Abstract
Reports pose a constant threat to the brain capacities of subjects of the Summer Science Program. The groans of MOE failure, constant keyboard typing, desperate scribble marks on the whiteboards resembling the format “goofy ahh ___”, and desires to explore the outside world in spite of unfinished reports are present throughout the entire subject area. However, failure to obtain a sufficient amount of sleep as well as a desire to socialize with other members restrict the participants’ abilities to continue to write their reports in a sane manner. This study explores the brain processes of various subjects in their most intense day of writing in the entire program.
Introduction
The Summer Science Program is a scientific program designed to give research opportunities for high school students who push themselves to learn and experience what true research is like. In the case of participants who are in Biochemistry, they then write reports of their experiments at the end of the program, learning how to write scientific reports in addition to earning wet lab experience for a total of around 5 weeks. It is well known that the average number of hours of sleep these participants get on average is not high compared to the average number of hours of sleep, but these reports pose a significant threat to that of the participants near the end of the program. Sleep is necessary for the daily bodily function of the participants. However, it is estimated that the average participant has a negative correlation in terms of hours of sleep and hours of report writing. Thus, an increase in hours of report writing meant a decrease in sleep, which led to some detrimental effects in the participants’ sanity. I studied this phenomenon due to the necessity of having to write a blog for the Summer Science Program on the day of July 24th, 2022, and will detail the following results. The goal of this project is to detail the average participants’ daily activity and function, and describe the effect that reports have on the participants of the Summer Science Program.
Results
All participants were given the same dietary fulfillments of the day, which was Chinese food (Fig. 1). This was done in order to prevent the further descent into insanity caused by their reported daily dose of Wiley dining hall food and weekly doses of sandwiches from the Purdue Food Company, while still maintaining that every participant had the same type of food given. This resulted in an interesting change of pace for the participants, despite some of them getting up late in order to compensate for the late night that had occurred the day prior.
Many participants continued working on their reports for the remainder of the day, which resulted in increased stress levels and desire to socialize with other participants at their working sites. Despite socializing increasing the time required for writing reports and consequently, decreasing the amount of potential sleep for the participants, they continue to attempt to socialize despite knowing the consequences of their actions (Fig. 2).
In addition to socializing, other aspects of entertainment were seen, which were referred to as “mental health breaks” by the participants in order to cope with their decision to increase entertainment as a replacement for hours of sleep. This included horrific games of unnecessarily stressful Tetris, as well as Other members decided to instead go out of their working environment to “get a breath of fresh air” in order to “clear their minds”. This included going on what the participants referred to as “Target runs” and “Boba runs”. Although these activities shown by the participants did increase report writing time, the average amount of stress present did significantly decrease (Fig. 3).
Although most of the day showed the expected pattern of attempts in decreasing levels of stress, there were times when that was not the case. For example, a participant was seen dropping their boba cup in their working space, causing an extreme amount of stress increase in a short period of time (Fig. 4). As shown, there was an intense conundrum and all the surrounding participants found it amusing, but the participants responsible were seen fleeing the scene. They soon returned to clean up their mess, and the floor is now spotless clean. Other examples of insanity are seen, ranging from random selfies to unfaithful signs written by the participants.
It is safe to assume that these participants are not in their right mind, and need sleep as a treatment. We are hoping to get this treatment out in 2 days.
Discussion
However, despite all that is going on at the moment, the participants have nothing but to say that SSP was one of the most amazing experiences so far in their lives (at least the one writing this does). I have learned so much from just 6 weeks, and despite all the struggles of writing the report and working in the lab, there is no doubt that SSP has changed my life both as a person and as a scientist. I don’t know what will happen to me on the last day, but there will definitely be tears in some form when I leave the life I have created at Purdue University. I truly believe that this experience will prove to be helpful in terms of future research and pursuing scientific studies in any further education this participant might take. Coming this far, I believe that the person on the first Sunday, walking into Honors College is so different from the person, on this Sunday, working on their blog instead of on writing their lab report . I will miss you guys all, and though it’s not over yet, thanks so much, especially to all the faculty and my lab group (Ya and Rut)! <3
Experimental procedures
Photos:
Taken using a camera on a phone – additional contributors: Daniel, Maya, and Natalie 🙂
Ok I can’t think of anything else to put here, I got tired and have to write my actual report 🙁
References
Hi guys, my name is Joseph and I’m a rising senior at Troy High School in Fullerton, California. Some of my hobbies include playing the cello and playing video games such as Tetris and Valorant. I also listen to a lot of music (mostly jazz, classical, and kpop) and being a part of the front ensemble in my marching band. Oh, and I also like science (I almost forgot about that one lol).
