Throughout my time at UW, I have primarily been involved in wet-lab research, which involves me, my cell cultures, and I. However, as part of the Public Health core sequence, I was required to take a class on public health research methods. This began exposing me to an entirely different field of research: social research. With this project, I was placed with a group and had to design a question revolving around a public health topic that impacts University of Washington students. As a group, we chose to investigate how heavy alcohol consumption affects academic motivation in UW undergraduates.
While wet-lab research and social science research varies in important ways, there was still some similarities involved in the background planning. While conducting the background research, I was able to draw heavily from my experiences in lab and other STEM courses to find articles and validated surveys that tangentially connect with our topic. However, for me, the real challenge was generating a survey and conducting its analysis. The analysis was particularly tricky, as we had to differentiate between "trustworthy" results, and results that are clearly the result of people not taking the survey seriously. The difficulties in managing a large dateset compounded this issue as well.
Despite these difficulties, I felt that the class help actualize some of the concepts that I have previously learned in the Public Health major. Importantly, it demonstrated the difficulties and benefits for cross-sectional studies. In addition, we learned how stratification works, and its importance in ensuring valid results to subpopulations. Overall, the final research report, shown below, was a showcase for what I have learned in public health; it demonstrates team-work, experimental design, and flexibility to conduct research that I have previously been unfamiliar with.
While wet-lab research and social science research varies in important ways, there was still some similarities involved in the background planning. While conducting the background research, I was able to draw heavily from my experiences in lab and other STEM courses to find articles and validated surveys that tangentially connect with our topic. However, for me, the real challenge was generating a survey and conducting its analysis. The analysis was particularly tricky, as we had to differentiate between "trustworthy" results, and results that are clearly the result of people not taking the survey seriously. The difficulties in managing a large dateset compounded this issue as well.
Despite these difficulties, I felt that the class help actualize some of the concepts that I have previously learned in the Public Health major. Importantly, it demonstrated the difficulties and benefits for cross-sectional studies. In addition, we learned how stratification works, and its importance in ensuring valid results to subpopulations. Overall, the final research report, shown below, was a showcase for what I have learned in public health; it demonstrates team-work, experimental design, and flexibility to conduct research that I have previously been unfamiliar with.