Impact of Skipping Classes on University Students: Sleep, Fun, and Academic Performance St, Lab Reports of Engineering

Download Impact of Skipping Classes on University Students: Sleep, Fun, and Academic Performance St and more Lab Reports Engineering in PDF only on Docsity! Short and Long Term Effects of Skipping Class Engineering H191 Autumn, 2002 Kat Knapper, Seat 11 Day Dreamer, Seat 17 Bull Dozer, Seat 22 Ivana Sleepalot, Seat 34 Instructor: A. Einstein Class Section: 3:30 Lab Section: Wednesday, 3:30-5:18 Date of Experiment: 01/05/00 to 03/10/00 Date of Submission: 03/17/00 1. Introduction The goal of this experiment was to determine both the positive and negative effects of not attending class, both for a single occasion and for multiple occurrences. This study was conducted using first-year undergraduate university students by controlling the number of classes each was allowed to skip and having them periodically report observations they made regarding their experience. This report describes the details of how this study was conducted and how data relating to the students was collected. Results from the students detail the levels of fun, sleep and study time had by students as well as their final grades. Only a small portion of these results is presented in this report. An informal analysis of the results is given which highlights the contrast between the direct and quarter long effects of skipping class among the test students. 2. Experimental Methodology Three groups, each consisting of 50 first-year Humongous State students, were employed in this study. All students in the study were enrolled in the same elective class, Quantum Architecture and Zen Buddhist Approaches to Postmodern Literary Criticism, for Winter Quarter, 2001. None of the students had any previous knowledge of the subject matter, and all of the students had a high school GPA ranging between 3.3 and 3.9. Students were randomly assigned to the three groups. The students in test group one were permitted to miss one lecture or recitation period, while those in test group two were permitted to miss up to 20% of class periods, either lecture or recitation. Students in test group three were not permitted any absences. 2 4.1 Short Term Effects Observing the single student sleep schedule shown in Figure 1, it is clear for this student that there is a direct immediate relationship between sleep and skipping class. The amount of sleep increased dramatically the day of the skipped class and then dropped off suddenly the following day. This may be due to the student needing to stay up longer the next night to catch up on the missed class material. Comparisons of test scores, sleep patterns, study time, and “fun” time can be seen directly from Figure A1. Trends indicated that either “fun” or sleep generally increased as the missed classes increased, but usually not both. Careful analysis of the data also revealed a marked decrease of “fun” and sleep, accompanied by a sharp increase in study time immediately prior to an exam for individuals in all test groups. However, these affects were most pronounced for students in group three, whose members had missed up to 20% of class periods, and much less evident in both group one and two. Students who were selected to miss one or more classes immediately preceding an exam showed the most severe drop-off in both the “fun” and “sleep” categories, with 72% of students in this category reporting a corresponding increase in hours spent in the library. 4.2 Quarter Long Effects 5 Noting the results from table 2, the group with the most sleep over the entire quarter is group one which was allowed no skipped classes. This is in contrast to the large increases in sleep that students who skipped where found to have early in the quarter. The amount of sleep for the group of students who skipped many times dropped to a very low level by the end of the quarter, which was enough to drop its average total sleep for the quarter below both other groups. The same trend is true for each other indicator. As the rate of skipping class increases, the quarter long mean amount of study time goes up, the mean fun goes down, and the grades go way down. 5. Summary and Conclusions This study was conducted in order to examine the relationship between skipping classes and test scores, sleep patterns, time spent studying, and “fun.” Fifty first-year undergraduate university students participated in the study. Given the option to skip class, it is clear that there are immediate returns in increased sleep and fun. However, the above analysis of the effects over the entire length of a class reveals that it is far beneficial in terms of total sleep and total fun to attend all classes, or nearly all classes. 6 APPENDIX A