As we approach the end of the summer camps here at The PAST Foundation, there are quite a few things the research team needs to check off the list! The first thing is finishing up surveys.  Next week is the last week of summer camps, so we will have our last round of survey administration.  This week is the last of our elementary students, so next week I begin analysis on their data. We have well over 100 student surveys to analyze, so I’m quite excited to see how the summer camps have impacted the students!

Another task we have is conducting “interviews.” I put it in quotes because it is more like a feedback session.  We will ask questions to the instructors, support staff, and hopefully parents that have participated in the summer programs.This was an activity I did not have the chance to be a part of last summer, so I’m quite excited to do something completely new to me.  This Tuesday, we spent time preparing for these sessions.  My team modified questions we want to ask each of the participant groups.  A lot of the time we agreed when one was oddly worded or did not fit in the flow of questions.  When we didn’t, we heard each other out and that always resolved the disconnect in our thought processes.  After that, we went through a training session about how to actually conduct the Interview. We will have a facilitator (that does the actual asking) and a note taker (that records the responses). I am to be a note taker! Thursday, we will do a practice session with just the research team, a sort of mock interview.  Where we each will have practice doing all of the parts of the interview.  I believe this will be very insightful since it is new to each of us.  

The last couple things we have this summer is compiling both the interviews and data analysis for the rest of the summer into one big report.  This is the task that seems to be the most daunting.  There are a lot of moving parts within this task, but I know I will have my team to lean on and they can lean on me.  This is pretty much what we have all been working toward this entire summer, so it’ll be a nice conclusion to the summer.  

Lots of things to do these next couple weeks, but I am looking forward to it all!

See you next week,

Danyelle Bumpus