Great couple of weeks

The Mentor Demonstration/URE @ RC continues to make progress.  Below is a brief overview of our past few meetings:

1/27/2011
The topic for today was developing a hypothesis.  Everyone was asked to write out a description of their research topic.  We started by going around the room sharing these descriptions with each other.  I was impressed with the level of work that the students have already put forth (and glad that I had remembered to do my homework!)  There was a great deal of discussion about each project, and several great suggestions offered.

Next I described how a researcher might go about developing a hypothesis.  This process includes having a refined research question(s), looking to the literature pertaining to that research question(s), and then developing a hypothesis that is specific, precise and subject to verification and testing.

We then each worked for several minutes writing out specific research questions based on our topics and the literature that we had already reviewed.  We shared these questions with each other and offered comments and suggestions to each presenter.

We left with the goal for the next week being to continue to review the literature.  Our discussion next time is the literature review.

2/3/2011
The topic for today was the literature review.

First I described several reasons/uses of the literature review, including:
1) Informing/educating your reader/audience
2) Putting your work in context with existing work
3) Showing you (the researcher) what has already been done so that you can see how/if you are contributing to the existing body of work
4) Teaching you (the researcher) lessons learned by previous authors (mistakes not to make, heads up on difficulties/obstacles/likely criticisms)
5) Helping you (the researcher) refine your research question and build your hypothesis

Next, I logged onto the computer and showed the group some fruitful and respectable places to look for relevant literature, including WorldCat, EconLit, Jstor, and Google Scholar.

We then went around the room and shared the literature that we each had found over the previous week and talked about how it fit, or didn't fit with our research questions, and any other updates.

Brent: Spoke with Drs. Filer and Lyon about potential interview questions and set up a meeting with a potential contact for the interview

Nic: Looked at online resources but has not found many useful additions yet to the literature review that he did for his ECON 448 paper (it was a very good one!)  He is still hopeful. 

Tyler: Emailed Dr. Stauffer about where he should go with his paper; potentially a focus on monetary policy in Europe; looked at news articles about the European Debt Crisis and noted that there was an abrupt halt in the popular press on the subject (did a celebrity get married or something to take it out of the headlines?)

Sara: Found some great studies on obesity and productivity but all focused on children or adults (good for her...she is the first!)

Jorge: Keeps talking about this Jorge Friedman guy that Nic does not believe exists...too convenient a name we think.  He did review the literature and spoke with Dr. Nik-Khah about some potential angles for his paper.

Justin: Did a LOT of work searching the literature which is a new experience for him.  He is learning to sift through it all and pick out what is helpful.  So far he has found some great pieces.

Dr. Kassens: Found very little in the academic literature on the impact of the recession on marathon performance, but many articles from newspapers (including the WSJ article that got her thinking about the project); wondering if I should not only look at big marathons like NYC, but more "local" marathons as well

Finally, Brent Cox shared a draft of his literature review so that students in the early stages of their work can see a student sample.

Our goal for next week is to continue working on the literature review and the topic for next time is IRB Approvals.

Great session!

2/8/2011
There was a short turn around (Thursday to Tuesday) for our meeting this week, yet many students (and teacher) had done quite a bit of work.

The topic for today was IRB approvals.  I reviewed with the students the purpose of the approval and where to find the documentation.

Next I passed out the updated RC IRB form and reviewed the different parts.

I then passed out three sample IRB forms that I have completed in the past so that they could see how different types of projects must focus on different items.

Finally, since there are two students who need IRB approval in our group (Brent and Sara) we split into two groups to help them with their forms.  Nic and I helped Brent with his approval form while Tyler, Jorge, and Justin helped Sara.  I had several comments from colleagues that passed by the classroom while we were doing this about how hard everyone was working and how animated everyone was.  I take this as a good sign.  We are being productive and having fun!

Our topic next week is developing a prospectus.  Additionally everyone has the goal of posting a draft of their literature review on our SharePoint team site for peer review.