Science Projects for Sixth Grade: The Memory Experiment

Teach:

Ask students if they can explain what memory is? Give them some examples of memory such as asking them, "What is 1 + 1?" If they answer 2, then ask them how they knew the answer was 2. The must have memorized the answer or memorized the equation that would help them come to the answer. Show them how memory is important in everyday life. You may even want to talk about the effect of losing your memory (such as patients with amnesia, dementia or Alzheimer's disease).

Materials:

1. A movie
2. Questions about the movie
3. Boys age 10
4. Girls age 10
5. Boys age 20-30
6. Girls age 20-30
7. Boys age 50
8. Girls age 50
9. Boys age 70 or higher
10. Girls age 70 or higher
11. Notebooks
12. Pencils

Procedure:

1. Explain to the class that they are assigned to have a movie night and invite one person from each of the age groups listed above (for a total of ten guests). Each of the guests will be given the same test that will ask them to recall things that happened or things they may have seen during the movie. This test will show whether boys or girls have a better memory as well as which age group has the better memory.
2. Have the students write out a hypothesis in their notebooks. This will be a guess as to which group and gender they feel will have the better memory. Don't forget to have them list why they are making this guess.
3. Have the class watch the movie and create a quiz to go along with it. Make sure the class knows how important it is not to talk about the quiz to any of the individuals who are invited to watch the movie.
4. Show the movie and give each of the guests a quiz.
5. Collect the quizzes and grade them.
6. First separate the quizzes into age groups. Find the average grade for that group by adding all 20 (10 boys and 10 girls) test scores together and then divide the number by 20. Which group scored the highest? Were you surprised?
7. Now repeat the above steps, but separate the test into boys verses girls. Which groups scored the highest?

Review:

Have students write out the conclusion to the experiment in their notebooks. Ask them to discuss if any of their hypothesis were incorrect and why. Have them share any thoughts on the experiment.

Alternative Plan:

Invite 10 volunteers from the list above to the classroom for a movie and then compare the results of the quizzes with the class.