I took HONR 401 and HONR 499 in my second year at MNSU, Mankato as part of the 2020-2021 Emerging Researchers Learning Community. In these classes, we were assigned a research team to work with for the year. We completed various assignments within our team throughout the year which forced us to thoroughly follow a very specific and credible research process. During the height of COVID-19, my team’s research was on “Mask Usage Behaviors Amongst the MNSU, Mankato Community.” We gathered and analyzed data from students using Qualtrics during HONR 499 but completed an extensive process in HONR 401 before deciding on our research idea.

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HONR 401 in the fall of 2020 satisfies Information Synthesis 1-4.

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First, the team agreed that we wanted to do a research project related to the current COVID-19 pandemic. We started by gathering credible, peer reviewed articles related to pandemic and sickness response. My research team found about eight strong articles that would eventually lead us to our research question. We were able to organize our sources into groups such as cultural, like how other cultures respond to sickness, and scientific, like which masks to use in certain settings. Our next step was to create an annotated bibliography of our sources. By dividing the articles into groups and summarizing each one, we were able to clearly see previous research and potential topics for further investigation. Furthermore, we completed a literature review of the articles. This allowed us to analyze differing viewpoints on sickness response between cultures and allowed us to look at current and missing knowledge regarding our topic.

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Drawing upon these first two assignments, we decided we wanted to research which mask proved most effective. We later reevaluated our research question to something that was more feasible for us to complete given our backgrounds. Our second and final research thesis would look at the mask usage behaviors of students on our campus. This idea came almost directly from our literature review on articles regarding cultural differences in mask behaviors. For this reason, we asked for demographic information in our survey to see if behaviors varied by cultural identity, race, or other factors. The project emphasized how short the experimental phase of research can be compared to other phases of the research process. My team took a long time to find our research question and analyze the survey data afterward. By using a survey, the data collection portion of the research process consumed very little of our time, which was contrary to my preconceptions of research.

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In the future, I will use what I learned about the research process as it is comparable to the engineering design process. In engineering, the preliminary designs and background information, such as soil borings and well tests, can be even more time consuming than construction. Just as in research, engineers must spend the time to do the beginning steps correctly so that the best alternative is chosen, and construction goes as smoothly as possible.