Ms. Kahn watches her students shuffle into class. Franklin Middle School lost an important game in a basketball tournament last night. It seems that all of her students participated in or attended the game, and there is clearly a consensus that this loss was especially difficult.

“That team was not superior to ours!” exclaims Mylie. “But they went home with a big trophy, and we went home with nothing! I’m never going to get over this.”

Sierra is more resilient. “That’s the thing about tournaments,” she says. “A bunch of teams sign up, but only one can win.”

“The same kind of thing happens in science, Mylie and Sierra,” says Ms. Kahn. “Thousands of brilliant scientists work really hard, but only a few get a Nobel Prize. I wonder if this kind of competition yields better science, or simply discourages people.”

“Maybe it’s different for different people,” says Mylie. “I like that our middle school science fair is noncompetitive, but my older sister thinks it stinks. At her high school science fair, they have first, second, and third place. It motivates her to work hard on her project.”

“Let’s take a poll,” says Ms. Kahn. “Would a competitive science fair motivate people in our class to put in more effort? Would a prize motivate them even more?”

Take a poll in your class, asking what level of effort each student would put into each type of science fair. Tally the results.

Discuss with your partner/with the class what the data suggest about the effort students would put into a non-competitive, competitive with no prize, or competitive with a prize science fair. Write your joint conclusion here.

What other data would you collect from students to understand whether competition discourages or encourages them?