The Research Residential 2019
In August 2019, we went on a residential trip to the University of Cumbria to further develop our research skills. If you get the time with young people, we would really recommend a research residential; it was a great way to spend focused time deepening our learning of the research phases and we were able to do a lot more work than we normally could in our usual 2 hour sessions.
One of the things we really enjoyed at the residential was a brilliant whole day activity where we explored the similarities of research and the process of a criminal investigation.
We had to solve a crime and find the thief.
This involved: looking for clues that were spread all over campus; reading case files; designing interview questions; carrying out interrogations with our suspects; reviewing all of our notes and evidence; and arresting the person that we thought was responsible (we even read him his rights!)
We also had a court case, where we split up into prosecution and defence; both sides prepared their arguments and presented their findings to a judge. This was a really fun way to end the activity and showed us that research can be more interesting than we had thought.
We also did some great work around research ethics at the residential.
We learnt a lot by hearing from Professor Kaz, who taught us the key principles and told us about some interesting real-life examples of ethical issues in research. We also really enjoyed an activity where we were asked questions like “Is it okay to interview someone you know?” and asked to stand on either side of the room depending on whether we agreed or disagreed.
We liked talking about different scenarios like this and had some great debates about what is right and wrong in research. We are hoping to create a poster that will teach other young researchers and adult researchers alike about ethics.
