Hand-Eye Coordination Science Fair Projects
Using Remote Control Cars

Fun Science Fair Projects

Making your science fair project is important. When your project is fun it will make the amount of work that you have to invest in your project seem like child's play. It will also make it easier to recruit test subjects and to keep the science fair judges' attentions.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to compare the hand-eye coordination of third graders with seventh graders.

I became interested in this idea when I was driving my radio control car and I started wondering why I was worse at driving it than my older brother was.

The information gained from this experiment can be used by coaches and insurance companies. Coaches can choose better players and the insurance companies can charge younger drivers more for insurance if it is proven that they are less coordinated.

Photon Solar Racer	Radio Controlled Car
Ages 9 and up	Ages 10 and up

HYPOTHESIS

My first hypothesis was that the seventh graders would make fewer mistakes on average than the third graders when driving through the course.

I based my first hypothesis on the information gained from speaking to Debbie Sheppard, the Registered Occupational Therapist at my school. She said, “As you grow, your hand-eye coordination usually gets better because you usually play more sports.”

My second hypothesis was that the seventh graders would drive the car through the course at a faster speed on average than the third graders.

I based my second hypothesis on several observations. Many seventh graders spend several hours a year playing video games that are car races or chases. I think they have practiced turning accurately and driving quickly so much more than third graders that this training will improve their scores.

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

The constants in this study were:
* The testing environment
* The course the car was run on
* The radio controller used for the experiment
* The radio control car for the experiment
* The battery condition of the car
* The battery condition of the controller
* The amount of time given to each subject to practice
* The experimenter’s script read to each subject as directions
* Number of trials for each subject

The manipulated variable was the average age of the subjects.

The responding variables were the amount of mistakes made by each subject and the time taken to navigate the course.

To measure the responding variables I tallied the mistakes and I measured the time taken to navigate the course with a digital stopwatch.

MATERIALS

PROCEDURES

1. Hand out and collect parent permission slips to three seventh grade classes and three third grade classes to gain subjects.
2. Make a course outlined with masking tape on a flat, hard surface (such as flooring) using the blueprint as a guide.
3. Accompany the first subject to the testing area.
4. On the data collection sheet, record the subject’s age, gender and name.
5. Read the experimenter’s script aloud to the subject as instructions.
6. Then, give a short demonstration to the subject on how to operate the radio control car.
a. Show how the controller works
b. Answer any questions the subject has
7. Let the subject practice driving the car for about two minutes.
8. When the subject is done test-driving the radio control car, set up the test.
a. Set the stopwatch
b. Put the radio control car at the start of the course
c. Hand the controller to the subject
9. Wait for the subject to state that they are ready by saying “ready” then the experimenter says “go” and starts the stopwatch.
10. While the subject drives through the course, tally the number of mistakes made, on the data collection sheet. (A mistake is any time the wheel of the car touches the tape or goes outside the tape.)
11. When the subject reaches the end of the course, stop the stopwatch.
12. Record the time it took the subject to drive through the course and the amount of mistakes on the data collection sheet.
13. Repeat steps 8-12 one more time with the same subject.
14. Thank the subject for their time and escort them back to their classroom to get another subject.
15. Repeat steps 3-14 with all the other subjects being tested.
16. Erase all names from the data sheets.
17. Average the scores for each test group.

RESULTS

The original purpose of this experiment was to compare the hand-eye coordination of third graders with seventh graders.

The results of the experiment were that the seventh graders’ average time was 28.5 seconds and their average number of mistakes was 3.5 errors. The third graders’ average time was 57.4 seconds and their average number of mistakes was 7.7 errors.

CONCLUSION

My first hypothesis was that the seventh graders would make fewer mistakes on average than the third graders when driving through the course.

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be accepted, because it took the seventh graders half as much time on average as it took the third graders.

My second hypothesis was that the seventh graders would drive the car through the course at a faster speed on average than the third graders.

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be accepted, because the seventh graders made half as many errors on average as did the third graders.

Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if there truly is a difference between girls’ and boys’ hand-eye coordination, as my data appears to suggest. On a completely different note, I realize that the speed of my test car could affect student performance. I now wonder what radio control car shape and brand is the fastest and most accurately controlled.

If I were to conduct this project again I would make the course a bit easier. I observed that it was much too difficult for the third graders. I would try to find a task for my subjects to complete that none of them would have practiced before the experiment. I would also test many more subjects in each age group.