Is this even considered "research" ???

[Govols13]

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[Amemus]

I wouldn't count this as research. You may be assisting research but you're not involved with the key elements of research - identifying a problem, formulating a hypothesis, designing an experiment, conducting the experiment, analyzing the results, making modifications and repeat. But maybe this can help you make connections with people and help you formulate your own research idea, so it may be a worthwhile activity.

I wouldn't discount research that is not laboratory-based. I think admissions committees are more interested in knowing that you understand the process of working through a problem than what you are researching. I did several research projects and I was surprised the one that most people were interested in was the one that wasn't laboratory-based. I think it was because 1. I came up with the idea on my own because it was something I was genuinely curious about 2. It was about something that affects a lot of people on a daily basis and 3. It was something easy for most people to understand. Biochemistry research is interesting and worthwhile but you can definitely have a good experience with other types of research.

 

[saveourpens]

The grad students are doing research. You're helping them. This is something to list as an EC, but not research. Maybe you can get your own project out of it?

So I'm a Kinesiolgy major, and I am helping a couple different graduate students (2 in exercise physiology) with their thesis.

1.) 1 student is measuring the activity levels of children, so we go out to an elementary school 3x a week and put accelerometers on kids. No actual research on my part, just kind of a "helper" type deal. Still interacting with the kids though.

2.) Another student is measuring fitness levels of kids (older age group), by running tests that measure VO2 output. I am a little more involved in this than the 1st one. I help setup, do some measurements (body fat, blood pressure, etc) and provide encouragement during the actual test.

I've been doing these pretty consistently (first one will be a total of 3 months, 2nd one may be closer to 4 months).

I'm looking at other SDNers "research" hours, and they are more clinical/laboratory based, and they seem to be more involved with data collection, where as I am more of a helper.

Would what I am doing even be considered "research"? I hope it does, because I really enjoy working with kids and these graduate students. Or am I better off going to the chem/bio departments and getting research hours there?

 

[LizzyM]

I would count this as low level research along the lines of someone who is a lab assistant who washes glassware, makes solutions, etc.

Ideally, you should get to the point where you would be proposing a little project with a testable hypothesis. It could be something as simple as "attribute x" is associated with an increase/decrease in "observable outcome". For example, higher body mass index is associated with lower physical activity as measured ....

If you can take that a step further, you should be able to present at a meeting (even only a poster) or publish a paper of your findings.

 

[lxz]

According to the "notorious" interviewers from a particular school I dislike, anything that does not answer the questions of why and how things work should not be considered as scientific research. I've doing chemistry research as an undergraduate. And that was categorized as non-scientific by the interviewers.

 

[BiopsychStudent]

If you switch to a new lab with no experience in that line of research you may need to "start over" doing research assistant-type stuff again: Washing glassware, weighing animals, etc. The chances of you kicking in the door to a lab and being given a research project off the bat are usually nil.

While it ultimately depends on your PI, you're honestly not 'that' far off from doing actual research. Are there any aspects of their current research that really interest you, or that you have further questions about? Is there something ELSE you can measure in these populations that coincide with the interests of the lab?

 

[Danlee07]

No, but I would definitely use this as an opportunity to make something out of it. Your work seems very relevant to what you know, so maybe you're intrigued by some result of the test. Try to read some reviews and formulate an idea that you can propose to your PI. Your PI will help you refine it. Worst thing you'll hear is "Dumb." This could turn into a project and would work well for you; you'd get a project you understood and developed which would help in the future.

If there is no room for you to grow, then find a different lab. Unless it's a job...