Ultimate EPQ thread

Btw, i found this site which has several examples of work (grades of those pieces included) so it might be handy.
http://blogs.thegrangeschool.net/extendedproject/2009/12/05/extended-project-examples/

Reply 5002

Futuremedic2096

8

Original post by Urban Ace

Finished a final-ish draft a couple of weeks ago. Waiting for some feedback after the holidays finish :s-smilie:

Same!

Reply 5003

Original post by Paparazzo

What is supposed to be in the abstract? Does it count towards my word count?

The abstract is pretty much the blurb of your piece; it should quickly summarise what your piece is about and also to draw them in past the introduction. No, i dont believe it counts as part of the word count (im not including itas part of the word count), but it will only page a page long or so id id say a max of 400 words.

Reply 5004

rayquaza17

17

Original post by l1lvink

The things im most worried about is the paperwork and the presentation at the end. Seeing as though you've already answered some stuff about the paperwork, do you have any advice as to how to approach the presentation and what is should be prepared for?
Thanks
On a purely curious note (im studying both Maths and Further Maths), is your website actually on the Internet for us to see?

No, I took it down because I stopped paying for the domain name I had. The content of the website was about logarithms. There was some information on: the history (invented by a Scottish guy!); laws of logs and exponentials; and some worked through questions I made up. I also had some more advanced stuff on like a derivation of the poisson distribution, and also proving one of the laws of logs using integrals (it was based on a lecture I watched on iTunes U).

For presentations, my best advise is to try and be confident. I'm not very confident normally, but when I go into presentations, I think "this will be over soon, and I want a good grade/mark," and I just try to be confident because usually people have good power points and things, but their confidence is the only thing lacking.

Also, try not to have things written down or read off slides, your presentation is better if you just have bullet points with one or two words, and you remember what exactly to say.

Practise your presentation with one of your friends and get them to ask you questions at the end so you can see what kind of things people might ask you - the questions are probably the part that will trip you up!

Good luck with maths and further exams! :smile:

Reply 5005

Urban Ace

Original post by Futuremedic2096

Same!

I guess yours is on something medical related? :biggrin:

Reply 5006

Original post by rayquaza17

No, I took it down because I stopped paying for the domain name I had. The content of the website was about logarithms. There was some information on: the history (invented by a Scottish guy!); laws of logs and exponentials; and some worked through questions I made up. I also had some more advanced stuff on like a derivation of the poisson distribution, and also proving one of the laws of logs using integrals (it was based on a lecture I watched on iTunes U).

For presentations, my best advise is to try and be confident. I'm not very confident normally, but when I go into presentations, I think "this will be over soon, and I want a good grade/mark," and I just try to be confident because usually people have good power points and things, but their confidence is the only thing lacking.

Also, try not to have things written down or read off slides, your presentation is better if you just have bullet points with one or two words, and you remember what exactly to say.

Practise your presentation with one of your friends and get them to ask you questions at the end so you can see what kind of things people might ask you - the questions are probably the part that will trip you up!

Good luck with maths and further exams! :smile:

No problem; it sounds really interesting (im really looking forward to doing logaritms). Ive just started using iTunesU as a learning resource (along with TED) and im enjoying that so far.

Thanks for the advice, im not very confident, but ill try to look towards the end :smile:

Reply 5007

Futuremedic2096

8

Original post by Urban Ace

I guess yours is on something medical related? :biggrin:

In the causation argument of schizophrenia is nature or nurture more prevalent

Reply 5008

user3267

14

Hello guys, just wanted to ask if someone could send me a list of everything that needs handing in for submission. Also, do you need to hand in evidence of planning and also a diary of when you completed certain parts of your project? I am just unsure how they mark the planning side really.

Reply 5009

Original post by rayquaza17

I got an A* in mine. It was a maths-based one, and I produced an artefact (website).

Has anyone got any questions or anything they would like to ask me?

Hi i've completed my first draft and was wondering for the presentation did you just include what you did and go through limitations and improvement etc.... or is it possible to make the presentation more interactive so you ask the audience questions because since my EPQ is on writing a short story I was going to start of with asking my audience to create a character to show them the rationale behind my own characters- do you think that would be ok?

Also my EPQ when printed out is about 55 pages (due to the fact that I have included my 3 drafts of my short story to illustrate my writing process) do you have any ideas on how I can present this i.e what kind of folder I might use because the one I have is too small for the document

Thanks!

Reply 5010

rayquaza17

17

Original post by Sapphire123

asking my audience to create a character to show them the rationale behind my own characters- do you think that would be ok?

That sounds interesting, but do you not only have a maximum of around 10 minutes for the presentation? There might be a lot to fit in!

Original post by Sapphire123

Also my EPQ when printed out is about 55 pages (due to the fact that I have included my 3 drafts of my short story to illustrate my writing process) do you have any ideas on how I can present this i.e what kind of folder I might use because the one I have is too small for the document

I handed mine in a ringbinder, so maybe you could use one of those?

Reply 5011

Futuremedic2096

8

Original post by Sapphire123

Hi i've completed my first draft and was wondering for the presentation did you just include what you did and go through limitations and improvement etc.... or is it possible to make the presentation more interactive so you ask the audience questions because since my EPQ is on writing a short story I was going to start of with asking my audience to create a character to show them the rationale behind my own characters- do you think that would be ok?

Also my EPQ when printed out is about 55 pages (due to the fact that I have included my 3 drafts of my short story to illustrate my writing process) do you have any ideas on how I can present this i.e what kind of folder I might use because the one I have is too small for the document

Thanks!

Wth? You do realise the thing you hand in has a word limit of 5000 +/- 10%, they won't take one look at it like that, hand in the story finished

Reply 5012

Original post by Futuremedic2096

Wth? You do realise the thing you hand in has a word limit of 5000 +/- 10%, they won't take one look at it like that, hand in the story finished

My EPQ teacher said it was fine because otherwise the whole EPQ is under the limit it's just because there are 3 drafts in there

Reply 5013

arcturus7

13

Original post by Sapphire123

has anyone here achieved an a* on their epq???

Yeah - I got an A* in a theoretical physics one, but unlike rayquaza17 mine had no final item; it was just a paper.

What subject are you doing yours on?

Any questions from anybody doing physics/maths based ones I'm happy to help.

Reply 5014

Original post by arcturus7

Yeah - I got an A* in a theoretical physics one, but unlike rayquaza17 mine had no final item; it was just a paper.

What subject are you doing yours on?

Any questions from anybody doing physics/maths based ones I'm happy to help.

Oh my subject is English and I'm investigating how to write a short story, do you have any presentation tips?

Reply 5015

rayquaza17

17

Original post by arcturus7

Yeah - I got an A* in a theoretical physics one, but unlike rayquaza17 mine had no final item; it was just a paper.

What subject are you doing yours on?

Any questions from anybody doing physics/maths based ones I'm happy to help.

Well done! I took the easy option - I had no idea how to write an essay on maths. :colondollar:

Reply 5016

Original post by rayquaza17

That sounds interesting, but do you not only have a maximum of around 10 minutes for the presentation? There might be a lot to fit in!

I handed mine in a ringbinder, so maybe you could use one of those?

Thanks that's probably what I will do, and Yh the time constraint for the presentation was making me think maybe I shouldn't include it but I thought it would be a good way to break the ice and calm my nerves down but I'm not sure

Reply 5017

arcturus7

13

Original post by Sapphire123

Oh my subject is English and I'm investigating how to write a short story, do you have any presentation tips?

Make sure you can defend literally every single thing you can be questioned on. One girl in my cadre investigated whether or not Virginia Woolfe was a feminist, and when she was asked to justify some of her opinions she floundered. Admittedly it isn't the same as yours, but if someone questions your actions/motives you have to have a decent answer.

Other than that, speak clearly, slowly and confidently. Make sure your sentences are cogent and correct (this sounds obvious, but pressure can make people say really weird things!) and finally remember that it should be fun! You chose this topic so you should have loved every second of it - make sure they do too. There's nothing worse than a presentation from someone who doesn't sound like they care. :smile:

you'll do great.

rayquaza17

Well done! I took the easy option - I had no idea how to write an essay on maths. :colondollar:

Oh god I know - writing about pure maths is so difficult. I had to talk about a bit of vector calculus in mine and I just pulled a :lolwut:

face when I realized I had to explain what all the equations were describing mathematically. Thankfully because mine was in a physics context I could use the real world to explain what the abstract stuff means. I don't envy people who do pure maths EPQs without some sort of reason to explain it all. Still, it's interesting to listen to!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 5018