Authors Note: Elly, Janie and I were working together in a science group when our project went from what seemed like a great idea to a complete fail. I decided to write about what we did wrong and what we could have done differently for the experiment to be a success.
For our science group project, Janie, Elly, and I decided to use Mindflex and incorporate it into a science experiment. Our plan was to see if watching TV can decrease brain activity. We used our younger brothers as test subjects. In our heads, this was going to be a great experiment and the data would have been really good. That however, was not the case. Instead of making this experiment a scientific process it turned into something completely unscientific.
There were many flaws in this experiment. We started off with the boys watching 30 minutes of Spongebob. However, we only had two Mindflex sets, so Geoffry got five minutes less of TV. Another flaw was that the Mindflex sets were different, so the data was not quite the same. We also did a terrible job at recording data. Everything we wrote down became very confusing.
When it came time to do the next part of our experiment, we failed even more. We started having them play games that made them think harder than they would on an everyday basis. We were planning on having them do this for 30 minutes, and then take the Mindflex test again and compare results, though it was difficult to do since our data from before wasn’t very strong.
The real fault came in about halfway through the second half of the test. We realized we were running out of time and we had to get the experiment by about ten minutes. Things just kept going downhill. Very quickly, we tested Henry, and immediately after the test he had to leave. Drew then did the Mindflex test, but Geoffrey refused.
The experiment could have easily been successful, and we could have proven a lot of points. Since we had many flaws, the experiment didn’t go quite as planned. If we were to do it again, we would have to allow more time and thought to go into the experiment.
For the experiment to be successful, you can only have one independent variable. With two independent variables, you wouldn’t be able to tell what variable made the results change. The dependent variables are: the data results after watching show and playing games. The constant variables are: the mindflex system, the show they were watching, and the games they were playing.
The flaws in this experiment was the main cause of the failure. The experiment itself was a good idea, but the actual test fell apart. In order to conduct a truly scientific investigation, you have to plan every detail of the experiment in advance to make sure it will turn out as expected.
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