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Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Mathematics 20-2 Project One of the requirements in Math 20-2 is to complete a research project related to mathematics

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Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Mathematics 20-2 Project One of the requirements in Math 20-2 is to complete a research project related to mathematics. The project is fairly open-ended and the direction it takes is largely determined by you. Innovation and creativity are valued in projects like this, so you are free to experiment and try something new. Group projects are acceptable, but group members must be identified and approved by your teacher before you begin. Begin by reading all of the project instructions. Contact your teacher if you are unsure how to proceed after you have read the instructions. Project Topic Choose a topic that you are interested in. The project needs to be appropriate for school. Finding information for some topics may be easier than for others. Start by thinking of a general idea you want to work with and then narrow the idea to a specific topic. The following table outlines some possibilities to get you thinking. You are free to choose something that is not on the list. Category Weather Sports Ecology Populations Gaming Technology Social Media Finance Historical ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Possible Topic Precipitation in Lethbridge Goal Scoring by the Edmonton Oilers Ground Squirrel Populations World Population Growth Typical Number of Hours of Play Per Week Cell Phone Use The Number of ‘Friends’ People Have The Cost of Borrowing Money Pythagoras 1 Workbook 7 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Project Purpose Your project needs to have a purpose. What do you hope to learn that you can then present to others? It may be useful to think of a question that you will try to answer through your project. Questions related to the previous list of topics are shown. The question may change as you research your topic. Topic Precipitation in Lethbridge Goal Scoring by the Edmonton Oilers Ground Squirrel Populations World Population Growth Typical Number of Hours of Play Per Week Cell Phone Use The Number of ‘Friends’ People Have The Cost of Borrowing Money Pythagoras Possible Question Is the amount of precipitation in Lethbridge typical for Alberta? How has goal scoring by the Edmonton Oilers changed over the past decade? How are ground squirrel populations modelled? Will the world population ever peak? Which type of video game is played the most? Which phone plan is the most cost effective? Do I have more ‘friends’ than most people? Is it more expensive to borrow money from a payday loan company than a bank? Did Pythagoras discover the theorem named after him? Research Once you have decided on a topic and purpose, you will need to conduct some research. There are two types of research and your project can include either or both. Primary Research Primary research involves you collecting data from the world around you. You might use surveys, experiments, or observations. If you use primary research, make sure to describe how your data was collected as part of your presentation. Examples: • • 2 In order to determine a typical height range for someone in grade 11, Emma measured the height of each of her classmates. Gamil was interested in where different birds live. He recorded the type and number of all the birds he saw over a set time period at several different locations. © Thinkstock ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Math 20-2: Course Research Project • Workbook 7 Brittney was interested in how much people read for leisure. She had people complete a survey to help answer this question. Secondary Research Secondary research means using someone else’s data. Secondary sources of information include books, the internet, videos, or newspapers. If you use secondary research, make sure to reference your sources properly. See the references section. Examples: • • • To determine the best season the Seattle Seahawks ever had, Brennan used statistics he found at nfl.com. © Thinkstock In order to provide background information for her project, Perle needed to find out how an electric guitar works. From the library, she checked out one book on electric guitar history and another one on building electric guitars. Jacob watched a fascinating documentary on electric cars. He decided to use some of the information from the documentary for his project on comparing the fuel efficiencies of different vehicles. It is more important to stay organized when conducting any type of research. Using lists and tables may help you to organize and keep track of the data as it comes in. Remember to write down all sources of information when using secondary research so you don’t have to try to find the sources again later. ADLC Mathematics 20-2 3 Workbook 7 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Analysis Once you have researched your topic, you will need to interpret the data. Your task is to analyze the information to answer your original question. This will look different for every project and may include the following: • • • • • Calculating statistics such as the mean and standard deviation of a set of data Graphing a set of data Comparing data values Looking for patterns or trends Determining whether data from different sources are consistent Part of your analysis should be an analysis of the data source(s). Ask yourself the following: • • • Do the data appear to be biased? Is the source promoting a particular point of view? Does the source appear to be reputable? Is there enough data to draw conclusions? Biased information promotes one point of view while ignoring others. Most forms of advertising present biased information by indicating good qualities of a product while ignoring the negative. Even if your data was obtained through primary research, you must still consider whether YOUR data and the manner in which YOU collected the data were at all biased and whether YOU obtained sufficient data to draw conclusions. If there appears to be a problem with your primary or secondary data, either don’t use the data or explain the problem so your audience can also interpret the data correctly. 4 ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Conclusions Once you have analyzed your data, you should be able to draw conclusions related to your project’s original question (purpose). Here you want to state the key findings of your analysis and describe the implications of these findings. Example: Carlos’ original question was “What will be the land speed record in 2030?”. His key findings included the pattern of land speed records to date, factors that might limit a land speed record, and his prediction of the record for 2030. He then explained that his prediction was really a goal for the future and that technology would need to improve for his prediction to be correct. Presentation Your project’s presentation is how you will display/present your project so others will understand it. The presentation format is your choice, but you need to be able to send it to your marker. Some suggested formats are a • • • • Written report Video Multimedia presentation (such as a PowerPoint or Prezi ) Poster © Thinkstock For many project presentations, it is a good idea to begin by giving background information on the topic and describing the question you are trying to answer. You can conclude your presentation by describing key findings and explaining why they are important or how they might be used. References It is important to give credit to other people’s work used in your project. This credit should be given in two places. ADLC Mathematics 20-2 5 Workbook 7 Math 20-2: Course Research Project In-Text Referencing When you use a quote, picture, table or anything else that is not yours, make a note of it right beside the borrowed information. The exact format is not important for this project, but do try to be consistent throughout. Reference List This is a detailed list of the sources you used in your project. The reference list usually comes at the very end of a report or presentation. Microsoft Word has a References tool that may help you to format your references list. Example Billy Beane and Paul DePodesta took a radical approach to baseball management that allowed their financially-strapped team to be competitive with more well-funded teams (Lewis, 2004). RK 1 2 3 4 5 6 Player Giambi, J Dye, J Chavez, E Giambi, J Byrnes, E McMillon, B Team OAK OAK OAK OAK OAK OAK AVG 0.342 0.297 0.288 0.283 0.237 0.293 OBP 0.477 0.366 0.338 0.391 0.326 0.354 SLG 0.66 0.547 0.54 0.45 0.5 0.448 OPS 1.137 0.913 0.878 0.841 0.826 0.802 (MLBAM, 2013) Papushin, 2005 wikimedia.org References Lewis, M. (2004). Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. MLBAM. (2013, 04 12). MLB.com. Retrieved 04 16, 2013, from Statistics: http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp?c_id=mlb&tcid=mm_mlb_ stats#elem=[object+Object]&tab_level=child&click_text=Sortable+Player+hitting&game_ type=%27R%27&season=2001&season_type=ANY&league_code=%27MLB%27§ionTy pe=sp&statType=hitting&page=1&ts=13661407 Papushin, K. (2005). Wrigley Field April 2005. Notice in the example that even though there isn’t a direct quote and the table has been modified from the original version, credit was still given to the original sources. If you are unsure, give credit. 6 ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Planning Guide Use this guide to help you plan your project. Some sample guides are shown after this template. Topic Purpose of project Anticipated research Anticipated analysis Presentation Once you have completed this guide, before proceeding with your plan, contact your teacher to discuss your project plan. © Thinkstock ADLC Mathematics 20-2 7 Workbook 7 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Sample Planning Guides Sample 1 Topic Dolphin populations Purpose of project Are spotted dolphin populations high enough to sustain hunting? Anticipated research • • • • • • Where do spotted dolphins live? How large are the populations? How have populations changed over time? What areas are hunted? What does a typical hunt encompass? How have hunting practices changed over time? Anticipated analysis I plan to graph the spotted dolphin population data and the hunting data. I will look for patterns between the graphs that show how the two are related. If an increase in hunting seems to correlate with a lower dolphin population, I may conclude that an observed population change is due to hunting. I will also extrapolate the data to see what could be expected to happen to the spotted dolphin population in the future with and without hunting. Presentation PowerPoint presentation A correlation shows a relationship between two things. For example, warm weather and sunshine are correlated. An extrapolation uses existing data to make a prediction outside the range of the data. An interpolation uses existing data to make a prediction within the range of the data. 8 ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Sample 2 Topic Early ocean navigation Purpose of project I’ve heard that clocks used to be important to navigation. I want to find out how timekeeping was used by sailors to determine their location on the ocean. I plan to research historical ocean navigation. I may also need to look at a timeline of clocks to see what kinds were available to early sailors. Anticipated research Anticipated analysis I plan to give an overview of what I learn in my research. I will then give an explanation and some examples of how sailors navigated and hopefully I will be able to describe how clocks were used to help him. Presentation I plan to write a report that includes pictures and diagrams to support the explanations. Sample 3 Topic Basketball shots Purpose of project Is a quadratic function actually a good model for a basketball shot? Anticipated research I’m going to make a video in which I will shoot a basketball from many different locations on a basketball court. Anticipated analysis I’m going to take several still frames from a single shot. Next, I will overlay a Cartesian coordinate plane on each still frame to give a set of coordinates to each ball location. I will then try to sketch and determine the equation of a quadratic function that passes through all of the points. I will repeat this process for a few different shots to see if my results are consistent. Presentation PowerPoint that includes my videos and pictures. ADLC Mathematics 20-2 9 Workbook 7 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Sample 4 Topic Social Media Purpose of project Do boys and girls use social media differently? Anticipated research A survey with questions like the following: • Do you use social media? • What types of social media do you use? ?? Facebook ?? Twitter ?? blogs ?? internet forums ?? gaming ?? other • For how many hours per week do you use social media? • For how long have you been using social media? I plan to get at least 20 boys and 20 girls at my school to take the survey. I plan to calculate percentages for the first two questions’ data and I will calculate the mean, median, range, and standard deviation for the third and fourth questions’ data. I will compare all of the values of the two groups and look to see if boys and girls use social media differently. Anticipated analysis Presentation 10 I’m going to make a video. In the video, I’m going to first describe social media and then I’m going to show the survey and some people completing it. After that, I’ll give a summary of my data and calculations. Finally, I’ll describe what I discovered from my analysis of the survey results. ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Project Checklist Use this checklist once you have completed your project. You should be able to answer yes to each statement when your project is complete. Project Checklist The topic is appropriate. My project uses math or is related to math. There is background information for someone that is not familiar with my topic. Diagrams and tables are clear and easy to read. The data or a summary of the data collected has been included. The data has been analyzed thoroughly. A convincing argument that answers the original question has been made. Where possible multiple points of view have been described. Information taken from another source has been properly referenced. Accuracy and reliability of the data has been checked and any concerns have been noted. Yes No “How long should my project be?” There is no minimum or maximum length for your project, but asking yourself the following questions may help decide when you are finished. • • • • • ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Have I considered all of the sections outlined in this guide? Have I described my topic thoroughly? Have I analyzed my data thoroughly? Does the project feel complete? Am I proud to present this to someone else? 11 Workbook 7 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Rubric Complete your Course Research Project using your best work. Your project will be assessed according to the rubric and criteria provided. 4 The student… Collect primary Collected data or secondary data that is pertinent related to the topic and conclusively established the trend. Interpret the Data Provided an astute interpretation of the data. Present multiple sides of the issue with supporting data Presented multiple sides of issue with precise supporting data. Presented multiple sides of issue with relevant supporting data. 2 The student… Collected data that is suitable and generally established the trend. Provided a rudimentary interpretation of the data. Presented multiple sides of issue with basic supporting data. Organize and present the research project Organized and presented the research in a purposeful and compelling manner. Organized and presented the research in a logical and effective manner. Organized and presented the research in a reasonable and simplistic manner. Category 3 The student… Collected data that is relevant and substantially established the trend. Provided a credible interpretation of the data. 1 The student… Collected data that is irrelevant and does little to establish the trend. Provided a flawed interpretation of the data. Unable to present multiple sides, or presented multiple side of issue with flawed supporting data. Organized and presented the research in a disorganized and ineffective manner. Total: ______ / 16 Criteria Assess the accuracy, reliability, and relevance of the sources of the data collected Teacher Comments: 12 Description of Criteria Yes Not Yet The student has critically analyzed the sources of data and discussed their accuracy and reliability. ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Math 20-2: Course Research Project Workbook 7 Presenting multiple sides of an issue will mean different things for different projects. For the four sample projects, multiple sides may be presented in the following ways: • • • • ADLC Mathematics 20-2 Dolphin populations – Both a hunter’s perspective as well as an environmentalist’s perspective could be considered in the project. Oceanic navigation – The history of oceanic travel was not the same for all cultures, so the significance of clocks could be described for various cultures. Basketball shots – Reasons that a quadratic function is a good model as well as reasons that a quadratic function is a bad model could both be shown. Social media – Both similarities and differences in how boys and girls use social media could be discussed. 13