2. Explanation of Hypothesis + variables (and control for variables) Hypothesis: WIC Sec 5 students who were on the honor roll last year would have played less hours of video games than the WIC Sec 5 students who were not on the honor roll last year . I came up with this hypothesis after reading a few articles on how video games lower the academic achievement and attention span. Variables: Controlled Variables: All the students were in grade 11 this year. All the students attended WIC when they were in Grade 10. When I had my results I chose the first 12 people who were male and who were on the honor roll and the first twelve people who were male and not on the honor roll. The honor roll means that the student had an overall average of 85 or over at the end of the year. Then I added up the hours that each individual on the honor played video games and I did the same things for the students not on the honor roll. Playing a video game means playing any game for more than one hour a day on any console that is non educational, for example a shooting game, a sport game, a racing game etc.. Surfing the web does not count as playing a video game. Then I compared the two results and made a conclusion based on the information that I found. Independent Variables: How many hours the students played video games during the week, broken down into the school week and the weekend Dependent Variable: The results that I obtained.
4. Question1: Number of hours honour roll students play video games during school week vs. number of hours students not on the honour roll play video games during a school week Out of 12 honour students 87 hours Out of 12 non honour roll students 66 hours
5. Question 2: Number of our hours that kids on the honour roll play video games on the weekend vs. the number of hours the kids not on the honour roll play video games during the weekend. The sum of 12 students not on the honour roll 83 hours The sum of 12 honour students 56 hours
6. Question 3: How many honour students on the honour roll play video games during a whole week vs. Number of hours students who are not on the honour roll play video games per week. The 12 kids on the honour roll played 143 hours per week (that's almost 12 hours per person) The 12 kids who were not on the honour roll played 149 hours per week (that’s around 12 .5 hours per person)
7. Sample Population: My sample population were the males who attended WIC in Secondary 4. I did not choose females because I realized that most girls do not play video games at all therefore it would not affect their academic average. I conducted a search with five girls from secondary 5 to fill out my survey just to see if I made the right decision in excluding them from the results. The average amount of video games played per week 0.
8. Annotated bibliography/ Informs research 1. Chacha , Tumbokon. "The Good and Bad Effects of Video Games ." www.raisesmartkid.com . N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct 2010. <www.raisesmartkid.com >. This website gives us all the good and bad affects of video gaming for example improves spatial and hand eye coordination, improves problem solving and logic. All these things that video games do for us may have an explanation on why the averages of the students who play video games our higher or lower. When I went back to the website I realized that most of the points were against. This website was the first stepping stone for my hypothesis. 2. Chris, Mitchell. "Video games help focus on fine detail ." www.theaustralian.com.au . N.p., 13 2 2007. Web. february 2 2007. <www.theaustralian.com.au >. This website talks about how video games help looking at the fine detail. It states that playing action video games such as halo or call of duty refine your ability to see fine detail. This characteristic is important for doctors or architects. This website is credible because it took it's information from the university of Rochester in the United States study.
9. 3. Hiram , Fitzgerald. "Video Games, Cell Phones And Academic Performance: Some Good News." www.sciencedaily.com . N.p., 30 3 2009. Web. <www.sciencedaily.com >. In this article they did a study where they took 20 middle schools and monitored the children playing video games. They found that when students played video games there grade point average did decrease. Although playing video games helped their visual spatial skills. I thought this website was important because they talked about kids in grade 8 and 9 and our experiment covers all of high school kids. This website is reliable because they took their information from The Michigan University study. This was the first website that showed us that our survey has already been turned 4. Marie, Ann. "http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/video_games/good_things_videogames.cfm." http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/corporate/contact_us/index.cfm. N.p., 1 12 2009. Web. 15 Dec 2010. <http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/corporate/contact_us/index.cfm>. In this website it tells us that playign video games improves our teamwork and cooperation with others. It develops math and problem solving skills. It also lists many other useful things that video games give us.
10. Interpretation, Conclusion and explanation of data What I interpreted from these results is that students on the honour play less number of hours of video games then students who are on the honour roll. I can also distinguish that the hours played our almost the same. I also see that there is big difference when it comes to the hours that honour roll students play video games during the weekend. They play many less hours then kids not on the honour roll
11. In Conclusion my hypothesis was right because the students on the honour roll played less hours of video games then students who were not on the honour roll. This may be because from my research I found out that video games helped you in aspects such as your spatiality and your hand eye coordination. Although art and gym are weighted less then language classes. My research also showed that video games lessen your concentration and maybe that's why students who play them don’t do as well in language courses. Lastly I have concluded that kids who are not on the honour roll cram for test during the week and to not play many video games during this time. Although kids on the honour roll do not play video games during the weekend and study. Maybe if students not on the honour roll where to study during the weekend maybe video games would not have an effect.
