Undergraduate Research: How do I get involved?

Dr. Robin Bagley’s Lab

bagley.72@osu.edu

What skills should a student have when starting a project with you?

All the skills needed for working in my lab can be learned here.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

Introductory Biology classes would be helpful, but are not required.

Which skills will the student learn?

Students should leave my lab with a better understanding of both systematics/taxonomy and population genomics/evolution. Depending on the project the student is involved in, specific skills could include: keying insect specimens based on morphological characteristics, extraction and amplification of DNA, basic DNA sequence handling, phylogenetic analysis, and population genomic analysis.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Evolution and/or a population genomics class.

Dr. Zac Beres’ Lab

beres.36@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

No specific skills necessary; all skills for working as part of the lab can learned during research.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

No specific classes are required. A basic high school biology education will allow you to get started.

Which skills will the student learn?

Really depends on the project that they are working on. Some specific skills learned may include how to care for and manage plants and pests in a greenhouse, collecting samples from creeks or other water sources, chemical analyses, or species identification and keying. Some general research skills learned include experimental design, data entry, statistics, and scientific writing.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Ecology, Evolution

Dr. Ryan Norris’ Lab

norris.667@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

Basic comprehension of how to interpret evolutionary trees and biodiversity (freshman level) as well as a basic (high school) understanding of genetics.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

BIOL 1114 or 1114H at Ohio State Lima.

Which skills will the student learn?

Depends on the project, but usually sterile laboratory technique; basic molecular lab protocols such as precise pipetting, electrophoresis, and the use of equipment; several types of specialized software; maybe some basic stats in R.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Mammalogy, Organismal Diversity, Evolution, and Genetics. Maybe a touch of Biochemistry.

Dr. Green’s Lab

green.301@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

Ability to conduct literature reviews via library databases (our librarians will teach you how to do that); basic typing (Excel, Word) and we learn some coding (SPSS).

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

Intro Psych; research methods; ideally behavioral statistics.

Which skills will the student learn?

Hypothesis formation; design and data collection; IRB training/research ethics; statistical analysis; importance or precision/meticulous nature of data checking/cleaning; presentation skills; abstract writing; manuscript preparation.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Any class that involves or discusses research and critical thinking (pretty much all upper level psychology courses).

Dr. Fabio Leite’s Lab

leite.11@osu.edu

Dr. Leite’s lab is welcoming students interested in psychological research, defined broadly to include research questions on cognition (i.e., thinking & reasoning), educational psych (e.g., resilience, studying habits & strategies), and the interplay between cognition and behavior (e.g., stereotype effects on cognitive performance, social effects on memory).

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

No prior research experience is necessary, but having taken or be enrolled in a research methods course is required.

Which skills will the student learn?

There are two ongoing projects in Dr. Leite’s lab. Incoming students are likely to help recruit participants and collect data on a project involving stereotypes. Students will use organizational skills to manage scheduling of data collection appointments and will learn how to manage a project from the ground up, meeting with Dr. Leite weekly.

If interested, email him at leite.11@osu.edu.

Dr. Pat Carroll’s Lab

carroll.279@osu.edu

Research Projects: Although there are several ongoing projects, the first one this semester will extend my earlier work on the determinants and consequences of forming and revising possible and core selves over time. In particular, my earlier work showed that, contrary to traditional conceptualizations (Jones & Berglas, 1978), those higher in chronic self-doubt differ from those lower in chronic self-doubt not in terms of having a stronger undesired self of potential failure but, instead, in terms of their relatively weaker desired possible self of potential success. In that work, we showed that the weaker desired possible selves of those higher in chronic self-doubt accounted for their underperformance (on a mock graduate records examination) relative to their counterparts lower in chronic self-doubt.

This semester my former student, Joshua McComis, and I are examining whether these same effects produced by chronic experiences of self-doubt might emerge for momentary or acute inductions of self-doubt (personal uncertainty) as well as judgmental doubt (informational uncertainty) regarding the differences among various COVID-19 vaccines. Of course, in addition to examining the independent effects of momentary personal or informational uncertainty, we will examine whether these factors interact with the chronic experience of self-doubt to, for example, amplify the effects of chronic self-doubt on strength of desired possible selves and, in turn, performance outcomes. Thus, any new students would have the opportunity to work on this data set with myself and a former student researcher and, even, take part in the analyses and presentation of this work. Alternatively, I would be glad to help students to add measures or manipulations to the existing protocol to address a new research question in this area (self-doubt and/or possible selves). And, given the latter option would be for their own question, the student could take the lead on analyzing and presenting the work in journals or at conferences.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

The only requirement is for students to have already taken and earned at least a B in PSY 1100 and, ideally, SOP 2367 in both.

Which skills will the student learn?

Students will learn about the entire research process—from idea conception and hypotheses generation, to data collection and analyses, through to the interpretation and presentation of these findings in journals or at research conferences.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

PSYCH 2220 and PSY 2300

Dr. Virginia Tompkins

tompkins.73@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

I typically focus less on skills needed and more on motivational aspects. I will teach them the skills they need. But first students need to be inquisitive, motivated to do research and learn new skills, and conscientious—do they adhere to the agreed upon hours, show up on time, communicate when they are not coming, etc. I often invite students to come to my lab only after I’ve seen their performance in at least one course.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

PSYCH1100—Introduction to Psychology
PSYCH2300—Research Methods is nice but not necessarily required if they’ve taken other Psych coursework and done well

Which skills will the student learn?

Data entry, importance of accuracy/reliability/fidelity, time management, excel and SPSS skills, ethics in research, data collection, and many skills that are specific to each project, for example transcribing parent-child talk or scoring assessments.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Any upper-level course in Psychology

Dr. Meggie Young

young.1661@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

Basic office skills and a willingness to try new things.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

Nothing would be required.

Which skills will the student learn?

Video analysis skills, transcription skills, and about how music contributes to other forms of wellbeing or education.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Any of the music courses we offer, a course on qualitative methods might be fun or an extension of what we did together.

Tina Schneider

schneider.290@osu.edu

Research in the library can be pursued as part of the Undergraduate Research Library Fellowship, a 10-week, paid fellowship. It can also be done in conjunction with other projects as needed.

What skills should a student have?

1. Students interested in working with the Lima Campus Archives do not need specific skills ahead of time, but it would be helpful to have an area of interest.

2. Pre-research knowledge for working with the hymnal collection would be dependent on whether the student wants to do musical or historical research, or both. If a student wants to do research on a particular tradition, a basic understanding of Christian denominations in the United States would be helpful.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

1. Courses in American history would be helpful for either the archives (1960-present) or the hymnals (1815-present), but not required.

Which skills will the student learn?

1. Depending on how a student wants to work with the archives, the student can expect to learn advanced searching techniques, how information is organized, and how to do additional research in order to put local information into greater context.

2. If a student wants to work with the hymnal collection, the student can expect to learn about music history (composers, musical traditions, and text writers) and the role of congregational song in a community. It is likely that the student would also learn how text and music pairings have changed and evolved over time, and how they are reflective of a particular religious tradition. It is important to recognize that each hymnal represents the voice of a community at a particular point in time and place in the world.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

1. Any class that would require a research paper or presentation would be easier.

Jaya Casukhela

casukhela.2@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

Students must be computer literates, should be able to handle Excel programming. Able to read and pick up new programming with some guidance.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

Stat 1450 or higher. Math 1149 or higher.

Which skills will the student learn?

Students learn how to study and interpret statistics with R-programming. Definitely R- programming is the highlight.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Python programming for data engineering or data science.

Dr. Sabine Jeschonnek

Jeschonnek.1@osu.edu

Dr. Jeschonnek offers projects in two research areas: physics and networks & complex systems

Networks and Complex Systems: many real world processes run on networks (power grid, transportation systems, rumor spreading on social networks), and students can join two different projects: 1) network epidemiology – we study how a virus spreads 2) spatial economic networks – how do states and countries influence each other’s economic output

Physics Research Methods: this type of project is suitable for physics majors, or motivated engineering or science majors. Students will be introduced to computational methods applied in physics research, and will learn to write code e.g. in Python, Fortran, or C++ to implement interesting physics problems.

What skills should a student have?

Students do not need any previous experience writing computer code, Dr. J will teach you!

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

For the networks and complex systems projects, no specific classes are required. For the physics research methods, students should be enrolled in Physics 1250.

Which skills will the student learn?

Students will learn how to write and document computer code, and how to interpret results and visualize them.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

Physics classes will be a good complement for the physics research methods projects. Any type of class involving data analysis should be a lot easier and more fun after doing a research project. For the network projects, public health or economics classes will be a nice fit.

Dr. John Hellmann

hellmann.1@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

An ability to work with research databases. Good writing skills.

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

Classes in literature and/or film.

Which skills will the student learn?

Skills in close analysis of literary and/or cinematic texts. How to produce research questions and insert oneself into an ongoing critical conversation.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

After their research experience a student would be in an improved position to take any upper-level courses in English studies or related disciplines.

Dr. Zach Hines

hines.464@osu.edu

What skills should a student have?

Ability and desire to work with library databases and printed catalogs; digital facsimile readers; printed editions in multiple languages

Which classes should a student have taken in preparation?

Course(s) in medieval history or literature. Training in Classics and knowledge of the Bible are useful but not necessary.

Which skills will the student learn?

Basic skills in codicology, paleography, and bibliography. Also, the history of books and the field of literary studies; the origin of the literary canon. Importantly, students will learn how to produce research questions about premodern literature and material artifacts.

Which classes might be a good complement/might be easier for the student to take after their research experience?

I believe these skills will benefit students in any literature or history course but especially in pre-modern literature courses.