Students and faculty took a brief hiatus from the hustle and bustle of the end of the semester to share a semester’s worth of hard work and research at the annual Fall Research Symposium this past Friday, December 9th. The gathering took place in the Beck Atrium where students displayed their research posters for other students and faculty to learn about the studies they conducted. A range of students presented, including students in Psychological Research Methods II, students in Developmental psychology and independent research apprentices enrolled in Psy-290. Many psychology 100 students are required to attend the event as well to get their first look at Psychological Science Research and gain a better understanding of experimental procedures and design. It gives students a glimpse of the opportunity for research they may have if they decide to major in Psychological Science.
Aside from a large crowd of students and faculty, something else was in the air at Friday’s research symposium. Questions and curiosity were abundant as people circulated the atrium trying to understand the research questions driven by the inquisitiveness of the presenters. Through this mutual curiosity and interest in understanding humans, a wonderful thing occurs at research symposiums- new questions are born based upon the previous research of others. Walking around the symposium one could hear the different questions being formed that may one day inspire future research. The psychological science research opportunities at Gustavus essentially allow students to become amateur experimentalists who are given the opportunity to carry out many of the concepts they have learned in class, while at the same time making it their own by asking questions that they are genuinely interested in.
Submitted by Tatianna Thurik ’17