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).
5 materials, 3 runs

2. Below, put the actual sample size and/or repeated measures you completed by the deadline (February
5).
6 materials, 3 runs each

3. If there are differences between your initial plan and what you completed by the deadline, explain
a) why they are different, and
I saw a log that advertised being better for the environment than normal logs, so i wanted to compare it
to other fuels to see if it sacrificed efficiency for environmental safety
b) what you could have done differently to reach your goal on time.
Nothing
Procedure
4. Below, paste a copy of your planned steps from your project proposal (#15).
For the baseline test:
a. Pour 5 mL of kerosene into a small beaker
b. Have a timer ready to begin recording
c. Use a lighter to ignite the kerosene, and once it is lit, start the timer
d. Let the timer go until all of the kerosene has been burned, and once there is none left stop the timer
e. Record the burn time
f. Repeat 2 more times and find the average burn time
To run the experiment
a. Measure out 10 grams of the fuel on a scale and place in a small glass beaker
b. Place in the Lixada stove
c. Onto this pour 5 mL of kerosene
d. In a glass beaker, measure out 100 mL of water and place a thermometer in the water
e. Record the start temperature of the water
f. Ignite the fuel with a lighter, but do not place the water on until the kerosene has burned off.
Use the average burn time to determine how long this is
g. Once that amount of time has passed, place the large beaker of water on the Lixada and start
a timer
h. Record the water temperature continuously and make note of the final temperature once the
fuel has stopped burning
 i. Once the fuel has stopped burning, stop the timer and record the water’s end temperature
and burn time
j. Repeat two more times with room temperature water and pots
k. Enter all data into table

5. Carefully look over your initial plans. In a numbered or bullet-pointed list below,
a) identify in detail things you actually did differently, and
I ran the baseline test one extra time
b) explain why you made each change.
there was a slight problem running it the first time due to the fact that kerosene did not light; it needed a
wick, which I then used in the form of a small rolled up piece of paper towel

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

Mass of fuel used Whether the fuel was fully burned or not
How the fuel was ignited The temperature/humidity of the location
Measuring heat output incrementally and
continuously
location

7. Standardized variable review:

Did you successfully standardize all the variables you planned to?
No
If not, explain why not.
I hoped that by igniting all the fuels the same way, they might all burn fully, but that was not the case

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.
Time of day when I did the experiments-- somewhat goes with temperature because doing them early in
the morning or late at night might have made the starting points for the water temperature different and
therefore affected how I looked at my data

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).
I think that by mostly sticking to my plan I made my project stronger. The only change was the addition
of a fuel to test, which did not affect the other fuel’s results.

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 think i fit

experiments into this
section
because I
was able to
easily design
a
manageable
project with
realistic
goals and
expectations
without
making the
project
oversimplifie
d

Manage​ time & I stuck to my

long term work initial time
plan and it
worked well
enough that I
had time to
test one
extra fuel
source

Work​ ​well I needed no

independently: help from
with focus, parents; my
self-reliance, & work was
initiative done
 efficiently
and without
getting in the
way of
anyone else

Own ​your own I feel that while I

learning: take usually do well in
responsibility for this section, I need
your work; to learn to ask for
know when you help more often and
need help and to recognize that I
ask for it. am struggling with
something