Multi-Tasking Teens

Overview

Objectives/Goals The purpose of my science fair project was to see if distractions\multi-tasking altered the time it took at seventh grader to take a test. This topic interested me because nowadays, many teenagers listen to music, watch TV, and are on Facebook while doing their homework. (I'm one guilty of this as well!) Yet, I wondered if multi-tasking between all those tasks was really helping or hurting us. Sure, most think that it gets many things done at once, but does it really? When you try to be efficient and do multiple things at once, do you really distract yourself and make it harder to complete both tasks? Do all these electronics actually slow us down, therefore taking a longer time to get something done? My hypothesis for this experiment was if a group of seventh graders take a timed, four-question test (one multi-tasking, one silent) then, the average of the student's times, as measured in seconds, will be higher with distractions. Methods/Materials Procedure: 1) Get a desk in a quiet, outdoor area. 2) Get all materials needed (notebokk, test, pencil, timer). 3) Call students out of class one ny one for trial #1 (nodistractions). 4) Make sure to write down name and time for this trial. 5) Set up trial #2 (notebook, different test, pencil, timer, movie, laptop, iPod). 6) Call same students out one by one for trial #2 (distractions). 7) Make sure to write down name and time for this trial. 8) Gather all data and compare. Materials: 1) a quiet, outdoor area; 2) seventh grade students; 3) 2 desks; 4) notebook; 5) pencil; 6) timer; 7) laptop; 8) movie; 9) iPod; 10) 2 different four-question tests. Results The results were the average time it took a seventh grader to take a test was actually lower with distractions! The average time for Class #1 Trial #1 was 28 seconds. The average time for Class #1 Trial #2 was 24 seconds. The average time for Class #2 Trial #1 was 29 seconds. The average time for Class #2 Trial #2 was 26 seconds. Conclusions/Discussion My project's results show that my hypothesis was not supported by the data collected. If I were to do this experimaent again, I would give myself more time. Also, maybe adding more distractions or unfamiliar distractions would be better as well. I could take this experiment to a different level by doing male vs. female too. Altogether though, I had a really fun time doing my project, and sure learned a lot about distractions and multi-tasking in teens.

Competition history

• CSEF 2012 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0412

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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