9/12/18 - Reflection 1:
This project so far is really interesting. I think that it is really cool to be able to be taking part in real research and see what the process is like. I'm excited to be able to have something like this to add to my resume and just to have it as experience in general. I actually also thought doing the Citi Cert was kind of interesting as well because I had never really thought about the details of research methods/ethics of doing research with human subjects. I liked learning about this and feeling more prepared to move on with this type of research.
I also really like the research question that we were assigned: the effects of exercise frequency on mood. This is actually something I've spent some time thinking about before this project and that excites me. Mood and exercise/nutrition is a topic that I've also been super interested and passionate about because of the unique link between them. I've known that better nutrition and a consistent exercise schedule generally are increase mood and mental health and it will be interesting to see what our results suggest about the correlation between these factors.
I've never done research with a survey like this so I'm also excited to see how this type of research plays out and how we actually analyze the data we receive and in what ways we can draw reasonable and accurate conclusions from it. Overall, I'm excited and happy that I get to participate in a class that requires this kind of project and allows us to get a hands-on experience with real research!
9/17/18 - Reflection 2:
First of all, I found it kind of difficult to find relevant articles on my topic that were recent enough. I could not find any recent articles that actually related to the effects of exercise FREQUENCY on mood. I did find some on frequency of exercise and mood, but they were from 10-15 years ago. I did, however, find a lot pertaining to intensity, duration, and mode of exercise and the effects on mental health like anxiety and depression. This to me means that this is an area that has not yet been well studied in the field or the findings are outdated so that is exciting because it means that we are researching something that might not yet be well known.
An interesting point that I found when reading two different articles (the first two that are posted) is that they both looked at the effect of exercise intensity on depressive mood but they came across contrasting results. One suggested that the intensity of exercise was important in helping to reduce depressive mood at a higher level (specifically moderate intensity) and the other study suggested that intensity had no effect. The important thing to note here is that the first study was looking at exercise over time and the second looked at the effects of one time acute exercise. I think this is really interesting because when looking at the immediate effects of exercise, intensity has little effect, but over a long period of time it matters.
The third study looked at the prevalence of mental health issues in elite athletes. I choose to look at this study because I assumed that elite athletes would have high intensity and extremely high frequency of exercise and I was interested in seeing what the prevalence of mental health would be in these cases. I found it surprising that the levels were the same as the general community. I would have though they would possibly either be less because of the increase of exercise or more because of the high level of physical stress on the body which could lead to burnout and higher levels of depression. Maybe it's a mix of both and that's why its similar to the general population. I think this would be interesting to look at again or study further.
9/24/18 - Reflection 3:
This week my group and I worked on finalizing the survey and coming up with the methods part of our research. We decided on sending out the surveys through multiple distributing methods including social media, text messages and GroupMe. We also finalized our research question and looked up some more articles on the subject. It's starting to feel like the research is starting to come together, especially since we will be sending out the surveys soon and start to get results. I'm excited to see what the results might be.
10/1/18 - Reflection 4:
This week we worked on a presentation for our research plan and presented it in front of the class. I think this was a really good way for our group to go over what we have and haven't done so far and to see the project start to come together as a whole. It kind of tied up the loose ends in a way of what we have so far. I also started sending out the link to our survey via text message, GroupMe, Instagram and Facebook. So far, it's only been a couple hours and there has been a really good response of over 40 participants. Hopefully, once everyone in our class takes the survey and my group members distribute it to more people as well we will reach the target number of at least 100 and maybe even exceed it!
Actually starting to see responses to the survey and look at some of the preliminary data so far is really exciting and I'm curious to see what our results will show!
10/8/18 - Reflection 5:
This week we started really getting responses on our survey. So far we have 102 participants who have taken the survey. I think this is really good as it is above our minimum. I sent out the survey to a lot of my friends and family and also posted about it on facebook and instagram. My other group members did similar things to me. We definitely saw a big spike the first few days after we sent out the survey but over the past 3 or 4 days the number of responses as only gone up by a few. So although we are at a high number, it is not increasing at a steady rate.
I think it would be beneficial to increase the number of respondants up by maybe 25 more. I think that we can increase this by posting about it again to remind people that saw it but maybe forgot to take it. Also asking around to some more people and seeing if the survey can be sent out on any listervs would increase the number of respondants. I also started looking at some of the raw data and the results are really interesting. It should be fun to learn how to analyze the data soon!
10/15/18 - Reflection 6:
This week we did not do much, but moniter the responses that we got on the survey. As of right now, we are at 120 responses which I think is a really good number. We increased by 18 since last week because one of the group members shared the survey on facebook. I'm struggling to figure out how to increase this number anymore. I've reached out to all of my friends and family members asking them to complete it and also shared in on my Instragram and Facebook. I could go back on these are just remind people to complete the survey if they have not done so already. This might add a few more. I was also thinking about emailing the head of the biology department and seeing if they can send out the survey link to the bio major listserv. This might also bring in some more responses.
Overall, I think we did really good getting a decent number of responses and I'm proud of our group. I'm excited to start analyzing the data and seeing the results.
10/22/18 - Reflection 7:
The number of responses this week went up to 154, which is really cool that we got so many. This week we worked on looking at the raw data that we collected in a Google Sheet as well as it combined with data from previous semesters. We made a key for coding the data and then converted the data to the number codes and exported that as an Excel sheet. I think starting the data analysis so far has been fun. We have yet to actually put the data in the software that process, but I'm looking forward to doing that and seeing what the results show.
In regards to project progress, we have gotten a lot done, but it still feels like we have a ton of things left to do, like actually writing the abstract, introductions, discussions, etc and making the poster. But as we get the results, I think things will start to come together better.
10/29/18 - Reflection 8:
This week we used the SSPS software to do statistical analysis on our data. We ran tests of normality and found that all our variables were not normal and thus statistically significant. This means we then had to use the Spearmen test to look at correlations between the different variables. We ran this test to see which variables had correlations with others and the which correlations were significant. We summarized this data in an Excel sheet. We haven't really looked at the correlations yet or summarized the data but so far it seems like there are some interesting results.
I've enjoyed learning how to use some of the features of this software and I think the correlations we are finding are interesting. We also are going to start writing the abstract and other features of the poster soon. It will be exciting to see everything come together, even though it still seems like there's a lot left and it's a little overwhelming.
11/5/18 - Reflection 9:
This week felt like a blur, we completely looked at all the data and analyzed it for trends and correlations. We compiled these results and then created the entire poster. We had to write the abstract, intro, discussion, summarize the results, and make some graphs. This felt a little rushed considering we didn't even know that we needed to have it done within like three days and that we didn't know we had the presentation at the Healthy Summit this week.
We also made a presentation for the class to show the final results of our study. I feel really accomplished and proud of our group to pull the poster together so fast. I'm kind of nervous, however, for the presenting at the Healthy Summit, as I've never done that before. It should be fun and exciting though. Glad to see this all come together and feel proud about the work that we accomplished.
11/12/18 - Final Reflection:
We presented our poster this week and it feels really good to see this project to completion. I feel really proud of our poster and it was really cool to see the poster printed and all official. We received some interesting questions during the presentation of our poster and it felt really good to be able to answer them and have someone interested in the research that we conducted. Overall, I thought this project was extremely interesting and a valuable opportunity to get experience in research especially survey based research. I think the most valuable part of it was learning how to analyze the data and use the SPSS software and then be able to summarize these results into a meaningful way.
One thing I did not like about this project was how it interrupted lectures and class material. Although I did find this project very useful and valuable, it did not teach me as much about nutrition than lectures would have. Also, towards the end we were running behind and used a lot of class time to work on the research and I think that this made it hard to focus on actual lecture material which I find more interesting. It almost seems like there should be a discussion portion to the class where students would work on the research component, so as not to take away from lectures. However, I don't think it took too much away, I just enjoy lecture more.
I think my favorite part of the project was seeing the poster come together and analyzing the data. I also liked that the research stemmed a lot of ideas for future research in my head because of the data we received. One example, is to conduct more specific research on exercise frequency and looking at what the best amount of exercise is for mood and mental health. The hardest or most frustrating part was being overwhelmed by the amount of data that there was and how to analyze it. Also the statistical analysis was slightly confusing, but it was a good experience to learn it.