveys.
At least two teachers to volunteer their class to fill out the survey.
A Google form for the normal announcement style and the new announcement style.
Students to perform the live announcements.
Technology to stream the announcements live.
Announcements log to record what was mentioned in the announcements that day and the total number
of announcements given in that period.


PROCEDURE

Describe (and illustrate if you choose to) how you will set up the experiment. List the procedure steps you will
follow to test your hypothesis. This should be step-by-step like in our SEPUP units.

1. Create our normal announcements survey which we will give to the teachers who are helping us with this
experiment so they can forward it to their class.

2. We will then conduct the typical morning announcements through the loudspeaker while keeping track of how
any announcements are given for that specific day and details such as dates and times of events, so that we can
compare them with what the students heard.

3. After the announcements are given in the "normal way" the students in the selected classrooms will fill out the
survey for how many announcements they heard and any details or specific announcements that they heard.

4. We will do this experiment with the selected classes for one more day repeating steps 1-3 with different
announcements, on a different morning, but still using the normal announcement style.

5. The next step is to create the livestream video of the announcements so that the classes can see it on the
smartboard.

6. Conduct the livestream announcements.

7. Students will take a new survey after watching the announcements, to see how many announcements there were
that day and any dates and times and specific announcements heard.

8. Steps 6 and 7 will be repeated one more time on a different day with new announcements, but still using the same
survey.

9. Next, we will work on evaluating the results and determining which format of the morning announcements
students paid better attention to.

10. Formulate a conclusion of all data collections.

VARIABLE & CONTROL

What factors are your controls - what was kept the same in each trial?

The controls we used in this experiment are:
We tested the same classrooms each day with close to the same students in it (unless some are
sick or absent for other reasons).
The survey for the normal announcements is the same for both trials and the survey for the new
announcements is the same for both trials.
The time that the survey is taken is around the same time every day (give or take a couple
minutes) and takes about the same time for everyone to fill out ranging from 1-20 minutes after
the announcements were given.


What is your variable - what factor did you change?

The variable (or what we changed) in each experiment was the style or set-up of the announcements.
There were two trials (or days) that we did the testing with the normal announcements set-up and two days
where we did the new live video set-up of the announcements. This was the variable in our experiment because
it was what we changed or were comparing in our experiment to find a solution or better results.


How many trials did you do?

We have done a total of two trials; two with the normal announcement style and two with the new live
video announcement style. We would have liked to have conducted three of four trials each but we can only do
one trial per day which means that if we did 3 trials it would take six school days. Also, the students after the
second or third day of testing could catch on and pay more attention to the announcements changing our results
meaning that we cant do two tests on the same day.

OBSERVATIONS

Record your notes and observations. Include photographs if desired. Please date each observations {put time,
too, if relevant}.

I observed that when students in my first core class watched the live announcements, they were watching the
announcements without doing other things on their iPads or in their books, but were actually watching and paying
attention to the board. It's just like whenever you watch a video in class, the teachers tell you to be quiet and pay attention.
This was just like that because all the students were told to direct their attention to the smartboard and watch them. When
I came back to my core one class after doing the announcements everyone was filling out the survey. What I noticed was
that some students were just guessing how many announcements there were and not how many they thought they heard.

What I also noticed was that when the announcers were saying the announcements in the camera, they were just
staring at their papers and not really making much eye contact into the camera. It didn't even seem like they were
interacting with the audience they were presenting to.

Teachers also gave me their opinions on the live announcement style. One teacher said that she liked the way that
the announcements are set up visually because she could actually see the students say the announcements and it was more
fun to watch. Another teacher said that he realized that students were more engaged when watching the announcements.
On the survey, students that participated, answered a question asking why they did or did not like the new announcement
set-up. The survey was set-up where the students would rate their liking of the announcements on a scale of 1-10. Rating
it at 1, was that they didn't like it at all and the rating of 10 showed that they loved the new announcement style. Students
below who liked the announcement set-up rated it 9 or 10 on a scale of 1-10 and the students who didn't like it gave it a
rating of a 1 or 2.
Students who liked the live announcements said comments like:
"I was actually able to hear the announcements because everyone had to be quiet and watch."
"I can see people's faces, and it helps me remember better."
"It was fun and nice because I could see who was talking."
"I like it because you get to see the people and it gets your attention."
"This is a STEM school and we are now showing that we are in the 21st century."
"I liked it because it made me pay attention when we were watching it."
"It is way more clearer and easier to understand."
"I like it because I was more engaged."

Students who didn't like the announcements had comments such as:
"I feel like it is an unneeded change, it was too much work, it was a good idea, but I feel like the school is not
ready for it."
"It would be a lot more complicated to watch them and set all that up for EVERY MORNING.
"It takes too long to set-up."

When all of the ratings (good and bad) for the first day of streaming the live announcements, were added up and averaged,
they came to an overall rating of 6.72 which is 67.2% of these students who liked the live announcements better.


DATA:
The type of data you gather depends on the experiment you conduct. List the data you have collected in an
appropriate way in the space below ---TABLES, GRAPHS, CHARTS, etc.

ON DATA SPREADSHEET

DATA ANALYSIS

Use graphs, diagrams, tables, or charts where appropriate to help in the data interpretation. You need a
WRITTEN ANALYSIS of what you discovered.

Written Analysis of what we discovered:

BAR GRAPH DATA ANALYSIS

7:25 am. on Tuesday April 1st, 2013
When we did the normal announcements on April 1st Mrs. Staniszewski 6th graders heard an average number of
3.5 announcements out of a total of 6 and her 7th graders heard an average of 2.8 announcements. Although, there are
only two sixth graders in her class which means that the number of announcements that were heard by them are not as
accurate. With more students in sixth grade it would have been easier to come to a full conclusion of what they actually
would have heard in that environment. Therefore, the sixth graders heard about 58.3% of the total announcements and the
sixth graders in her class only heard about 46.67%. This shows that the seventh graders in her class heard less than half of
the announcements and the sixth graders hear a little over half of the total announcements. Although there were more
seventh graders, which gave a more accurate result, but there were only two sixth graders which means that the reason for
the percent of announcements heard, is high, could be because there wasn't a big sample size of sixth graders in this class.
Also on April 1st, in Mrs. Grosskopf's class (which only consists of 7th graders) heard an average of 4
announcements out of 6 which is 66.67% of the announcements heard. This information is very accurate because it
consisted of 29 students. This class heard the most announcements out all of the classes on the date.
Lastly, Mr. Brookins class's sixth graders heard an average of three announcements out of six which is 50% of the
total announcements. His seventh graders heard an average of 3.5 announcements out of six, which is approximately
58.33% of the total announcements. This shows that the sixth graders comprehended less announcements than the seventh
graders. These percentages of announcements heard were really similar except the seventh graders heard 8.33% more of
the total announcements than the sixth graders. Mr. Brookins sixth graders heard the least amount of announcements
compared to the sixth graders in Mrs. Staniszewskis class who heard 3.5 announcements. Although Mrs. Staniszewskis
class did only have two sixth graders, so this information could still be inaccurate to compare to.
All in all, Mr. Brookins class and Mrs. Staniszewskis class heard pretty much equal amounts of information. Mr.
Brookins had 6th graders that comprehended half of the announcements (three announcements) and 7th graders who
comprehended 3.5 of the 6 announcements. However, Mrs. Grosskopfs class heard the most amount of announcements,
comprehending four of a total six announcements. The comparison of classroom environments could have an impact on
the number of announcements comprehended. Maybe Mr. Brookins and Mrs. Staniszewskis classes are louder during
announcements and students are talking and not paying attention as much. It could also relate to the students in the class.
Some students normally listen to the announcements, where others take it as a free time to socialize.

7:25 am. on Wednesday April 2nd, 2014

On April 2nd the amount of announcements that were said over the loudspeaker was 8 and the average
that the seventh graders in Mrs. Staniszewskis class heard was 3.7 announcements which means that on
average the seventh graders in Mrs. Staniszewskis class were missing half of the announcements. The sixth
graders in her class heard on average of 4 announcements but she only has two sixth graders in her class
meaning that the results could be inaccurate representation of sixth graders in her class.
Mr.Hoffmanns sixth graders on April second heard a total average of 4.6 announcements which was
more than Mrs. Stans class average which shows that Mr. Hoffmanns class could be paying better attention to
the announcements than Staniszewskis class. Mr. Hoffmanns seventh graders in his core one class had an
average of 4 announcements that they heard which was only slightly more than the seventh graders in Mrs.
Staniszewskis class. For all of the seventh graders in both Mr. Hoffmann and Mrs. Staniszewskis class heard
around one half of the actual announcements that were said. The eighth graders that are in Mr. Hoffmanns
class heard an average of 4.5 announcements out of 8.
ACU which stands for Mrs. Akre, Mrs. Carlson, Ms. Urbans combined classroom their sixth grade
students heard an average of 4.9 announcements on April second. This is 61.25% of the day's announcements
that they heard this actually was the highest amount of announcements that the sixth graders heard out of the
classes that we surveyed. ACUs seventh graders in the class heard an average of 5.5 announcements which is
68.75% present. The seventh graders in ACUs classroom heard the most announcements when compared to
any other class and age group. The eighth graders in ACUs classroom heard an average of 4.6 out of 8
announcements which is a percentage of 57.5%.
Finally, Mrs. Grosskopf's class heard an average of 3.9 announcements out of 8, which is 48.75% of the
total announcements that we said over the loudspeaker. This means that this class only heard a little less than
half of the announcements heard. Overall from April 2nd, Mrs. Grosskopfs seventh graders heard the second
most amount of announcements compared to all seventh graders on this date.
Overall from Day 2 on April 2nd, it is obvious to see that the ACU group heard the most announcements
compared to all classes and all grades. Its sixth graders heard 4.9 of the 8 announcements (61.25%), seventh
graders 5.5 of 8 (68.75%), and eighth graders 4.6 of the 8 (57.5%). These show that the whole class heard about
62.5% of the total eight announcements. This is the highest percent of announcements heard from both day one
and two when the normal announcements were done. Aside from ACU, Mr. Hoffmanns class is ranked second
from April 2nd with is sixth graders hearing 4.6 of 8, seventh graders hearing 4, and eighth graders hearing 4.5.
This comes out to an average of 4.367 which comes to 54.59%. Staniszewski, again with the lowest
announcements remembered, had sixth graders with an average of 4 announcements remembered, and seventh
graders with 3.7. This averages out to 3.85 of the eight total announcements. Lastly, Mrs. Grosskopfs class
heard an average of 3.9 announcements out of eight. From each class, there is similar data seen and some that is
not really showing great attention to the announcements. Again, some classes are instructed to listen and
teachers are more strict about them listening, but others have students that dont listen or pay attention and they
miss more information.

Thursday April 24th, 2014 at 7:27 am.
Mr. Hoffmanns class was the class that heard the least amount of announcements on this date. His
classes comprehension was about 20% higher with the live announcements than it was with the normal
announcements. His sixth graders heard an average of 4.25 announcements which is 70.83% of 6 total
announcements on the date. His seventh graders heard an average of 3.75 total announcements which is 62.5%
of the 6 total announcements. Mr. Hoffmanns class was the only class on this date that had eighth graders with
only three. This means that the results are probably not as accurate if there is such a small sample size. The
eighth graders in Mr. Hoffmanns class comprehended on average of 3 of 6 announcements, which is 50%.
Mrs. Staniszewskis class heard about the same as Mr. Brookins class at the top of the comprehension
scale. Her sixth graders (which were only two) claimed that they heard on an average of eight announcements.
However, this is cut down to six because it is not possible to hear more announcements than there actually are.
This data isnt very accurate because of the low sample size of sixth graders in Mrs. Staniszewskis class.
Although, she has way more seventh graders in her class on this date, 29 students. They comprehended 4.74 of
the 6 announcements, which is 79%. Mrs. Staniszewskis seventh graders comprehended the second most
announcements right behind Mr. Brookins class.
Mrs. Grosskopfs class, (which only consists of seventh graders), comprehended 4.23 of the six
announcements which is 70.5%. Overall, her class comprehended the least amount of announcements and
second least amount compared to all seventh graders on this date.
Lastly, Mr. Brookins sixth graders comprehended the second most overall on this date with 5.3 of the
6 announcements which is 88.33% of the announcements mentioned. His seventh graders comprehended the
most announcements of all seventh graders on this date at an average of 5.54 announcements out of six, which
is 92.33%.
All in all, Mrs. Staniszewskis class on this date, had the most announcements comprehended with 5.37
of the six announcements mentioned. This is probably because her two sixth graders claimed to have heard all
of the announcements. Mr. Brookins class was second with 5.42 of the six announcements heard in his whole
first core class. Mrs. Groskopfs class was third because her whole class heard 4.23 of the six announcements.
Lastly, Mr. Hoffmanns class heard the least amount of announcements with all grades averaged, at 3.67 of 6.

Wednesday April 30th, 2014 at 7:27 am.
On this date, there were a total of 12 announcements and Mr. Hoffmanns class did not participate in the
survey, which means that there were no eighth graders who took the survey. Therefore, only the sixth and
seventh grades can be compared.
Mrs. Staniszewskis class with only two sixth graders heard an average of 8 announcements out of the
12 which is 66.67% of the total announcements. Her sixth graders comprehended less than Mr. Brookins and
Mrs. Grosskopfs class doesnt have any sixth graders. Therefore, Mrs. Staniszewskis sixth graders
comprehended the least amount of announcements on this date compared to the other sixth graders. On the other
hand, her seventh graders heard the most announcements out of all sixth and seventh graders on the date,
comprehending 8.5 of the 12 announcements, which is 70.83%. However, its not like her seventh graders were
way higher than the rest of the data gathering. Her classes seventh graders comprehension was very close to
both Mr. Brookins sixth and seventh graders which were also very close to eachother.
Mrs. Grosskopfs seventh graders comprehended the least amount of announcements (on average) out of
all sixth and seventh graders on the date. Her seventh graders heard 6.76 of the 12 announcements, which is
56.33% of the total announcements on this date.
Mr. Brookins sixth graders comprehended the most announcements when compared to the other sixth
graders in Mrs. Staniszewskis class. In addition his seventh graders comprehended the second most of all
seventh graders. Also, as mentioned before, Mr. Brookins class and Mrs. Staniszewskis class comprehended
about the same amount of announcements comparing both sixth and seventh grade students responses from the
survey. To be more specific, Mr. Brookins sixth graders comprehended an average of 8.25 of the 12
announcements, which is 68.75%, and his seventh graders comprehended an average of 8.18 of the 12
announcements which is approximately 68.17%.
Overall, when all grades are averaged in each class, Mrs. Staniszewski and Mr. Brookins classes are
very close in average. Mrs. Staniszewskis class comprehended an average of 8.25 of 12 and Mr. Brookins
class with an average of 8.125 of 12 announcements. This shows that their classroom environments could have
been similar or the students in the classes were paying equal attention to the announcements being played on the
smartboard. However, Mrs. Grosskopfs class was a bit lower on the comprehension of the announcements
because overall, her class comprehended an average of 6.76 of the 12 announcements, which is only a little over
half of the announcements that the students in her class actually remembered.

PIE CHART DATA ANALYSIS
This data is shown in the pie charts displayed above. To put together this data, all of the number of
announcements that students heard were averaged out and separated by grade and class. Then the average
number of announcements heard was put into a percentage from each class and grade. The percentages from 6th
grade on one day were all averaged to find the average number of announcements heard by sixth graders on that
day. This was done for sixth, seventh and eighth graders on each day. Then when there were three pie charts for
one day (one for sixth, seventh and eighth), the average number of announcements heard on that day were all
averaged out and the rest would be the other section of the pie chart. This was used to find the overall average
of announcements heard from one day. Then when determining the percentage of announcements heard, the two
percentages from the overall pie charts for each type of announcements were averaged to find a final percentage
of announcements heard and not heard for both styles of announcements.

Day 1- Tuesday April 1st, 2014 at 7:25 am.
The announcements heard by sixth, seventh and eighth graders on this first day, are all very similar. 6th graders
comprehended 54.2%, seventh graders comprehended 57.2% and eighth graders comprehended 56.9% of the 6
announcements mentioned over the loudspeaker. The average number of announcements from all grades heard
during the announcements this morning is 56.1%.

Day 2- Wednesday April 2nd, 2014 at 7:25 am.
The announcements heard by the sixth, seventh and eighth graders on this day are very similar to each other,
and also to the announcements remembered from day one. The percent of announcements heard by sixth
graders is, 56.3%, seventh graders; 53.4, and eighth graders comprehended approximately 56.9% of the 8 total
announcements. The average of the announcements comprehended from all grades on this day is 44.5% which
is a little less than half of the eight



Day 3- Thursday April 24th, 2014 at 7:27 am.
The announcements heard on the first day of the live announcements are way above those heard with the
normal announcements. Most of them range in 70 and 80 comprehension from the announcements! Sixth
graders comprehended an average of 86.4% of announcements, seventh graders with 76.1% and eighth graders
with 50% of the six total announcements. The only reason that the eighth grade announcement comprehension
percentage was much lower than the other ones is because its results came from only four students. This is a
very low sample size and this is why the 50% is probably not as accurate as it really is with all eighth graders.
The percent of announcements comprehended from all grades on this day is 70.8%.

Day 4- Wednesday April 30th, 2014 at 7:27 am.
On this day, sixth graders comprehended an average of approximately 67.7% and seventh graders
comprehended an average of approximately 65.1% of the 12 announcements when watching the live video of
the announcements. From all grades on this day, there were approximately 66.4% of announcements
comprehended. The announcements remembered on the second day of the live announcements were very
similar to the ones from days one and two with the normal announcements. The announcements watched on the
live stream were only comprehended by an extra 10%. Why are these results so similar?


COMPREHENSION FROM 6 ANNOUNCEMENTS TO 12 LOGICAL DATA ANALYSIS
When day four (the second and last day of the live announcements) is compared with the comprehension
rates from day one and day two, they are very similar. The announcements comprehended, are just a little over
half for both of these sets of data. I think that one reason this happened is because on day four, there were
twelve announcements. When there were six announcements on day three with the live announcements and also
six announcements on day one, with the normal announcements, this is easy to compare because there were the
same number of announcements, but they were just performed with different announcement styles. The live
announcements comprehended were around the 70, 80 and even 90 percent range where on day one with the
normal announcements the announcements comprehended here around the 40 and 50 percent range. Obviously,
the live announcements catch more attention. But when you would compare day one with six total
announcements and day four with 12, that doesnt work out. Why? Because in the first place, we have observed
that students pay more attention and comprehend more of the announcements when they can be seen visually.
But now we see that the results from day one and two, are similar to those in day four. When there are more
announcements said, it is harder to remember as many than if there were six. So when the announcements are
done the normal way (which causes less comprehension) with a lower number of announcements, this would be
equal to when the announcements are done the live way (which causes more comprehension) with more
announcements. There is one positive and one negative on each side. On days one and two with the normal
announcements the negative is students dont comprehend as much, but the positive is that there are less
announcements which would cause them to remember more announcements than they would if there were
more. On day four, the announcements were done visually which causes more comprehension; this is a positive;
but there are more announcements; and this is the negative. Its just like how it would be harder to remember
the route a mailman has to take if he has 2,000 houses to stop at than another mailman who only has to stop at
1,000. If a student remembers half of the announcements on the first or second day, they would only have to
remember three, whereas on the fourth day, they would have to remember six, which is all of the
announcements from day one.


CONCLUSION

What did you learn after studying the results of your experiment? Remember to relate back to your data and
hypothesis to support your conclusion.

A conclusion based on the data collected.
Evidence from experiment is included
Discuss your hypothesis and its accuracy.
Discuss whether the data supports your hypothesis
Errors that occurred that may have interfered with the results.
Describe any changes that need to be made the next time the investigation is performed.
Describe any new questions to be investigated based on the results of this investigation
Explanations, applications, and connections to the real world


Based on the data that we collected from this experiment, the live announcements seemed to have
captured the attention of students and allowed them to comprehend and remember more of the announcements.
Students claimed that they liked this way of doing the announcements because it made them pay better attention
and understand the announcements more advantageously. They also aforementioned that they could actually
hear the announcements because everyone had to direct their attention to the smartboard and watch the
announcements. Taken from the students responses from the survey, 67.2% of students liked the live
announcement style better than the old way over the loudspeaker. Shown from the results of the survey, overall,
with the normal announcement style, approximately 50.3% of announcements were assimilated whereas with
the live announcements approximately 68.6% of announcements were comprehended through watching the live
video visually on the smartboard. This is almost 20% more announcements that are comprehended with the live
announcements.
These results do indeed support my hypothesis because I hypothesized that students would be able to
understand the announcements more when they could see them rather than just listening to them. It is not the
most accurate because the reason that students paid more attention to the live announcements was because they
were told to listen, the lights were turned off and they were in a quiet environment where they could easily pay
attention to what was going on. But they did understand them more because they could see them.
However, errors that may have interfered with the results are that when I walked back into my core one
class, some students were just guessing how many announcements that there were and not estimating how many
they heard. This could interfere with our results because if they are just guessing, we dont know exactly or an
estimate of how many announcements they actually heard. Also, there were uneven students in each grade
which makes it hard to compare sixth from seventh from eighth graders. For example, Mrs. Stans class only
has two sixth graders, which means that whenever her sixth graders are compared to other sixth graders or the
rest of the class, it is not as accurate because there is a low sample size. Also, there was very little eighth
graders who participated in the survey because the classes that participated in our experiment were mostly
seventh graders. The only eighth graders were a very little amount in Mr. Hoffmanns class and Mr. Brookins
class. Another contribution that could have affected the results was the wide variety of number of
announcements. One day there were six announcements and the next there were twelve. I think that this affected
the results because it is harder to remember more announcements no matter what style it is done. If there were a
similar number of announcements (like only within one or two of each other), then it would be easier to
compare the normal announcements with the same number of announcements done as with the live
announcements. Furthermore, if we did this experiment again, I would definitely want to have another class or
two so that we could have more sixth and eighth graders to compare the results to. It would be nice to be able to
compare all of the grades to each other and also have some more classes so that when some classes cant do it
one day, then there are still enough to be able to compare the results. In this experiment there were three of the
four days where one class couldnt do the survey or the announcement experiment in general; then that only left
us with three classes which, if you think about it, isnt a very good sample size to be able to compare to the
school as a whole. Something that I personally think our group could have done better is to be more organized,
plan more ahead of time and communicate better with each other. It seemed like we were always rushing to
send out the survey and/or live video link the morning of the announcements and one person didnt know what
was going on. It also took too long to do all of the announcements with the survey; just to do four days, it took a
whole month. So, if we did this experiment, again I would definitely want to fix those things. Along with
making these changes for next time, it would also be interesting to investigate what would happen if we did the
survey at different times of the day. There could be one at the beginning of core one, one day, the beginning of
core two another day, core three, and then core four. This would be four days each doing some set of
announcements during that time. Then either the normal announcements could be done during those days to
compare just the attention of students throughout the day, or the live announcements to test the attention that
students would pay to that style, at different parts of the day.
The reason for using these visual announcements would be for the same reason that we can call people
on the phone or facetime them. Some people prefer to see things and others dont care or just find it quicker to
talk to the person over the phone. It could also be compared to why some people would rather listen to the
audiobook of a story, and others would prefer to watch the movie of it. Everyone learns differently; some
people are visual learners when it comes to announcements and others are aural learners.Therefore, having
different styles for different types of learners, would help a wider variety of students comprehend more of the
announcements so that they can get more news and updates from the morning announcements.






















Helpful Hints:
Remember that things dont always turn out the way we think they should. You have to report the data
exactly as you recorded it. If it didnt do what you expected, it means that you chose a good question
because you didnt already know the answer.
Try to figure out what happened/what went wrong and what you might do differently next time. Add
these thoughts to your conclusion.

SOURCES (WORKS CITED)

List sources you used for this Science Fair experiment. This would include any websites, books, science
magazines and/or experts on your topic.

Works Cited

"5 Reasons Why Your Childs Attention Problem." 5 Reasons Why Your Childs Attention Problem.
N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

Dean, Jeremy, Dr. "The Psychology of Attention." PsyBlog RSS. N.p., 13 May 2009. Web. 03 May
2014.

"First Weblog: When It Comes to Attention, "I" Am the Enemy." First Weblog: When It Comes to
Attention, "I" Am the Enemy. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

Leping, Kristian-Olari. "Should You Prefer Listening to Audio Books Vs Reading Books?" Ezine
Articles. N.p., 7 Oct. 2009. Web. 3 May 2014.

Medina, John J., Dr. "BRAIN RULE RUNDOWN-- Rule #4: We Don't Pay Attention to Boring Things."
Attention | Brain Rules |. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.

Sam, Praveen D., and Premalatha Rajan. "English Language Teaching." Using Graphic Organizers to
Improve Reading Comprehension Skills for the Middle School ESL Students. N.p., 9 Jan. 2013.
Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

"Why Kids Do Not Pay Attention While Studying?" All About Kids Parenting. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr.
2014.



SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT
STUDENT CHECKLIST

Working Journal
Problem & Hypothesis
List of materials
Procedure steps
Variable & Control
Trials & results
Daily notes on observations
Data
Rough draft of PHEOC steps
Conclusion
Final Announcement Decision. What style of announcements works
the best?
Tri-fold Display
Neat, edited, attractive and informative
PHEOC steps all listed clearly and neatly
Data displayed ~ Neat, edited, attractive and informative
SHARING PRESENTATION CHECKLIST
You will be required to present your experiment. Please use this as a guide to assist in your presentation.
Follow the format and questions listed below.

FORMAT
Tell the problem/question you investigated
Tell your hypothesis and why this was your prediction.
Describe your experiment
how you set up your trials
variables/controls
reasoning for all of this
equipment/safety precautions
Describe your observations
expected vs. unexpected
share your data
Explain your conclusion
compare to hypothesis
what did you learn

QUESTIONS you might expect while standing at your display
Would you please explain your project to us?
What questions/observations led you to choose this experiment?
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently?
Did any of your observations surprise you?
Could you continue your project or develop a new one from observations or questions which came up while
conducting this experiment?