FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes! I just finished!!!!!!!!!! Except now my printer's not working...Will this never end??!!!

2 days to go... a bit less actually

Got the criteria sheet of Bonny last night. It includes a diagram in the method. Is that nescessary? It doesn't really apply to my experiment, does it? What would I draw, a stick figure sitting in front of a rectangle (meant to be a computer)? I went to ask Ms Zhang after school today when I got back from cross country but she wasn't in the staffroom, so I still don't know.
Also, I've had 2 more results emailed to me, thanks very much, but I'm still waiting on 5. Come on guys, it's due in less than 2 days! I am really appreciative of people who are getting friends of theirs to do my experiment, but I really need the results, now. I can't anaylse the results, write a discussion and conslusion (more than 1/2 the project) until I have the results!

Aaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just found out from Bonny that there's a criteria sheet I never got!!!!!!!!!!!! Starting to panic!!!!!!!!

Results...so far

This is my awesome table.
Please no one be offended. I checked with Ms Zhang and she said it's alright to use the term "white" in my report.
*In the top corner, where it says Race &, it should say Race & Gender.

I'm hoping that slow and steady will win the race

I finished writing the method yesterday. Haven't started the discussion yet because I haven't tested everyone yet, but I have made an awesome results table. I had planned to be finished the tests by this stage but, although I'd planned when to meet everyone, some people just didn't turn up, which is really not helpful. But never mind, my friend manged to rope in her younger brother along with one of her brother's asian friends, one of her brother's anglo friends and that friend's older sister. I'm still one asian guy short (because people didn't turn up!) but I think, if I can't find someone else, I'll be able to cut back the number of volunteers. I know that in a previous blog I said I already had the minimum (30), but I actually had 32, because I thought I needed equal numbers from all four groups. But one of the reports I found used not equal numbers of males and females within their racial categories so, if it's good enough for the scientists, it's certainly good enough for me. Now I will have 15 from each race instead of 16: 8 girls and 7 guys.

Also my last, rather incoherent blog (which had a couple of embarrassing typos, if any one's read the comments) mentioned that I was researching the different causes of the cross-race effect (which from now on I'll just call CRE or cre), but didn't go into details. Well, the actual reason for the CRE is not known, however scientists do have a couple of theories.
The most widely accepted one is that it's simply caused by lack of contact with the other culture; the observer just isn't used to the other faces and so is unable to recognise them as well. This is the reason I'm focusing on. I'm saying that as 16.9% of Sydney's population is of Asian background, Asian and Anglo teens in Sydney have a considerable amount of contact with each other. Therefore, if this theory is indeed the cause of the cre, there should not be a significant level of own-race bias present amongst this group.

Ummm...the confusion and tiredness are setting in

I just finished the first draft of my introduction, but I'm really not sure if I've done it properly. I ended up referencing the 2009 school report! I think I'm probably the only person who's ever done that in their SRP. It's not as random as it may sound. While I was researching I found some information on the suggested causes of the cross-race effect, which sounded more interecsting than reading heaps of reports on just testing the cross-race effect (which, by the way, were quite hard to come by, as most you had to pay for). So instead I spent a lot of time looking at possible causes and tests of these causes and so now my aim includes seeing if its likely that a particular cause is the possible cause. And so I referenced the school report as well as the 2006 census to see the percentage of Asians in Sydney and at school. I realise that wasn't very clear, but I just had to get the fact that I referenced the report off my chest. I intend to upload a more coherent description of my research and report tomorrow.
Oh, btw, I've tested two more people since this morning.

On my way (and do you like the new background?)

I just changed my blog background, I think it makes a nice happy change to the previous dark spots. Anyway, I started conducting my experiment yesterday. I haven't analysed the results because I'm not really sure how to go about it. I can easily give the percentages of the asian and then anglo-saxon models that the volunteer correctly identified as having been in the previous slideshow, but what about the models that weren't in the previous slideshow but they thought were? But I'm not thinking about that just yet. My current aim is to write my introduction. I've been researching all morning and will be for the rest of the day. Well, better get back to it!

Wish me luck!

Just put the finishing touches on my powerpoints. It took me way longer than it should of to complete them because my USB kept corrupting the pictures and the powerpoints and aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was so frustrating. But anyway, Sylvia lent me her USB which so far, works really well. Thankyou Sylvia! I had to redo the powerpoint and go back and re-find some of the pictures, but hey, it's done now.
I've been handing out permission notes over the past through days, I'm going to start conducting the experiment tomorrow and I'm about to go and perform a trial run on my sister. I really hope it works. Wish me luck! (Please)

Progress...finally

I started handing out permission notes yesterday and gave out more today! Yay, it feels like I'm getting somewhere. Also, I checked with Ms Zhang and she says that, as long as I check first to make sure the results aren't too different, I can test people over the internet. This hopefully means I won't have to go to the english centre at Kogarah after all.

*groan* I just spent the last hour of my life looking up pictures of asian models. Does anyone realise how hard it is to find pictures of asian male models where they're looking at the camera (not doing the whole "I want to show you how long my neck is" thing, geez that's annoying), where the picture is big enough so that when you enlarge their face it's not blurry and who aren't famous?! I'm so over this experiment at the moment, and i haven't actually started yet.
Anyway, surprising though it may seem, the purpose of this update is not to rant. I've realised that I can't start my experiment tomorrow because I need to get Lisa to check my models to make sure they are models and not incredibly famous actors or singers. A bit annoying, because some people I only have the chance of showing the slide show to on Sunday before church. Ah well, what can you do?

Making changes

I haven't done anything more with my experiment since my last post because I've been at music camp. My internet is still mucking up so I only have a limited time on it, which I will use to find more asian models. I'm still short on volunteers but a couple of people have suggested to me that I go to the english centre at Kogarah and ask if they have any students who have been born in Asia and have been in Australia for less than 10 years who are willing to participate in a year 10 student's science experiment. I don't want to resort to this, but I don't really have any alternatives. I mentioned in a previous post that I was considering cutting back on the number of volunteers but I've checked with Ms Zhang and I've already got the minimum number.
I plan to start my experiment tomorrow, hopefully, provided that I can finish the slide shows before my internet time is up. I haven't written my permission notes yet; I was only told the other day that we weren't getting a template and had to create our own. I had planned to get Ms Zhang to check it before I started to hand them out, but I really want to start tomorrow. I've seen Steph's notes and so if I use those as my template and then check with Ms Zhang on Monday I'm sure it will be fine.
Oh, I almost forgot something important, I think I have to change my method. Originally I was going to carry out two tests; one 1 hour after the first slide show and the other one week after the first slide show. However this is looking impractical as I need to use people I've never even met and I think trying to met with them twice exactly one week apart would be too much to ask.
Another thing, I've mentioned before that I originally wanted to get all my volunteers together and carry out the experiment in one go, then I said that this wouldn't work so I had to carry out the tests at different times in different locations. Unfortunately it seems like I may have to even conduct some of the tests over msn or something, due to the fact that some of the people are friends/acquaintances of friends that live too far away etc. I don't know if this will still work so I'll have to check with Ms Zhang on Monday.
P.S. I know we're meant to upload photos but at the moment there isn't anything to photograph. I can't put the pictures of the models up because if one of my volunteers sees them before the experiment it will alter the results.

I hate technology

I started collecting pictures of models last week (I would have blogged sooner but our internet's decided to stuff up). The anglo-saxon models were easy to come by, but I'm having a bit more trouble finding the Asian models. For example the first sight I clicked on which had a totally innocent, if rather superficial, title like "top 50 asian models" had some very, well, not innocent pictures. So did the next site. In order to avoid any more confronting and rather gross pictures I changed my search from "asian models" to "seoul fashion week". These models were predictibly (and thankfully) more clothed, the only problem is that, because it's fashion week, the focus of the picture is the clothes and not the models' faces. This has added difficulty to my search because I need to enlarge the faces of the models for the slideshow and when they're that small in the picture they just turn out blurry (which would really muck up the recognition thing).
Yesterday at school Lisa looked through the pictures that I had managed to collect to ensure that none of them were famous (which would also muck up the recognition experiment). It's a good thing she did. She ended up in a fit of hysterics; partly, I think, due to excitment at seeing a picture of her favourite boy band singers and partly through shock at how totally oblivious I am to Asian pop culture.
So now I'm back to square one as far as asian male models go, and not that much better with asian female models. To make matters worse my laptop has decided to not work properly and so some of the pictures that I've found and saved have come out fragmented and unrecognisable(sort of like my climate graph but 10 times worse) and every time I fix the powerpoint backgrounds it refuses to save them. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I hate techology!