SGS Gifted and Talented students compete
for ROGATE Satori Awards
submitted by Nancy Repetto and Nancy Halstead
Gifted and
Talented students at Sampson G. Smith Intermediate School in Franklin Township
are participating in a program called ROGATE (Resources Offered Gifted and
Talented Education) sponsored by the National Talent Network. These
students create an original hypothesis, do primary and secondary research, and
then present their findings in the form of a presentation. The students enter
their presentations into a statewide competition in order to win awards.
Those students who
receive either a bronze or silver award are eligible to apply the next year for
the Gold Satori Award. The students whose articles appear below are in
the second year of this process. They are required to share their
research presentations with the community and to do a service project related
to their topic.
Fast Food…Nutritional?
Have you ever been to a fast food restaurant before? If so, have you ever stopped to find out the nutritional content of the food you’re eating? The truth is not many people do, and that’s why I chose to do my project on the nutritional content of fast food. I just assumed from hearing about it on the news and other media that it was unhealthy.
I first decided to find out how nutrition conscious the students at my school were. So I sent a survey to thirty people in the seventh and eighth grade asking their opinions on fast food, and how big a role the nutrition in the food played on what they chose. The students were pretty much divided in half when it came to answering the questions. So, as consumers, half of the people in my school were nutritionally conscious about what they ate, and the other half weren’t as aware. I used this information to put together meals that that both types of people would eat. I tested these meals on an equal number of conscious consumers and the consumers who weren’t as concerned. Every one of the people said that they were meals they would eat. The meals were then broken down into individual items. (From Wendy’s: Jr. Hamburger, Big Bacon Classic, 5 piece Chicken nuggets, Bacon and Cheese Baked Potato, and the Medium Fry. From McDonalds: Hamburger, Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese, 6 Piece Chicken McNuggets, 10 Piece Chicken McNuggets, the Small Fry, and the Supersize Fry.)
I sent the nutrition facts, along with a few questions, to two different dietitians. The responses they sent back were helpful, but I also had to decide how to comprehend the information. They both clearly stated that fast food could definitely be part of a healthy diet. But unfortunately the dietitians also clearly said that none of the items on the list I sent were very healthy. The main reasons the foods were unhealthy were as follows: There was a lot of salt in most of the items, there were high amounts of calories from fat, and there weren’t enough vitamins and minerals to make a balanced meal. According to dietitian Maura Bruno, “A healthy diet could incorporate any of the foods lower in fat and sodium occasionally. The problem comes when people super size their orders. Dietitian Debbie Signorlli says, “The American Heart Association recommends that the amount of calories from fat in a food item should be less than or equal to 30%.” She also said the salt content was higher than it should be. Both experts agreed that fast food, like all food, could be part of a healthy diet as long as it was eaten in moderation.
Then I researched the reasons for labeling certain foods unhealthy. According to both dietitians, sodium is only harmful when you have existing health problems or your “salt sensitive.” Salt will also absorb fluids in your body, which can cause dehydration. They also said too much fat isn’t good because it causes you to be overweight, which can create many health problems. Calories from fat are harmful because it takes 22% less energy to turn fat calories into fat than it does for a normal calorie. Basically, you store more fat than you would with a normal calorie.
Through all my research, one point kept sticking out: Although fast food may not be the healthiest choice, it could most definitely be part of a healthy diet if eaten in moderation (or not more then once or twice a week). Although the concerns of the experts were valid and could cause health problems, these issues would be problematic if you ate fast food frequently, three or more times a week). So fast food can be part of a healthy diet!
This information is very valuable because there are people who just base their fast food decisions on what other people say. I’m not saying the experts are wrong but honestly they make it seem like fast food is the only reason America is the country with the most overweight people. People all over the country could make better choices if they knew the nutritional content of the food they were eating. My information could have an impact on the nutritional choices of many consumers!
Peer
Pressure: Positive or Negative?
By Rachel McConnell and Kaitlin Weinstein
Have you have ever experienced peer pressure? Was it a positive experience? Or a negative one? We were interested in finding out if peer pressure can be positive as well as well as negative. Most magazine articles connect teenagers with negative peer pressure, but could peer pressure be positive also? Our hypothesis was that most adolescents are negatively affected by peer pressure.
We started our research in the library with a search for information concerning peer pressure. Since peer pressure is a social issue that most teens experience, we thought it would be helpful to learn more about it from a psychological perspective. In addition, since we are teenagers, we could relate to this issue as we have experienced it ourselves.
We decided first to design a quiz to see if the kids in Sampson G. Smith Intermediate School were more affected by negative peer pressure or positive peer pressure. We randomly chose 50 adolescents and gave them the test. There were six important questions, and six unimportant questions. The essential questions were peer pressure scenarios in which the “quiz-takers” had a choice of what they would do. The “off-topic” questions were there to throw off the “quiz-takers” from our intentions. The result of our test showed that most teenagers react to both positive and negative peer pressure in almost equal amounts. For example, the data that we compiled indicated that a response of 11.5 would be the median score and 11.56 was the average. Since these numbers are so close, it is easy to see they were close to being equal.
Next, we decided to create an experiment. The experiment was done to see if there was a chain reaction of peer pressure in a classroom setting. The setup began with a large tin bucket of candy on the teacher’s desk. A teacher was secretly enlisted to help us. In the beginning of the class, she said that she had a little treat for the class that she would pass out at the end of the period. A few minutes later, she simply stated that she had to step out of the classroom for a bit. While she was out, we ran up to her desk and grabbed a few pieces of chocolate. Since we are known as the “good kids,” some students assumed that it was all right to go up and take candy. About three or four more kids began to go up and get candy for themselves. About ten kids said that they wanted to go up to the teacher’s desk and steal chocolate. They tried to go up to the teacher’s desk to get candy but couldn’t bring themselves to do it because they were worried about getting into trouble.
This is an example of mob psychology. As more people began to react to the peer pressure, others didn’t want to feel as if they were an “oddball.” There was also positive peer pressure. There were students persuading others to not go up and get candy, and people responded to that pressure. While half the class was trying to get candy or persuading others to go up; the other half was either not wanting to get candy or persuading others not to.
Next, we conducted an interview with Mrs. Denise Solovay, a teacher. The purpose of this interview was to obtain information about peer pressure from a professional. We felt that information from a professional might add to our knowledge as well as confirm or deny our experimental results. Mrs. Solovay is an experienced teacher who sees peer pressure in the classroom. One of the questions we asked was: As a teacher, do you see peer pressure in your class? Mrs. Solovay’s answer was: “Yes. When kids make fun of other kids, the rest of the class joins along because they want to be part of the crowd. They also don’t want to stand out in a negative way.” Mrs. Solovay’s conclusion was that most students are affected by negative peer pressure.
In conclusion, our hypothesis was most adolescents are negatively affected by peer pressure. However, our overall research indicated that adolescents seem to respond to peer pressure in a variety of ways. Some individuals will follow negative behaviors, while others are willing to stand on their own. Another factor seems to be that some adolescents fear getting caught doing something of which an adult would disapprove. For example, in our experiment it was almost comical to see kids running back to their seats when the teacher poked her head into the room. The most surprising thing for us was the number of people who took candy in the experiment: about fifteen people out of thirty. Our hypothesis was that adolescents are affected negatively by peer pressure. Thus, our hypothesis has been proven inconclusive.
Our research is valuable because many adults believe that peer pressure is always negative. In contrast, our results proved that peer pressure is not only negative but positive, too. If parents and teachers understand the good things to which their children/students respond, they could have better and improved relationships.
By Neha Kulkarni
Have you ever wondered what makes us choose books from a library? Have you ever marveled at why you and your friend may choose different books? I wanted to find out what factors affect a person’s choice of books. Does it vary from boys to girls, or children to adults? What would be the most important factor?
I decided to investigate what kinds of factors go into making a book popular with certain types of populations. The factors I decided to include were the author, awards, book size, critiques, cover design, genre, library location, number of pages, popularity, print quality, part of series, summary, and the title. I wanted to know which of these factors influenced the decision making of different groups. My hypothesis was: “I think male and female subjects would differ in ranking the factors (above). Children and adults would also rank the factors differently.”
I started my research by exploring a variety of secondary sources. These included Internet resources on questionnaires and a book entitled Practical Statistics Simply Explained by Russell Langley (New York, 1970) The resources on making questionnaires gave me lot of information on how to write instructions and questions for a survey. The statistics book helped me understand how to make sure that the differences I found were statistically significant rather than due to chance.
My
primary sources of information were the survey I created and the opinion of
experts in library science. The survey was very interesting and turned out to
be more difficult than I expected to make.
I love to read books. My favorite activity when we go on a long trip or while I eat is to read. My friends love to read as much as I do, but we always choose different kinds of books to read. I wanted to know why we choose the books we do. I decided to investigate the answer to this question by making surveys to hand out to 36 people. I was going to compare choices of Males versus Females and Children versus Adults. Males and Females can be children or adults. In my questionnaire, I asked the subjects to rank the top five factors that influenced their choice of books in the library.
I tallied the ranks by giving each factors certain values. To compare the importance given to factors by each group of subjects, I gave each rank a weight: 10 for the First rank, 8 for the Second, 6 for Third, 4 for Fourth and 2 for Fifth. Then based on the number of subjects that ranked a factor and the weight of the rank, I calculated a weighted mean score for the factor. For example, the score for the author factor for all children was: (2 X 10 + 1 X 8 + 1 X 6 + 0 X 4 + 0 X 2)/21 = 2.43 where 21was the number of children surveyed.
Scatter plots were used to compare rankings and age groups such as children versus adults and males versus females. Both scatter plots included some differences in ranking. I had to decide if the difference in ranking of factors was because of chance or because of real differences in the groups of subjects being compared. For this I calculated a value for each plot called the Spearman Rank Correlation statistic. This program determines if the statistics are generated by chance only.
The results of the statistical tests showed that the differences in ranking between males and females was not likely to be due to just chance while differences in ranking of factors by children versus adults could have been because of chance.
In conclusion, my hypothesis was: “Male and female subjects would differ in ranking the factors. Children and adults would also rank the factors differently.” This hypothesis was partially supported by my experiment. Male and female subjects showed significant differences in ranking the factors. However, children and adult subjects did not show significant differences in ranking the factors. Overall, factors such as genre were more important to the males, while females were more influenced by a particular author. When comparing children and adults, the children were influenced by cover design more than the adults, but this information was not statistically significant. The adults preferred particular authors, but again the results were not statistically significant. I believe my research was valuable because it helped to explain the mystery of how someone chooses one book over another. This information would help librarians meet the needs of their patrons.
Digital vs. Film Photography
By
Zach Brill
Have you recently considered buying a digital camera? Are you concerned about the quality of the pictures? Is it true that regular cameras produce a much better picture than digital cameras? I decided to do a project on the comparison of different types of photography used by the common person. I thought that although digital cameras offer more effects (done on the computer), film cameras would still produce pictures of better quality. Therefore, my hypothesis was, “The resolution and color of film photography is better than that of digital photography.”
For my research, I read about two things. First of all, I tried to find books and articles explaining how each type of camera works. However, these sources were not very important in the investigation of my hypothesis, as they didn’t help me find out which was better. I also found two Internet articles comparing film and digital cameras. These two articles were entitled “Film vs. Digital Photography,” (2003) and “Digital vs. Film” (2003). These two articles allowed me to compare my results to those of the experts.
After completing my research, I
conducted a survey and an interview to formulate my own conclusions. For my survey, I took photographs of exactly
the same things: first with a film camera and then with a digital camera. I placed the photographs on a poster board
showing the pictures head to head. I had
40 people fill out a questionnaire on which they circled which photograph of
each item had the better resolution, and which one had the better color. For my interview, I e-mailed a professional
photographer named Nick Romanenko who works at
I organized the data from the survey by quality and resolution. Within those qualifications, I found the average number of photographs chosen for each of film and digital, as well as for inside and outside pictures with the same two variables. Then, I tabulated the number of subjects who chose digital pictures over film for each subcategory as well as overall. I believed this would give me all the aspects I needed to support or refute my hypothesis.
In every section of analysis, digital won over film. In the whole and in each of the subgroups, around 70 percent of the digital pictures were chosen, while only 30 percent of the film pictures were chosen for both resolution and color. Similarly, about 70 percent of the subjects chose more digital pictures in that area than film pictures when it came to resolution. However, when it came to color, the number of people who chose more digital pictures than film pictures varied from 60 to 80 percent, depending on whether it was all of the pictures, the indoor pictures only, or only the outdoor pictures. These results are conclusive evidence that at least between the cameras that I used, the digital camera has better color and resolution than the film camera!
However, I got totally different results from the interview with Nick Romanenko. In his answer to my e-mail, he said that he thought that film cameras still produced images of higher quality. This piece of evidence is all the more important because he works with high quality cameras, not the inexpensive ones that I used. Furthermore, the film camera I used had some problems taking close-up pictures. If you wanted to take a close up, you would have to stand far away and zoom in.
Some of my problems with the cameras and the interview may have affected the variables that I considered. However, since my evidence was so strong supporting digital cameras, I feel that if you fixed all the discrepancies, digital would still edge out film.
Looking at the data and the research I have collected, I would say that what I have found refutes my hypothesis. However, I do not think that I can conclude that my hypothesis is untrue, but that the evidence is inconclusive. It is clear that in the survey, the subjects think that the digital pictures are much better than the film pictures, but a professional photographer says that film is better.
However, this general conclusion is not the only one that can be made from the results that I have found. There is another more subtle, yet just as important, conclusion. The quality of the camera, regardless of whether it is digital or film, is an important factor in quality of the pictures. If you are planning on buying an inexpensive camera, the comparison could have different results than if you are buying and expensive camera.
This research and the conclusions that are derived from this research are not valuable to the important aspects of life, but it does have importance. People who are in the process of buying a camera and making a decision as to whether to buy a digital or film camera could use this research. Most people know that digital cameras have some exciting new features (like seeing your pictures right after you take them, no development needed, etc.), but it is still not common knowledge which kind of camera takes pictures with better quality. Knowing that there is not one clear answer even now may make people more likely to experiment with the cameras themselves and create their own personal opinions.
The Paranormal Truth
By Courtney Zinna,
Jillian Kaczka, Emily Lewis, Teresa Jara
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen a picture of a ghost? Did you believe it was real? We wanted to prove that pictures could be altered to make it appear as if ghosts or spirits are really being photographed. Our hypothesis was that “Pictures of ghosts or spirits are alternate representations of reality.”
We started our investigation by searching for sites on the Internet that published pictures of ghosts furnished by people who were claiming to have proof of ghosts. From books and the Internet, we found out that there are many techniques in the field of photography that allow a photographer to alter his or her pictures and others that no one was able to comprehend. We collected pictures that could be explained by experts as being altered. We created a large poster board to accompany our written survey. We then traveled from class to class in our seventh and eighth grade school and asked each student if they could tell the difference between a picture that was altered to look real and a picture that could not be proven false.
After gathering our data, we converted the survey to graphs. To summarize, our data indicated that people could not tell the difference between the pictures that were “real” and the pictures that were proven to be altered.
We were interested in this topic because we wanted to learn about the Paranormal Truth. Specifically, if pictures of ghosts or spirits that are offered as proof of their existence can be altered and made to look real. We were also interested in the photographical aspects of the project as well. It is very interesting what people can do with photographs to deceive other people.
We decided to see if other people could tell the difference between a photograph that has been altered to look like it possessed some supernatural spirit, and a picture that was “real.” We found a mix of altered pictures and “real” pictures from various sources. We asked to random students in our school and surveyed them about which pictures they thought were altered and which they thought couldn’t be proven false. We sorted our data and graphed the results for each picture.
Our data was very helpful to our investigation. The results from the email we sent out to one of our family members were also very helpful. The people replied to our emails and said that they couldn’t make out which pictures were real and which were not. The book we read, entitled Ghosts of the West Coasts by Jerry McGuff, and published by Random House, added to our knowledge base by relaying many stories about people and their paranormal experiences. The stories gave us an idea of what professionals thought about this sort of topic. The book also gave us great pictures to examine and ideas for how to develop our survey.
In conclusion, our hypothesis was “Pictures of ghosts or spirits are alternate representations of reality.” Therefore, we believe our data supported our hypothesis because the average person we surveyed could not tell the difference between a picture that had been altered to look real and a picture that could not be proven to false. However, no one has been able to prove that a picture of a ghost or spirit is real, and that ghosts really do exist. So, do they really exist? No one really knows for sure!
Our information is valuable because we can teach others that there are ways to alter photographs to appear as if they are actually representing reality. We could share our information with children that have a fear of ghosts to inform them that they’re really no such thing as ghosts. We could also write to editors of newspapers, or magazines, and inform them of our information. This would show the public that you don’t have to believe in everything you see or hear about ghosts.