BYU NewsNet - Students show off mentored research

On Tuesday, students in the McKay School of Education showed off their research in the annual Mentored Research Conference.

The conference held every year gives students a chance to show the public their finished or continuing projects.

“It is an opportunity for students to show others what research is all about,” said Shauna Valentine, an adviser over the conference.

Valentine said one of the main benefits is that students not only learn to research something, they also learn to present.

When students present their research, it clarifies it in their heads because they have to know it well enough to explain it to someone else, she said.

“The research also helps people realize all the different areas of research in education,” Valentine said. “Education is not just about teaching.”

The topics chosen by students vary greatly from subjects such as literature and learning to bullying children on the Internet.

Leah Gunter, a senior studying psychology, from Arimo, Idaho, presented a project that she had just begun to work on.

“It is an amazing opportunity for students who want to learn how to research,” Gunter said.

She is working on a project that is studying suicide rates in Japan and how they compare to America and the rest of the world.

“It is great to have a mentor who knows what they are doing to help me with my research,” she said.

Aubrie Amelang and Susan Pulsipher, graduate students studying educational leadership, presented a project in which they are using a data analysis system to analyze the teaching program.

Pulsipher, from South Jordan, said the system they are creating is to track students and find out which variables are connected with performance in the major.

“Mentored research is much better than doing it on your own,” Pulsipher said.

Amelaneg, from Burley, Idaho, said it was nice to have the expertise of other people to guide you through the process.

Some of the projects presented will go on to the state and national conferences.

“It is such a wonderful way to spend your time here,” Valentine said. “Every year the conference gets better and better.”