| Biographies |
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| Mahta - Hello, my name is Mahta Samani, an athlete, a musician, but mostly an avid researcher. My partner and I got the idea for our project after we did some research about plagiarism and learned how big of an issue it is in universities across North America.Thus, we became very curious about this topic and decided to find out what the actual plagiarism rates are at our own high school, Webber Academy; it is the top ranked school in Alberta and many of its graduates attend top-ranked universities. By using this relevant research, we were then able to determine possible motivations for students to plagiarize and an effective prevention method from student surveys. Next year, we would like to further our experiment by repeating our project to test how well our recommendation worked, compare the rates of plagiarism at Webber Academy to other high schools, and correlate plagiarism rates to variables other than grade level, such as marks or gender. | | Zoe - My name is Zoe Dingeman, and I am a grade 11 student at Webber Academy. My partner and I got our idea after we did some research on plagiarism and learned how big of an issue it is in North American universities. However, we couldn't find much information on rates of plagiarism in high schools, and became curious about what the actual rates were at our own high school. Because our school, Webber Academy, is the top ranked school in Alberta, and many of its graduates attend top-ranked universities, we thought that a study on its plagiarism rates and determining an effective prevention method from student surveys would be relevant. We would like to further our experiment by repeating our project next year to test how well our recommendation worked, compare the rates of plagiarism at Webber Academy to other schools, and correlate plagiarism to variables other than grade level, such as marks or gender. Some advice that I would give to students thinking of doing a project would be to make a schedule for your project and stick to it, keep all of your data organized, and choose a topic you are passionate about and is interesting to you. |
| Mahta Samani, Zoe Dingeman
Plagiarism: How Much and Why?
| Challenge: | Discovery | | Category: | Senior | | Region: | Calgary Youth | | City: | Calgary, AB | | School: | Webber Academy | | Abstract: | Our project, "Plagiarism: How Much and Why?" is a study on the rates of plagiarism amongst Webber Academy's high school students, and the most effective method for preventing it. In our study, we screened anonymous essays on plagtracker.com and determined the actual rates of plagiarism, then administered surveys regarding its motivations, and used this data to make a recommendation for reducing these rates. |
| Awards | Value | Excellence Award - Senior
Bronze Medal
Sponsor: Youth Science Canada | $100.00 | University of Ottawa Entrance Scholarship
Senior Bronze Medallist - $1000 Entrance Scholarship
Sponsor: University of Ottawa | $1 000.00 | Western University Scholarship
Bronze Medallist - $1000 Entrance Scholarship
Sponsor: Western University | $1 000.00 | | Total | $2 100.00 | |
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