20 Time Reflection

Our experience with the 20 Time Project was overall a pretty successful and eye-opening experience. Although we didn’t get to accomplish all that we had hoped for, we did come up with some beneficial results. In the beginning, we struggled to come up with a topic that we were really interested and passionate about. Finally, we thought of the number one problem that needed to be fixed in high schools all over the country. Stress.

         Our idea was to research the most known and used methods to cope with stress and apply them to a couple of students to see which methods actually worked, and which ones didn’t. We challenged ourselves by setting goals that are not easy to achieve such as having good time management and dealing with outcomes that were not precise and accurate. We chose these challenges because we knew that it we would have to deal with it in all aspects of life. We had to compromise and use our judgment when results weren’t 100% accurate and precise as well as make sure that we were getting things done following our schedule.

         Our main goal was to find the top method that can be used to deal with stress, but we also had many small goals along the way. Everyday, we see so many kids stressed out including ourselves, whether if they have a test, or it is just a bad day. We want to be able to spread awareness about our experiment and how even just one five minute walk or some fresh air can really lower one’s stress level. Another goal of ours, even though we are not sure we are going to accomplish it, is for at least 30 people in our grade to try one of the techniques we saw had good results.

         Overall, for the past 3 months, the experience was one to remember. Even though we had some challenges, the best part was overcoming them and finding a way around them. It helped teach us how to communicate better and be more organized. If we had a chance to do this project differently, we would try to have better time management and maybe go more in depth with our experiments. Our next step would be to share our findings with others and spread awareness. We are going to tell our friends to tell other friends and have everyone try some of the methods we researched and experimented on at least once.

The Third Step: Experimenting

Over the last few weeks we have made a lot of progress on our project. We conducted an experiment on our group and analyzed our results. We had them exercise every day for thirty minutes for one week to see if it helped them deal with stress. The data was around 50/50 with about half the group saying that it helped and the other half saying they didn’t feel a change. Currently, we are having them participate in another experiment using the technique of not procrastinating. Next week we will check back in with them and see how they felt about the method they tested. We also have been working on a Google slides showing the process that we go through while doing this project. The next steps for our project would be to continue working on our Google slides and gather/analyze the data from our current experiment.One setback we had was getting our group too do the methods every day with the schedules they have. For example, one of the members of our experiment did not have time to exercise the night before a test so we were not able to get the results that we desired. One thing we learned about ourselves through this setback is too know that we can not always go according to plan. We learn to overcome and understand the struggles that we may have along the way.

The Second Step: Moving Forward

For the past three weeks we have been making a lot of progress on our project. We researched our topic and created a table with all the information we found. We talked about the do’s and don’t’s when it comes to dealing with stress and chose a few techniques that we thought would be interesting to test. We then made a survey with the options that we chose and asked people which methods they thought would help the most. They chose five out of the eleven methods that we listed. When we checked the results, we saw that the top five responses were exercising, not procrastinating, being organized, writing everything down, and communicating. Because these were the most popular responses, we are going to test these methods on the individuals participating in the experiment. 

While working on this project, we have not only learned how to organize our data so that it is easier for others to analyze, but also gained a better understanding of the techniques we want to use in our experiment. Right now, we are testing out the method of exercising for thirty minutes daily to see if it actually helps manage stress better. Kaitlyn is doing gymnastics, Veda is attending badminton, Esha is playing squash, Akshat is playing soccer, and last but not least, Rachel is playing volleyball. 

Although we did not have any setbacks, a minor issue we encountered was finding people with both busy and laid back schedules. To handle this, we asked a couple of our friends to tell us what activities they participate in and how many hours of free time on average they have during the day. With this, we can find out how busy a person's day is. Throughout the past week, we have gotten a deeper understanding on the methods we are planning to use. 

Looking forward, we are going to give our experimenters new ways to deal with stress every other week and record their results. Everyday they will use that specific technique and answer a survey to rate how well the method they used actually worked. We can apply what we have learned by using it when we see stressed kids or adults. We could simply walk up to them, tell them a helpful method about dealing with stress, and give them advice that we learned from our research.

The First Step: Researching Ideas

Our topic for 20 time surrounds the idea of coping with stress. Over the past two weeks we have been researching some methods that could be possible candidates for our experiment. From our research, we have gained knowledge on the do’s and don’t’s when it comes to dealing with stress and some common signs/symptoms of people that are stressed out. We created a chart listing common techniques that are said to work  The definition of stress is the tension added into your life by demanding circumstances. Throughout the two weeks we have learned some of the smallest changes can create a huge difference in our lifestyles. A couple of setbacks were finding people to try out the methods we had researched on. Most of them have busy schedules, therefore they were not willing to participate in this experiment. We fixed this problem by asking people with a less intense schedule to take the time to try and become less stressed. For the next two weeks we will start to apply these techniques and analyze how the group of students felt throughout the process. What we have learned can impact our community by relieving stress caused by anything from a busy week to an intense work day. Many high school students these days have a lot on their plates and the information gathered from this project could really be helpful in many ways. These research methods can help change the way adults and students so that they can lead their life in a happier direction.

Methods for Dealing with Stress

20 Time is a project made for students to take 20% of their class time to expand their knowledge on a subject that interests them. Students have a chance to be passionate about what they are learning about. This allows them to enjoy class more and therefore learn more. The essential question that we asked was which techniques can help cope with stress the most and which tips help the least or maybe not at all. We, as students in Mr.Orre’s Biology Class, have decided to conduct an experiment to show which ideas help deal with stress the most. We would have a group of students use a method to help deal with stress that we have given them. One week they would try one technique, and the week following that they would not use any methods and just go on with their week as they normally would. They would then rate on a scale of one to ten how well the technique worked. The next week they would try a new method, and the cycle continues. At the very end, they would make a list ordering all the techniques from what they thought worked best to the ones that worked least. We chose this topic because we know high school students can be extremely stressed due to the pressure of getting good grades, balancing extracurricular activities, and maintaining a social life. This result of this project would show which tips help deal with stress the most and which tips help deal with stress the least. One of our goals is for us to use some of these tips all throughout life when we feel that we are extremely stressed or just feeling anxious in general. Another goal for this project is to encourage others to use these tips in their everyday life and share them with other people so that everyone will be better educated when it comes to stress and how to cope with it. We will measure our progress by checking in every week with our experimental group and taking polls of which tip helped them the most and least. Our plan moving forward is to create an experimental group of about five people, research techniques to share with our group, and record/analyze our data that we gather.