Science Fair Research Plan

Eric Shanahan

The question that Im trying to address in my experiment is :does the weather really affect mood? Are people more likely to e dissatisfied or melancholy on a rainy! o"ercast day? Are people more likely to e happy on a sunny day? Is one gender or age group more likely to e influenced y the weather? #y hypothesis in this experiment is: I think that weather patterns can impact the way people feel$ #y Experimental procedure in my experiment is listed elow$ I will e making a sur"ey to gi"e to my test su %ects that will analy&e their current mood$ Example questions that I will e gi"ing include: 'ate your current le"el of stress on a scale of ( to ()$ *ow many fights+disagreements ha"e you had today? *ow many times ha"e you honked your horn while dri"ing in your car today? ,n a scale of ( to ()! how satisfied are you with your life? *ow many good things ha"e happened to you today? ,n a scale of ( to ()! rate your current energy le"el$ I will then wait for a sunny day and ask test su %ects to take my sur"ey$ I will gi"e the sur"ey at the end of the day to ensure that my test su %ects ha"e een outside! and experienced the weather long enough for it to ha"e an effect on them$ In my experiment I will make sure to include males and females in many different age groups$ At that point I will then ask the same test su %ects to repeat the sur"ey at the end of an o"ercast! rainy day$ I will then analy&e the sur"eys taken y each test su %ect to determine the following questions: -id I o ser"e any patterns in my test su %ects response to each sur"ey? -o responses differ dramatically etween the two days? Are there certain groups of people that seem to e more influenced y the weather? .hy or why not? After going through the tests I will e a le to find out the stress le"els of each person and their answer to the test that I ga"e them$ At that point I will then collect and analy&e the data to determine if weather really affects mood$ In the experiment I will e using fi"e ma%or references$ The references I will e using are .e #-! American /sychological Association! www$Accuweather$com!http:++pioneeroutfitters$com+ www$psychologytoday$com The participants will range in age from ()01) years$ 2oth males and females will participate in my experiment$ The test su %ect will e gi"en a time frame of 3 minutes$ If they can answer the question under the time frame they will e rewarded$ The reason of pro"iding a reward is to moti"ate the su %ects knowing that they may win a pri&e$ The pri&e could e as simple as a piece of candy$ In my experiment I will e asking su %ects to pro"ide their name on the paper$ I will not e gi"ing names in my experiment! I will e using num ers to show the data to insure that no possi le identities will e gi"en away$ To make sure that I dont lose any data during my experiment! I will e keeping any stored data in my laptop$ If my laptop is misplaced or roken! I will ha"e ackup data which will e stored on a flash dri"e that will e secured y me at all times$ The people who will e a le to see data would e my 4ather and #other$ At the end of my study I will keep any data to e a le to look ack and see what I ha"e accomplished in my study$