Research Internship
For my fall 2024 semester, I took a course where we focused on reading and understanding research in the field of health and exercise science. Each week, I was given a research article to read. After reading, I wrote a one-page summary that included the main points of the article and my personal thoughts about what I learned. Some of the articles focused on topics like injury prevention, rehab techniques, or how certain exercises affect the body. This helped me build the habit of reading research and learning how to pull out the most important information. After understanding and reflecting on the article we would conduct in-class discussions to hear different viewpoints and sides to the article's findings. This would insight some in-depth conversations.
From this experience, I learned how to think more critically and understand how research supports real-life practice. I learned how to break down complex studies into simple ideas that make sense. For example, one article showed how strengthening the hips can help reduce knee pain, something I saw come to life during my internship. Reading and reflecting on these articles helped me connect the science behind rehab and exercise to what actually happens with patients in the clinic.
This class taught me how valuable research is for anyone going into the health field. Research helps keep our practices up to date, safe, and effective. As a future physical therapist, it will be important for me to continue learning and applying new research so I can give the best care to my patients. This class gave me a strong foundation in reading and understanding research, and I will carry those skills with me throughout my career.
My Personal Research Experience
After completing the research article reading internship last semester, I found myself more interested in how research is conducted and how it applies to real-world learning and performance. Reading studies each week and summarizing them helped me understand how researchers ask questions, test their ideas, and analyze results to improve health and human performance. This experience sparked my curiosity and inspired me to get involved in research beyond just reading about it. I wanted to see what it was like to be part of a study, so I signed up to be a participant in a research project led by one of the students under the guidance of the same professor who supervised my research article internship.
The study took place over two days in a research lab on campus. The goal of the study was to test whether brain stimulation in certain areas of the head could improve learning ability. I participated in a racing video game experiment where everything was carefully controlled. On the first day, I practiced the racing game, then had small devices placed on my head to stimulate targeted brain areas. After the stimulation began, I continued to play the game multiple times while researchers recorded my performance. Every attempt used the exact same track and settings, so the only variable was how my brain was reacting to the stimulation. The second session was shorter and used to gather follow-up data.
This experience was exciting because I got to be a part of something that combined neuroscience and human performance. It was also rewarding to learn about how even small changes in the brain can impact focus, reaction time, and learning speed. Being a participant gave me a better understanding of what goes into running a study, everything from setup, testing, to analyzing results. It made the research process feel more real and helped me appreciate the effort and detail behind every article I had read in class. I now see how important it is to support and participate in research, especially when it aims to improve learning and performance in areas like physical therapy, sports, or rehab. This experience strengthened my interest in evidence-based practice and may even lead me to explore research opportunities in the future.