Minds and Milkshakes

All my resources

Today in class we started getting more involved into our course. In the morning we learned about APA style and the proper way to write a research paper. We also went over the various ways to develop a research question. Then, we were able to talk in our groups and begin formulating a question for our research project. My group had a lot of ideas, and at first it was difficult to try and come up with a project that would be both interesting and feasible given the limited amount of time we have to conduct research. However, after talking to Cassie we were able to form our question and have a general idea about what methods we’ll be using. Our group is studying social development, and our project will investigate how children’s exposure to people other than their parents affects how often they look for parental reassurances in a new social situation. I’m really excited about our project and am glad that our group was able to decide on a question and research plan.

We began the afternoon with a video on the baby’s brain and it’s ability to rapidly develop. As we watched the video, Cassie periodically stopped to ask us questions. The big question that we centered our discussion on was defining instinct and defining thinking. This proved very difficult and intriguing, and I suggest Instinct vs. Thinking as a topic of table conversation for anyone looking in depth dinner discussions. After the video, we worked in our groups to begin planning the methods of our research project. Our group has a suitable general sense of how we will conduct our experiment, but we need to fine-tune the details and begin working on our Introduction and Lit Review.

Mansueto is fabulous

After class, I spent the afternoon working on homework with Shrija and Grace in the Mansueto Libary. I love the quiet environment there, as well as the natural lighting; both are conducive to productive studying. It’s an adjustment to go from a month without schoolwork to the workload of our fast paced class. Luckily, I genuinely find the information and work we are doing in class fascinating.

Coffe milkshake: yum!

In the evening, there was a trip to the Medici, so I went and got one of their noteworthy milkshakes. We also had an unexpected minor microwave fire in our dorm, so we had to evacuate briefly. The rest of the evening I spent studying and getting ready for class tomorrow.