Reserch Fair

Since I'm a hopeful psychology major I wanted to find a table that was somewhat psychology and or neuroscience related, so when I came across the "Relating Executive Functioning Task Performances to ADHD Subscales" table and I was interested. The idea was that kids from areas of high lead concentrations (such as East Omaha) in the soil had a higher risk of being diagnosed as ADHD. They studied this by having families all over Omaha fill out ADHD diagnostics tests and get fMRI scans, and then went over the data to find any correlations. Researches found that there was in fact a correlation between ADHD like behaviors and the fuctioning scores of the East Omaha children.

Political Science/IR

I was able to talk to Professor Hendrickson from the Political Science/International Relations department. He described the process of getting on a research project, whether it is one you created or you joined. In political science you have to create a research project by the end of your senior year, so there are several classes you must take that expose you to research. Professor Hendrickson suggested that I talk to professors and classmates if I was interested in getting into poli sci research in my freshman or sophomore years.

The Mathematics of Computing

    My visit to the research fair left me in the seat of our very own John Mangles. He spoke of a very interesting topic, quantum computing, the ability to use small particles such as photons in place of open and closed circuits in binary. He claimed that such a computer would be able to compute many times faster than any computer built today. Honestly, I understood none of the actual math displayed, and I did not wish to ask him about it. Though this concept is very intriguing, the actual development of this technology would be quite valuable to me. I hypothesize, not only would the processing power of computers dramatically increase, so will the storage capabilities of computers. It may allow a single computer to hold, rather than a few terabytes TB, exabytes EB of data, a million times more data than we can store now. This concept is very intriguing to me for various reasons.
Needless to say, I enjoyed my visit.

Research Fair

At the research fair I took interest to the study conducted on rats and how their social environments effect their usage of self administered drugs. There were two conditions the rats were subject two. The first condition was the isolated group; these rats were kept away from other rats, handled little, and had no toys. The other group was the social group; this group was exposed to other rats, handled often, and had toys switched out everyday. These two groups were tested to see which hit the lever more to self-medicate. The results are skewed. The rats in the isolated groups did medicate more but neither of the groups hit the lever enough within the time frame to get clear results. A better study would have to be conducted, with the rats having better training to learn how to use the lever, to see the effects of social groups and self-dosing. 

Research Fair

At the research fair I was talking to the people at the History both. They told me about their research and how they are trying to explain how population control Democratized American Eugenics. This research will examine historical connections between the population control movement of the United States during the nineteen sixties and seventies, set with larger American Democratic values. By examining many sources, they plan to establishes the degree to which the population control movement played a role in democratizing eugenics in the United States. This study fills the blank spot between this movement and eugenics. This research contributes to the understanding of eugenics and the American perception of fertility and citizenship which are subject to change in contemporary life. I really enjoy history and this seemed like a really fascinating topic that I could possibly research.

Research Fair

At the research fair I talked to Rachel Busselman about her psychology research. The research was on rats and their self-administration of d-amphetamine based on different factors. These factors included having half the rats isolated and the other half enriched, meaning they received human contact, were in one large cage, and had toys. The results between these two groups of rats showed that the isolated rats were more likely to self-administer the d-amphetamine compared to the enriched rats. To prevent random error. The researchers put the lever for the d-amphetamine on a timer to make sure they were not randomly pressing the lever. This was just the first part of this research and they are planning on doing more in the future.

Research Fair

At the Research fair, I was able to have a conversation with Dr. Haas and Dr. Dopperpuhl from the chemistry booth.  They discussed the details of their research and gave insight on the value of student research.  In order to get a research opportunity, they advised me to consult the director of Curas and begin to ask professors for a chance in the lab.  They also mentioned that the biology and chemistry labs were always competitive, making it very hard to obtain research project.  I also asked why they do research and how they pick topics to study.  Dr. Dopperphul told me, "you do research because you're pissed off that you don't know something."  In my head I thought this the most concise answer I could have received.  As for finding a topic or subject to study, he stated that it varies from person to person based on their interests and strengths.  He recommended taking basic intro to science courses for me to get a feel of what I would enjoy.  Even though I had no prior intention of going the event, I'm glad that I went and was able to get a better understanding of how important research is.

At the research fair I talked to someone from the College of Arts and Sciences, who was doing research on the correlation between ADHD and highly concentrated soil areas, like Eastern Omaha. They collected data by having parents test their kids using the Conners ADHD Rating Scale Parent Short Form. The data they ended up receiving showed several correlations between ADHD and tasks related to EP like memory and attention. I thought this was an interesting study and the title caught my eye so that's what lead me to asking questions about what this study was about.

At the research fair, I was at the Chemistry booth with some people and two professors were talking to us about their research and what to expect. Them knowing that most of us were freshmen saw the moment as an opportunity to advise us about what to expect from research, what to gain, and the amount of time and dedication put into such research. The professors told us to pick one that is of interest to us and if you do happen to find one, talk and work under the professor who is head of such research to give notice of your interest. Many professors are very knowledgeable and experts when it comes their field of research. Lastly they advised us that many students do want to research, so the amount of space is very limited, the harsh reality might be that some may never do research.

When I went to the Research Fair today I was able to talk to someone with an interesting experiment in Psychology.  She did research on people that are on probation.  These people were studied to see the treatment plan of the study would impact them in a positive way.  Most were able not to fall back into their old habits, which showed their treatment worked.  I was able to learn more the psychology department which was helpful because I am considering that for a minor.

Research

Today at the research fair I talked to someone who is majoring in something I find interesting. She did an experiment on what therapy treatments do for people on probation. She found that when given therapy options, people on probation were less likely to recidivate. I talked to her about her major which was more in the forensic side of psychology. I find this to be something I'm interested in and talking to this researcher really gave me an idea of what that field would be like. She also recommended a professor to talk to about it in the event I ever decide to enter that field!

Research Fair

Today, at the research fair, I was at the Chemistry Department Booth.  There was somewhat a crowd, so they decided to speak to us as a whole, then individually.  Since they knew a majority of us were freshmen, they gave us a lot of advice about doing research.  When deciding to do research, they advise us to pick a topic that we are very passionate about.  They explained that research is a very long process that requires us to sacrifice a ton of hours. Therefore, why waste a lot of time on research that is meaningless and uninteresting.  They also advise us to talk to the professor we want to do research under and show them that we have an interest.  Many of the professors are experts in their field and are constantly doing research.  If we continually show them our interest in their studies, they could ask us to join them on their research.   Everyone probably wants to at least plan on doing some sort of research during their college career.  But they gave us the harsh reality that not everyone can.