Maya Lukoff
“The Theory of Everything?” is a paper I wrote during my senior year on string theory. I wanted to conduct my research project on string theory because it could be the framework for figuring out “every fundamental feature upon which the universe is constructed” ( The Elegant Universe ) and because it is a topic I initially knew little about.
Because I self selected the topic I was extremely motivated and jazzed about getting started. As soon as the paper was assigned I rented The Elegant Universe on DVD to give me a background to such a complex theory. Because of the complexity of string theory, I had to understand the background of how the theory initially came about and what exactly it was trying to address. I also had to research topics such as quantum physics to understand how string theory unifies quantum physics with Einstein’s theory of general relativity.
I am proud of this paper for numerous reasons. There was so much research that went into this behind the scenes because I wanted to make sure that I understood absolutely everything my paper touched on. Furthermore, the writing is elegant and to the point as science papers should be.
My justification for adding “Color and Emotion” is not that it demonstrates original ideas, but rather because of the hard work and research skill that went into it. Of all the science topics I have learned over the years, biology and particularly the study our own anatomy has proved to be my favorite subject within the realm of science.
Because of my interest in Psychology, learning about the functions of our brain in relationship to emotion was fascinating. So much so that it led my group partner and I to conduct a research project, with a survey on people’s perception of color and how colors affect mood. In particular we looked at the way in which teenagers perceive color and how it is not only based on personal likes and dislikes, but also affected by gender. In order to collect data from students, we had to look up similar studies to get ideas of how to conduct an original experiment.
Our hypothesis was that girls would have more of a reaction to the colors than boys, and thus would rate colors more towards the high end of the scale than boys. We also thought that both boys and girls would rate cold colors, such as blue, as sadder, calmer, and colder, whereas warm colors, such as red, will be rated happier, tenser, and warmer.
We decided, after much deliberation, to show students slides of somewhat neutral images such as a triangle, circle, baby, bike and flower, once on a blue background and once on a red background.
The hard part of the project was agreeing on a scale to use that would be appropriate for rating emotions. In order to resolve our differing suggestions, we decided to test two types of scales on a group of 10 students to see which proved more effective. Thus, we used science to solve our problem resourcefully. Our ability to rationally solve a disagreement is something we both reflected on when the project was done. Even though we each wanted to use our own type of scale for measuring emotion we didn’t let it get in the way of our project, and by stepping back and reflecting on the different methods, we were able to move forward in a productive manner. This is just one example of how I personally have developed as a group member and learned the importance of both compromising and reflecting.
My leadership skills at MSAT have allowed me to feel confident enough to take on a coaching position for an under 12 girls soccer team during my senior year. While coaching, I often implemented the method of having the girls step back and reflect when conflicts arose, the same approach I had first used when working on this science experiment. This method was so successful that at the end of the season not only were the girls practicing this method of conflict resolution without me having to step in, I actually had a teacher of a few of the girls contact me and tell me that the girls had introduced this method into the classroom and it was so working “magic.”
After conducting the small experiment to find out the most effective scale, we agreed that the Semantic Differential scale would be the right fit for our experiment. Our version set the words: Happy-Sad, Warm-Cold, and Calm-Tense at the ends of the s-point scale.
The paper I included for this experiment is a write up of the actual report I submitted with an example of the scale, as well as the background research I reviewed. The paper demonstrates my ability to form hypotheses, conduct studies and surveys, and analyze data.
My interest in politics, particularly international relations concerning global epidemics such as AIDS, and global warming showed me the interconnectedness of subjects. Learning about the scientific aspects of the HIV virus and how it takes over the blood cells helped me when writing up legislation for a Junior Statesmen of America convention to have scientific knowledge to back my position the political impact. Knowing the effects on our ozone of carbon emission allowed me to understand global warming at a whole new level. Now, when I research the Kyoto treaty and other policies concerning global warming and alternative energy, I have the scientific perspective to help me decide what method is most effective.
Posted by Justin Wells : 04/30/2008