Post #10

Post #10

Dates: 7/9/15 – 7/10/15

Activities: finished up faculty page and minor page

Technical Information: used WordPress to finish up the faculty page and the minor page

Reflection: On the last day, I came in and worked with Dr. Franssen to finish up the faculty and minor page. I showed her how to work the blog platform in case she wanted to edit or change something. Before I left, I got to see the poster that Ri’Shawn and Dr. Franssen were working on.

Working at Longwood was really fun. Everyone was easy to work with and I really enjoyed my time here. I learned a lot and helped in more ways than I originally was going to.

Post #9

Post #9

Dates: 7/6/15 – 7/8/15

Activities: requesting articles, faculty page

Technical Information: using the Longwood library to request articles, used the WordPress platform to continue the faculty page.

Reflection: Most of my time was spent requesting the left over articles. I had to fill in all the information about the articles prior to requesting it. After I finished requesting all of the articles, I continued to work on the faculty page. I edited and published the members page of the students she’s been working with and added a page for her research.

The main problem I had during the internship was the PDF search. Most of the time I was irritated that I couldn't find an article in the PDF form. Many sites offered the PDF but you either had to be subscribed to the site or you had to pay for it, which was incredibly irritating.

Post #8

Post #8

Dates: 7/3/15 – 7/5/15

Activities: finishing up pdf search

Technical Information: used Google Scholar to search for PDFs

Reflection: The PDF search was winding down to a stopping point when I could no longer find anymore PDFs. Out of the one hundred links I found around 78 PDFs. That left 22 articles to be requested. I created a list of what articles needed requesting so I could go ahead and do that through an interlibrary loan.

While doing this internship I learned that I enjoy the hands on experimenting. Doing the pipetting was very fun and I learned a lot. I found an interest in biopsychology and now I might want to take some classes in that.

Post #7

Post #7

Dates: 6/30/15 – 7/2/15

Activities: data input

Technical Information: used Excel to input data

Reflection: The Alpha Amylase was finally finished being analyzed and was ready to be input into Excel. Ri’Shawn and I had the fun task of being the ones to input the data. It was a lot easier than the first time because we only had the data for one stress hormone instead of two. The rechecking was still the worst part but instead of just reading it out we divided it up and just looked over it ourselves.

This internship made me more interested in psychology and their field of biopsychology which is what Dr. Franssen teaches and is experienced in. I've been very interested in psychology for a while now and this experience made me excited to see what kinds of experiments I’d be doing when I'm in college.

Post #6

Post #6

Dates: 6/26/15 -6/29/15

Activities: pdf search

Technical Information: used Google Scholar to find pdfs

Reflection: I continued my search for the PDF files from the list I was given. Using Google Scholar made everything quicker and easier. I found more PDFs this way than searching for them using the regular Google search and the Longwood library page. I was about halfway done with the list, though there were a lot that I couldn't find PDFs of and had to be requested through the Longwood library.

At first I was only going to be doing data input but when I first met Dr. Franssen and she learned I knew a lot about webpage design, she had be create a faculty page. Originally I was going to create it from scratch but she wanted to make it easier for her to edit and decided to use the Longwood blog platform. Later on I got the project of the minor page and the PDF search.

Post #5

Post #5

Dates: 6/23/15 – 6/25/15

Activities: data input

Technical Information: input data into an Excel spreadsheet

Reflection: Today I started the data input process. With the help of Ri’Shawn, I used my knowledge in Excel to begin the process. It was a tedious and very boring job but it went a lot faster with the two of us. We entered the data for cortisol and dhea, which took us at least 2 hours. The worst part was checking to see if we had the correct numbers by repeating the whole process over again.

I think my main contribution to this internship is getting done little project that would take a long time to get done if I wasn’t here. For example, the PDF search probably would've taken a long time to finish if I wasn’t here to work on it for 3 or 4 hours a day. There are about one hundred links that I need to find 

Post #4

Post #4

Dates: 6/18/15 – 6/22/15

Activities: link/pdf search

Technical Information: used google to find pdfs to a long list of links

Reflection: I was given a long list of cited articles (6 pages worth) on the different stress hormones (cortisol, dhea, and alpha amylase) to find the original PDF articles. I tried using the Longwood library search but nothing came up. I ended up copying and pasting the citied article into the Google search bar to try and find a PDF file. I scheduled an appointment with one of the Longwood librarians to help me learn how to use the library search. After entering multiple articles and not finding anything, the librarian suggesting I use Google Scholar which helped a lot.

The internship is meeting my expectations. I thought I'd be doing a lot of technological stuff and also some research. I have a little control over what I’m doing in the sense of what I need for the website and how much time I'll need on the PDF search.

Post #3

Post #3

Dates: 6/15/15 – 6/17/15

Activities: faculty page, minor page, pipetting.

Technical Information: used WordPress for the faculty and minor page.

Reflection: After returning from North Carolina, I continued to work on the faculty and minor pages. I added a members page and edited the publications page for the faculty website. On the minor page, I chose a new theme to work with and added the bulk of the information. I helped Dr. Franssen with more of the pipetting that was done in the lab that day.

Most of the technological aspects I've learned in AOIT and other classes have prepared me for this internship. The team building/group work has probably helped me the most because I have to work with others during the duration of the internship.

Post #2

Post #2

Dates: 6/13/15 – 6/14/15

Activities: faculty page design, minor page design.

Technical Information: used WordPress to work on the faculty page and being the new minor page.

Reflection: For the weekend I went back home to North Carolina and continued my work there. I began to make a lot of progress on the faculty page. I did a lot of research finding Dr. Franssen’s publications and links for things on the scientific outreach page. I got started on the page for a new minor in NeuroStudies but didn’t get very far because I didn’t have all the information I needed yet.

Working at Longwood is really fun. My grandmother started the psychology department with a couple of other people who I met while working here. Everyone is very nice and easy to work with so it’s definitely a more cooperative environment. I've been working as a team with Dr. Franssen and Ri’Shawn so everything is a group effort. Since it’s a university, the dress code is pretty lax though I still tend to dress business casual. 

Post #1

Post #1

Dates: 6/10/15 – 6/12/15

Activities: faculty page design, pipetting.

Technical Information: used WordPress to start on the faculty page.

Reflection: I arrived at Longwood University and met Dr. Franssen, her husband, and the two other research students that were working on the project with them. Most of my time here will be spent doing little projects that Dr. Franssen doesn’t really have time for. If I wasn’t doing this internship, she probably wouldn't have gotten a faculty page done easily and quickly. This internship will be a good experience for me if I want to continue to pursue a career in psychology.

For the majority of the week, I started on the faculty page for Dr. Franssen using the Longwood blog platform with WordPress. It was difficult to use at first since this was my first time using it. The first few days was mainly just me playing around with the different widgets and planning the outline for the website. Near the end of the week, I was given the opportunity to learn how to pipette. Pipetting is using a tool called a pipette to transport a specifically measured volume of liquid to another area. At first I was nervous, thinking I’d mess it up but after a few tries I started to like it. It was fun to do and an easy way to move a certain amount of liquid from one place to another.

Dr. Franssen is a psychology professor who is running a research experiment on stress. She has collected spit samples from her students before exams and then another time during exams. She is examining these samples for different stress hormones: cortisol, dhea (dehydroepiandrosterone), and alpha amylase. I’ll be working mainly with Dr. Franssen and her research student, Ri’Shawn and I will be helping input the data and create the patient profiles sheet. I will also be creating a faculty page for Dr. Franssen and another page for a new minor she is creating.