Assignment 7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Assignment 7A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 1

Step 1 - The Opportunity

With increased pressure to do well on exams, students at the University of Florida constantly have to leave the library while deep into their studies because their computer battery has died. As a result, they have to waste their limited study time to go back to their residence to retrieve their charge.

Step 2 – The Who, What, Why

The who: Students at the University of Florida

The what: They constantly have to leave the library while studying, which is a major distraction

The why: With increased pressure to do well on exams, they cannot afford to waste limited study time to go back to their residence to retrieve their computer charger because their computer has died

Step 3 – Testing the Hypothesis

Testing the who:

1.     “Have you ever been affected by forgetting your computer charger when studying at the library?”

2.     “Have you ever been at the library with a friend and they forgot their charger and had to borrow yours?”

Testing the what:

3.     “When did you realize you forgot your charger?”

4.     “When you forgot your charger, did you remain studying at the library or left to retrieve your charger?”

5.     “Are you only able to successfully study without your computer?”

Testing the why:

6.     “Was your grade effected from not remembering your charger?”

7.     “Have you solved this problem by not going home to retrieve your charger?”

8.     “Do you have pressure to do well on exams?”

Step 4 – Interviews

Interview 1 – Freshman girl

She has never been affected by forgetting her computer charger while at the library this year. It is only her first semester at college and she has not had to study for an exam at the library yet. However, she has been with her friend in her Warrington Welcome class when her friend’s computer died. They were doing a workshop on the computer, so her friend had to find someone in the room to borrow their charger. Since she has not forgotten her own charger, she does not know when she would realize or if she would remain studying at the library. She does think from her high school career, she is more successful when studying with the aid of a computer. She does not know how her grade would be effect and has not had to solve this problem. She does feel pressure to do well on her exams stemming from her own self, her parents, and her friends.

Interview 2 – Senior girl

She has been affected many times from forgetting her computer charger while studying at the library. It happens a few times every school year for her and she has been studying with her friend when they forgot theirs. She luckily had her charger and was able to give it to her friend to use. She realized she had forgotten her charger when she gets the message on her computer that she only has 20% battery left. Sometimes, she has remained at the library to continue to study when she was able to study without the use of a computer. Other times, she has had to leave the library because it was imperative she had her computer, since she takes the majority of her notes on it. She said she prefers to study with her computer but is able to study without it if she needs to. Her grades were not affected by these incidents, but she had to study later at night when the incidents occurred. She has solved the problem by not going home to get a charger when someone in her sorority is also at the library and she is able to borrow theirs. She does feel a ton of pressure to do well on exams because she wants a good GPA, so she can get into medical school.

Interview 3 – Freshman boy

He has been affected by not remembering his computer charger when he was studying for his SAT in high school at the public library. He has never been at the library with a friend when they forgot a charger because he prefers to study alone. He realized he forgot his charger when he was going over the answers for his practice test because the answers were posted online. He continued to remain studying at the library and just used his computer at home to check his answers and went on to another practice test. He finds he got more out of taking practice tests when he was able to check his answers immediately. His grade was affected by not remembering the charger because if he made a mistake in the first practice test, he would make that same mistake in the next because he was not able to correct his answers. He felt a lot of pressure to do well on the SAT because he dreamed of going to the University of Florida.

Interview 4 – Senior boy

He has not been affected by forgetting his computer charger while studying at the library. He prefers to study in his room but goes to the library occasionally. He is extremely organized and has always remembered it. He has never even studied at the library with a friend. He studied a lot better with his computer, since he takes all of his notes on his computer and makes study guides on it. His grades are affected when he is not able to study with his computer and especially when he had classes in high school where no computers were allowed. He feels pressure only from himself to do well on exams and feels that if he were to forget his charger he would get really stressed from the pressure he creates for himself.

Interview 5 – Graduate student

She had been affected by forgetting his computer charger while studying, but after the first time it happened it never happened again. On one occasion as well, she was at the library studying with her friend when her friend forgot her charger. She realized she forgot her charger the second she got to the library and pulled out her computer ready to study. She immediately left the library to study at home because she knew she did not want to start studying to only have to stop because her computer would die. It depends on the class for her, but usually she is more successful when she can study with her computer, but there are some classes where she does not use it. Her grade was not affected as a result of her forgetfulness because it only happened once, and she did not try and solve the problem by borrowing someone else’s. She feels a great amount of pressure to always do well in school.

Step 5 - Summarize

As a result of the interviews, I learned that most people have forgotten their computer charger at one point or another. The older the student was, the more likely they have experienced this problem. Most people do prefer to study with their computer and every person felt a great amount of pressure to do well in school. Most people do prefer to study at the library with a fully charged computer. In addition, there grades were not affected because of when they forgot their computer, since it  was not an everyday occurrence. All of the people I interviewed were able to imagine forgetting their computer charger and know oh to well that feeling when it happens.