UO Week of Research

Bianca Benitez Incorporating Qualitative Data Into Parent Intervention Clinical Research
Introduction
Qualitative data and methodology must continue to be incorporated into clinical research in order to create equal evaluations of caregiving in parent intervention. This is significant because it affects the validity of the data gathered from parent intervention in clinical research. This review will highlight why these methods work and why they are needed, by analyzing various pieces of literature that have created a qualitative approach for Spanish speaking families when a measure is created with an English speaking family.
Methods
All articles have been selected because they have incorporated qualitative methods in their studies involving English and Spanish speaking families, and have shared the pros and cons of doing so. The articles selected will be compared to one another, based on their approaches of incorporating qualitative methods in their studies. The way their approaches affect Spanish speaking families versus English speaking families will also be compared. Whichever kinds of qualitative methods were most effective according to the studies, based on the ability to provide the strongest validity in evaluation, will be left.
Conclusion
Based on the comparisons made, the most effective study and their approach will be named. The significance of incorporating qualitative methods in parent intervention with English and Spanish speaking families reflects in the data.


Desiree Casanova Finding a Correlation Between Adolescent Drug Abuse and Adult Memory Recall Deficits
Many studies have been done involving the long term effects that drug abuse has on memory recall, but it is still not well understood how and if the brain heals from prolonged usage during critical developmental periods. If we can understand some of these long term consequences better, we can develop early intervention systems and make young people aware that the consequences of drug use may last for many years even after the drug use has ended. First, we need to explore the relationship between adolescent drug use and the decay of memory recall as a sober adult. In this study, participants are going to be asked about their perception of their memory recall skills, followed by their drug use history that occurred (or did not occur) in adolescents. After data collection is completed we will be able to correlate a composite measure of drug use with a composite measure of subjective memory ability and also compare these correlates to different demographic populations. It is hypothesized that those with more drug exposure in their teenage years will perceive their memory recall skills to be worse than those who hadn’t. The data from this study can be used in future research as a starting place to further investigate long term cognitive deficits after drug exposure in adolescents.

Skyler Cservak, Mollie Markey, Brianna Burrell-Lewis and Sierra Raines, Restoring Connections: Reconnecting Young Minds to Place in a Virtual Setting
Children today are more plugged into technological devices and less connected to the natural world than ever before which rings even more true in the midst of a pandemic. The Restoring Connections Project, in collaboration with Mount Pisgah Arboretum, Adams Elementary, and the University of Oregon’s Environmental Leadership Program, aims to help elementary students form personal bonds to natural places by introducing children to local nature elements. Utilizing the standards set by the North American Association for Environmental Education, our team created 15, 30-minute lessons filled with story-telling and participatory activities. Over the course of five weeks, we have joined 14 hybrid and remote classrooms visiting once a week, varying from 8-25 kindergarteners, first, and second graders. Students have developed scientific literacy, greater ecological awareness, and personal investment in our community’s conservation efforts by the end of the lesson. Throughout the last five years, Restoring Connections has found that integrating a transdisciplinary, place-based, and equitable learning environment into the classroom nurtured lasting connections with local nature, fostered stewardship, and redefined the wonders of nature for students. In an era where technology is prevalent, restoring students' connection to the land through environmental education encourages them to become stewards and create strong and beneficial relationships with their local environment.


Cat Luna Pick Me Up - A Study on Time Management in Nontraditional Students with Children During COVID-19 
The purpose of this research is to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted University of Oregon undergraduate students' time management behavior and examine the differences in time management behaviors between these student populations. Participants completed the Time Management Behaviors Scale as well as basic demographic questions to determine if they were traditional, nontraditional, or a student with children. We expect to see significant differences between these student populations and their time management behaviors during Covid-19, specifically on the subscale measuring the ability to prioritize and set goals. We also expect to find significant differences between student populations on another subscale of the Time Management Behaviors Scale measuring the mechanics of time management. The results that we expect to find suggest that students who manage multiple responsibilities and life-roles while attending college have increased abilities in undertaking additional time management responsibilities outside of their role as a student. In addition, these expected results could also indicate that nontraditional students and students with children are better at recognizing and establishing goals as well as putting mechanisms into place to better accomplish goals such as creating to-do lists or making and maintaining schedules. This study contributes to the literature, offering insight into the overall academic experience of nontraditional undergraduate students.