Doing...Research
I got into something this semester that has been a huge part of my life, now, for the last four months: research. Now, I can only speak for the psychology students among us – and even then, only those who are pursuing a B.S. -- but I was required to take a research class sometime during my time at Concordia, specifically after I took the introductory-level class last semester. Now that I’m counting down the days until I present my findings at the 2024 Academic and Research Symposium, my realization of how much the process of conducting research in my field has taught me about myself, my passions, and even what I want my future to look like after college.
Research sometimes seems like it’s part of some shadowy, hidden practice that’s reserved for only the best and brightest members of a particular field. It’s done in laboratories, completed, published, and generally accepted by the ordinary populace. I don't think most of us generally equate research with something that students normally involve themselves in. Perhaps we do the occasional research paper for a class, but past that, real research can be reserved for professionals...right?
Well, fortunately, conducting research really isn’t that exclusive. Sure – most people who have their research peer-reviewed and published are professionals in a field, but even some of them are students! Learning how to conduct professional-level research, however, can start early, if that’s something you’re interested in. I, for one, loved writing research papers in high school and jumped at the opportunity to write a “real” research paper that I could present at a symposium in college.
Doing research is all about discovering new ideas. The great thing about these discoveries, truly, is that they’re new – no one’s ever made that exact discovery before, so no matter how big or small it may be, it’s still a new discovery. Whether you find, as I did, that several kids who are part of a specific group have similar views on important topics, or you find that people who sit in certain places in Janzow tend to act differently based on where they are seated, doing research is all about making that little tidbit of information more accessible to others.
Plus, research is a science – now, I don’t mean science as in “biology science” or “physics science.” By science, I mean that research has a method, or a process to which it adheres. You start with a question, formulate a prediction, and test it – whether through a close reading of many pages of primary sources, a traditional laboratory experiment, or structured interviews with research participants. Then you analyze your results – what are those new discoveries? – and synthesize them for distribution somewhere like Concordia’s research symposium.
I believe that research can teach you a lot about the world, especially regarding the topics that interest you the most. Research doesn’t even need to be formal enough to present at a symposium – you might do “research” when you make a prediction that you test about what amount of sunlight will make your favorite houseplant thrive, or when you bake a new treat and predict whether your family will like it better than another. You make observations and predictions, take action to test them out, and analyze how the results you saw lined up with your initial hypothesis.
I found out this semester that I really enjoy conducting more formal research. I like writing papers based on projects I’ve initiated and completed; I like the process of working toward a cohesive presentation of my findings, and I really liked working with the children that I interviewed. The same doesn’t have to be true for everyone, though. Formalized research is hard sometimes – so give yourself some credit for all the other research you do in your daily life. Even if you aren’t going to present it at this year’s Research and Academic Symposium, chances are that you’ve used a quasi-research process many times to gain new knowledge or insights about the world around you. And that’s a pretty cool way to engage with God’s creation, isn’t it?
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