I would like to determine the statistical tool advised by High School Research Advisers for Science Investigatory Projects...
Research as follows...
1. Feasibility studies on product outputs..
2. Comparative studies of two or three variables
3. Mixed research
Hope you can help me guys!
Hi Jayvee -
I have a suggestion that could introduce statistical distributions to students.
Using regular playing dice (six sided), you can show students the differences among flat, normal, and log-normal distributions. Use 4 dice and have the students roll them repeatedly. For each roll, record the four values; once you have accumulated 100 or so rolls, calculate the sum of each roll, and the product of each roll. (this is easy in excel).
The individual values can have value of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, with equal probability - this is your flat distribution.
The sum of each roll can have values from 4 (all 1's) to 24 (all 6's), with the interior values being more likely because they can have different combinations. This is your normal distribution.
The product of each roll can have values of 1 (all 1's) to 1296 (all 6's) with the interior values spread in between; because of the product character, these result in a log-normal (right tailed) distribution.
It's simple - and because the values are discrete, it's easy to build the bins for "stacking" the values.
You can then go on and explain how a continuous variable could similarly be treated.
I have a few more instructional tools like this for the class room if you're interested.
- joach
Most high school students I've helped with science fair projects, across the many sciences, have used fairly simple but solid designs. Most are experiments and usually a comparison of a single experimental group to a control group. However, the students who are really aiming to compete on the national / international level use more complex designs. Even so, qualitative variables that require high inference coding are rare. Most of the stats for most solid high school science fair projects can be done with chi square, t-tests, and correlations. Studies in the engineering, physics, computer science, and math categories tend to use other methodologies and other kinds of math (given the nature of those fields). Below are links to resources I created to help science fair students and their teachers, including a one page handout summarizing basic statistics. Best wishes helping your students, Jayvee. ~ Kevin
http://perplexingquestions.org/science_fair/
http://perplexingquestions.org/science_fair/science_fair_statistics.pdf
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Mathematics
- Statistics