Course Description

This is Mate 897 - Research.
My interpretation of it being a research methods course is that it's a self-directed research methods course in the sense that everybody taking it builds knowledge in research methods relevant to their project, as I described in my other piece of evidence.
I took it the Winter term of 2019-2020 AY, with a final grade of A.
My professor was Dr. Steve May, MSE Dept head acting as a proxy for Dr Michele Marcolongo who is no longer at Drexel.

Senior Thesis I (PHYS 491) is the first in the three-quarter sequence devoted to theoretical or experimental activities in a specific area of physics or atmospheric science to be chosen in consultation with a faculty adviser. The course requires students to learn to identify interesting problems, develop a plan of attack, and carry the project to completion. Requires written and oral report at the end of the third term. Senior Thesis II (PHYS 492) is the second in the three-quarter sequence devoted to theoretical or experimental activities in a specific area of physics or atmospheric science to be chosen in consultation with a faculty adviser. The course requires students to learn to identify interesting problems, develop a plan of attack, and carry the project to completion. Requires written and oral report at the end of the third term. Senior Thesis III (PHYS 493) is the third in the three-quarter sequence devoted to theoretical or experimental activities in a specific area of physics or atmospheric science to be chosen in consultation with a faculty adviser. The course requires students to learn to identify interesting problems, develop a plan of attack, and carry the project to completion. Requires written and oral report at the end of the third term.

PSY 265 - Computer-Assisted Data Analysis II: Covers more advanced statistical techniques, such as regression, correlation, analysis of variance, and multiple regression.

Covers data analysis using a mainframe statistical package covering basic elementary techniques of data reduction, manipulation, and statistical analysis.

(Written by K. Underman)

          Merlin and I currently meet once a week for one hour. My plan is for us to continue weekly meetings of approximately one  to one and a half hours, with frequent email check-ins in between. Merlin keeps a work journal for me as part of the work she started during her fellowship. Before we meet, she writes a memo and a detailed list of tasks that she worked on and any questions or issues she has. Merlin and I are co-authoring an article for Medical Education. (Or at least, that journal is first on our list.) This is based on the data she collected for the fellowship. I will be first author on this and she will be second. I have outlined the paper and developed a 'syllabus' of articles on the topic for her to read each week of the independent study. These are all sociology of medical education articles to teach her about the field. She's also working on a literature review of the medical education literature on our topic (standardized patients) to be used in the paper.  I haven't fully finalized the syllabus yet, but I intend for her to read three to four articles a week in addition to the literature review and paper writing work. She'll also be reading about methods. Merlin will be helping to write a substantial portion of the paper. My plan is to break the independent study up by four for each section of the paper (Intro, Methods, Findings, Conclusion). For two weeks each section, Merlin will write based on my outline, will send it to me, I will edit, I will send it back, etc. She knows that co-authorship is a lot of work and is excited to do it. (And seems very capable.) The goal is to have a paper ready to submit by the end of the summer.

This unique three-and-a-half week field course pairs U.S. students with Cameroonian and Equatoguinean students in field-based research projects. The course is team-taught, and includes lectures and field instruction by professors from Drexel, UCLA, the University of Hong Kong, University of Halle Wittenberg (Germany), University of Buea (Cameroon), the Higher Institute of Environmental Sciences (Cameroon) and the National University of Equatorial Guinea. Lectures take place in Yaounde, the capitol of Cameroon. Students carry out field research projects at Mbam and Djerem National Park and Ebo Forest; both have excellent opportunities for viewing some of Africa’s most iconic wildlife, particularly forest elephants, chimpanzees and gorillas.

https://drexel.edu/coas/academics/departments-centers/bees/global-opportunities/