Just Keep Swimming

Hello All:

Only one more week until us Seniors our out of school! This is exciting news but it is also a little scary. In less than a week, we will be done with formal High School classes and will be cast out into the world on our own. As the end comes closer, I am still trying to figure out my plans for the third trimester and finalize my experiment dates. There is still so much to do and not a lot of time; it's got me feeling a little like this.

The last time I posted, I was still worried about scheduling the dates for the experiment and gathering participants. Since then, I have emailed Mr. Garvey and confirmed the availability of a room for my research. This upcoming week, I am going to meet with Mrs. Haag and finalize the dates based on what works best for us both. Once I have the dates finalized, then I can begin gathering participants.

This week, Kristiana, Ved, and I are also working on a draft of an email that will be sent out to the BASIS Scottsdale parents. The email will detail our research and ask for participants in our studies. Hopefully, in the next week, the email can be sent out and we can begin gathering participants. Before the email can be sent, all the dates must be finalized, so that is an important step for me to take soon. Overall, I feel pretty good about how my research implementation is going and I feel like I'm still on schedule for successful experimentation in February. I feel a little like baby Dory.

Along with beginning to implement our methods, we have been editing our lit reviews and methods sections over the past week. As I have gone through my methods with my critique group and Mrs. Haag, I have realized some of the pitfalls that I need to sure up. In my methods, I never included a section on data analysis and specifically how I will use the riskiness survey that participants take to qualify my results. I will have to use statistics to analyze the data, so I want to look into how to do that effectively before I conduct my research. I was thinking I could possibly talk to Mr. Peacher about this, since he is the statistics teacher. What do you guys think of this idea or do you have any ideas on how I could analyze the data well? I'm excited to see that the research is moving along, but I need to keep the attitude of taking it one step at a time and completing one challenge at a time. Just as Dory always says, "Just keep swimming." (455)

Where I'm At

Hello All:

This past week we extensively reviewed our methods sections in groups, providing feedback and helping each other to improve. As I finish up the revised methods section, I must look forward to implementing them. I have currently not started my research, since it is an experiment that must be done during the third trimester, but I will start taking steps to gather my sample and arrange the logistics soon.

Just like DJ Khaled does in all aspects of his life, in this blog post I will try and outline the way I am going to stay on schedule and the key🔑  steps I need to take to ensure timely and correct implementation of my research.

In order for my research to happen, I need approximately 40-60 participants, so I must take steps to gather participants. I have already contacted Ms. Jordison and she has agreed to send out an email to BASIS Scottsdale parents, so I need to draft an email or statement about what participating in my project entails, so she can review it and send it. I also need to discuss the specific dates of the research with Mrs. Haag, since I cannot ask parents to volunteer until they know the specific dates that they could choose from to come in and participate in the research. Hopefully within the next week, I will figure out the dates with Mrs. Haag and begin gathering participants for my research.

Once I begin gathering participants, I may not immediately get the response that I need. So depending on how many participants that I have, I may need to begin reaching out to people I know and possibly teachers to participate in the research. It is important to have a backup plan for gathering participants, but in order to implement it, I must have time to gather people. That is why I need to begin gathering participants soon, so I know what I have to do leading up to the date of the experiment. Preparedness is a major 🔑 . I must give myself time to have a contingency plan for participants because my research relies on adequate participation, but the number of participants that agree is not fully in my control.

That is my currently where I am at in my research and what I am planning on doing to stay on track. Hopefully I will get the ball rolling soon and I can start finding results. As DJ Khaled says, "they don't want [me] to win." So I gotta win. (422)

New Year, New Me, New Post: Reflecting on My Methods

Hello All:

After a restful and Netflix-filled winter break, I am back to school and to blogging. Only a few more weeks and then us Seniors will be off on our own during the third trimester. As the saying goes, New Year, New Me(mes), so here's a preview of what 2017 has in store for you all.

In the spirit of New Years, this week's assignment is to reflect on our methods and identify ways to improve them. Fortunately, I have had the opportunity to have my paper read over and critiqued by my peers, so that should make this assignment a little easier and hopefully even more productive.

For anyone who does not know what my methods are, I will provide a quick summary. I am investigating how the effect of time pressure, near-misses, and priming influence blackjack behavior. So I designed an experiment that will have four groups play blackjack while under the influence of the different effects. Their behaviors will be observed and measured to help me find results. Hopefully that brief summary gives you a better understanding of my methods.

Overall, I feel that the design of my methods was fairly strong. However I often did a poor job explaining myself and got excessively wordy, especially through the use of passive voice. The key weaknesses that need to be addressed in my methods section are passive voice, lack of smooth and rigorous justifications, fixing unclear explanations, and unnecessary transitions.

Throughout my paper, passive voice obscures the meaning of my sentences. Often times, the sentences became overly wordy and emphasized the wrong aspects. I often used passive structures in my justifications, which made them extremely long-winded and hard to follow. If I can fix the passive voice issues throughout my paper, my methods section will become clearer and easier to follow.

Along with passive voice problems, many of my justifications were unclear. This was often due to the roundabout way that I wrote them very roundaboutly. The previous sentence was a perfect example of  the overt repetition I used when I could have just said it briefly and directly. Throughout my methods, I often found that I could explain it well orally but I did not translate my own understanding into the paper.

Similarly, I found that my explanations of my actual methods were often times unclear as well. When I tried to explain the risk survey that I would be using, I ended up confusing many of my group members. This is because I did not provide the full context around the survey. I think it was also difficult to explain my methods chronologically because I have not done them yet.

Building off of that, I had awkward transitions between the different sections of my paper and tried to justify the order that I was doing the groups in, even though since they are all separate it is unnecessary. I used wordy and often-times clunky phrases to try and transition between my subtopics when concise methods would have sufficed. Hopefully after my edits, my methods will be as strong as this guy. (516)