Group 17 - Smell and Memory

2-28-14 -Friday    Experiment- Do certain scents cause a positive or negative impact on our memory?

Day 1:  We were assigned our experiment today. Does certain scents cause a positive or negative impact on our memory? Today is a day spent organizing our thoughts and putting pieces of the experiment together. So far it is a lot on our shoulders. We are trying to put our thoughts into words and our words and images into action. My partner Amy and I over the next few days will be doing research on what smells impact our thinking for the better or worse. With three weeks to put together the this experiment, we hope that it will come together!

3-2-14 -Monday

Day 2: Amy and I are back together and working away!  As the experiment continues, today we will be doing some background research and will be gathering information about our experiment! Worksheet numbers 11-15 are due on Thursday. Now that we have developed out thesis, we are able to out together more major parts of our experiment. Our experiment question we have agreed on is, "Do certain scents cause a positive or negative impact on our memory?". Moving on to worksheet 15, we are figuring out what our independent, and dependent variables are going to be and if we are going to need a control group. So far, we have discussed many things as far as how we are going to conduct our experiment. Half of the people will smell lavender while recalling a list of 15 words after they have smelt nothing and recited another list of 15. We will do the same thing on others just with the scent of vanilla.

3-4-14 - Tuesday

Day 3: Today Amy and I will be doing research for previously done scientific experiments that prove that certain smells effect our thinking and memory. Amy will be writing our rough draft paper between today and tomorrow and then I will be finalizing the paper once she is done. While doing this research for the paper, on worksheet 13 there are questions that guide us as to what we are looking for and what we need to include in our paper. This is so far the most difficult worksheet out of the ones we have worked on so far. With 9 school days left to work on the project, there is still a lot to do!

3-5-14 - Wednesday 

Day 4: Today Amy and I are finishing up our research on the experiments that have been previously done so that Amy can write the rough draft of our paper. 11-15 are due tomorrow and the paper is the last thing to do! Worksheets 16&17 are due on Friday. Hopefully things will become more interesting over the next few weeks and the research will be over! SO far it has not been stressful for us, just somewhat confusing. Coming up with ideas and finding out a way to execute it is the problem.

3-6-14 - Thursday

Day 5:  Exactly 2 WEEKS till the fair! With still a lot to do, more and more pieces are coming together. While Amy finishes up worksheet 13 for the end of the class, I have began working on worksheet 16 and 17 witch will be due tomorrow. Worksheet 16 just asks questions about the age, gender and any other requirements we have decided about for who we are testing. Amy and I have decided that we are testing Freshman-Senior class students and that we will be testing male and females. When we measure our experiment, we will be measuring between the different ages and also the amount they are able to memorize. We are still undecided on the factor of if we are going to compare the difference between he males and females or if we are going to combine everyone. Since worksheets 16&17 are due tomorrow, our teacher has 18-20 due Monday. Amy and I will be taking a look at those tomorrow and deciding the factors of how they will be getting done.

3-7-14 Friday

Day 6: Things are coming together well! Amy and I have completed worksheets 16&17 and have began 18-20. Things haven't been stressful and are getting easier as time goes on! As we get things more organized it becomes more fun and enjoyable! Now that we are set with our experiment procedure we are writing a list of what we are going to need (worksheet 20). Amy is getting the poster board over the weekend that way we can start to put it together hopefully next week!

3-10-14 Monday

Day 7: With a 4 day weekend on its way and the fair one week away, it's now crunch time! There's still a lot of paper work to fill out and yet a lot of manual work to do as well! Right now, we are filling out of supplies list and trying to structure our booth. We won't need any electrical outlets or electrical equipment so it shouldn't be all that hard to set up. We will have the poster board in class sometime this week so we can start the design! Worksheets 18-20 are due at the end of class today. It requires us to map out a set up of our booth and how we plan to set it up. It is organizing our supplies that we need and how and where we are going to get them or get them from. As time gets closer it is going to be more and more chaotic but it WILL happen! :)

3-11-14  Tuesday

Day 8: NO MORE WORKSHEETS! The rest of the sheets in the packet are for our own benefit. Once Amy finished up the rough draft, we will be all set. In the mean time, I am working on the organization of the poster and the lay out. The fair is in a little over a week and things are coming together well. Amy is going to start the poster when she finishes up the paper and the layout is complete. The stress that was once a big deal with having a week left is slowly going away as things come to a finish. We are becoming more and more excited the closer we get to see how our experiment will unfold and we are anxious for results.

3-12-14 Wednesday

Day 9:  Poster Board day! Today Amy and I will be outlining our poster board! We are gathering pictures and starting to draw things out! Amy went down to the fashion room to check out the press for some letters and I am here working on the bright red board. Amy and I had a laugh when she spelled my last name wrong on accident :p With a shortened period there's not a lot of time to work but hopefully Amy or I can bring it home from the weekend to work. Psych fair is less than a week away and the pressure is on as far as class time! Lay out and put together is Monday and supplies being put together on Tuesday and Wednesday next week!

3-17-14 Monday

Day 10: 3 DAYS!! The stress is on as Amy and I try to finish up the poster board and get supplies together! Coming back from a 4 day weekend adds to the stress as that has given us less days to work on the project.  Amy will be getting our rewards tonight and I have to get the scents, the rest of the supplies comes from paper, pencils and our timers. Making the board look creative, catchy and appealing is the tricky part. What do we put on it? What pictures can we use? Should we find past study results? 2 days to finish up and there's the last minute things to think about.

3-18-14 Tuesday

Day 11: The pressure is on as Amy and I try to finish up the poster and get the supplies! With tomorrow having a shortened hour, we will have to work extra hard to finish this up. With facts to find and pictures to print, there's still a lot to do. Tomorrow is parent night so everything must be complete by 5 pm tomorrow. Vanilla, Lavender and "Dum-Dum" suckers as a reward will be bought tonight.

3-19-14 Wednesday

Day 12: LAST DAY!! Tonight is parent night and tomorrow is the big day! While Amy puts the final touches to the poster, I am getting the materials together making sure that we have everything we need for this to be successful. Tonight is the night that we can see if we need anything else and make changes. Nervous of how tomorrow is going to play out, Amy and I are trying to remain as calm a we can. Hoping everything works out right and as planed.  As the period comes to an end, I have a few things I need to do after school to just touch things up. Other than that, things are all ready to go and we are ready to experiment!