This week at PAST was the first week of off-site programs! Typically, all of our camps take place at the PAST Foundation’s Innovation Lab.  However, for camps involving nature and sports (Pickleball) we utilize the lawn at CAS (Chemical Abstract Service). They have a nice pavilion, pickleball courts, and a pond with a trail! On Monday, I took one of my teammates over to CAS to show her where to go to administer the surveys. Giving surveys here is a bit different than at PAST.  This is because the lawn is a bit touch-and-go with internet access.  For our 3rd-8th graders we utilize online survey instruments for more efficient data collection.  However, since there is a lack of internet, we had to create a paper version of the survey in which the students took by hand.  It usually takes a bit longer, but we don’t mind so much.   It’s cool to be a sort of veteran of the other research interns.  I am able to teach them a few things that I learned last year. 

Later in the week we began working on data analysis for other programming PAST does throughout the school year.  This was quite difficult as I had to figure out how to utilize a new software.  There was a lot of trial and error when using it, but I was able to figure it out! Also, this week I learned what a Wilcoxon signed rank test was for data analysis.  It’s a statistical analysis test used to compare related sets of data! It’s perfect for likert scale data (which we often utilize in our surveys we create). I had never heard of this test before, so a bit of time was spent learning about how to interpret the results.  It’s super cool to still be learning new things as a research intern in the 2nd summer at the PAST Foundation.