Tagbilaran City 3 – 5 July 2014

DepEd Division of Bohol Science Investigatory Project

Training and Workshop

Mock Science Congress: Comments

Presentor 1 Remarks

Title / Topic Calamansi juice and fluoride for cleaning teeth

Not using scientific terms

Motivation/Problem Effectiveness and cost

Hypothesis Calamansi effectiveness

Experimental Method Variables

No graphs; dependent, and independent , controlled variables

Results

Changes occurred...

Measurements; quantify; numbers (by how much?) with proper units

Overall Presentation Just reading the abstract; Pronunciation, gestures; Do not read. Have eye contact with the judges. PowerPoint allowed.

Presentor 2 Remarks

Title / Topic Phases of the Moon and Childbirth

Motivation/Problem Folklore – more child births during the full moon; study in France relation between full moon and accidents

Hypothesis

Experimental Method Correlational method; date and time of deliveries for a year

Results Last quarter has highest frequency; Significant degree of relationship between phases of the moon and delivery

Overall Presentation With recommendations

Open Forum

Q: Do we show calculations of mathematical results and statistical tests?

A: Yes, in the full paper. There should be a basis for your conclusions.

Honesty is very important in science.

Q: Comparative study between rural or urban setting?

A: Some data but not enough

Open Forum

CCB: Context is important; presence of confounding variables; averaging effect that negates correlation between variables

Fine-tuning: other factors – age of the women, etc.

Be your number 1 critic of your project.

Anticipate all possible questions, list and check responses. Avoid too many „For future study“ responses.

Open Forum

CCB: Stick to the scientific method. Do not love your research work too much. Otherwise, you will not be objective. If wrong, troubleshoot, and if it cannot be solved, throw it away. The judge always has the option to follow your procedure and should get your results.

Humility.

Open Forum

CCB: Data presentation: bar graphs, pie chart, aside from tables

For each slide, do not put in too much text or numbers, otherwise the reader (judge) may be irritated because he/she would have liked to read.

Literature survey

Open Forum

Q: We have no journals, are the Internet sources okay?

A: Wikipedia is good first step, leads to references in international professional journals.

Wikipedia has a self-checking mechanism, because of open-editing.

Journals published by professional societies, e.g. American Physical Society publishes the Physical Review; IEEE for engineering

Presentor 3 (CD 2) Remarks

Title / Topic Pests in rice production, kuhol

Motivation/Problem Correlation between gemelina tree and presence of kuhol; cost and preference for natural products; gemelina bark and leaves known for medicinal uses

Hypothesis Gemelina root extract, effect on kuhol

Experimental Method

Results Significant effect as natural pesticide

Overall Presentation Reading; not organized

Open Forum Q: Isn‘t gemelina poisonous? Polluting rice fields and

rivers? Kills kuhol but also kills other organisms? Is it really environmentally friendly?

CCB: That is an example of: what are the possible questions judges could ask.

Quantify results; give quantified background, e.g., normal lifetime

Scientific name of kuhol?

Impact on the environment

Q: What was read was not the abstract but the rationale? Is there a limit to the number of words?

CCB: Follow the rules: number of words, format, font

Open Forum CCB: Read sample abstract, etc., get a copy of

the most recent rules and guidelines.

(MVCB: toxicity; ethics; )

Presentor 4 Remarks

Title / Topic Biofuel from rice and corn chaff (agro-inudstrial waste)

Motivation/Problem

Hypothesis

Experimental Method Fermentation process; filtration, fractional distillation, iodoform test for alcohol purity, flame test, NPK test

Rusted equipment not allowed, no improvised (e.g. Ice cream plastic container); write chemical equation, diagram or flowchart; maintain purity of samples, reactants and products

Results Products: feeds, biofuel and fertilizer

Overall Presentation Not allowed to use clip art or animation; artwork should be original; personal photos not allowed

Open Forum Intel winner sharing:

• Importance of adult supervision

• Proper use of pathogenic organisms, hazardous substances and devices, disposal of wastes

• Acceptable norms of laboratory procedures and technical writing

• In-text citations

• Accuracy of recording of dates

Open Forum CCB: Presentation of scientific paper

published in Physics Letters A

• Sample of abstract, use of graphs, imbedded text citation

Presentor 5 Remarks

Title / Topic Used Engine Oil as Lamp Fuel

Motivation/Problem Recycling

Hypothesis

Experimental Method

Results Kerosene has bigger flame and more soot than the engine oil lamp

Overall Presentation Format of bibliography or references

Mean = average

Median

88 90 76 91 89

76 88 89 90 91

Mode

• 92 100 85 84 92 89

• 35 46 50 35 49 46

(bimodal)

• Controlled Variables