Education and Human Sciences

The Learning and Development Research (LADR) Group, directed by Dr. Jenna Finch, is now recruiting undergraduate research assistants (RAs) to join the lab!

 The LADR Group is currently studying how children’s school environments support the development of their self-regulation skills. We are looking for students to start immediately in preparation for an exciting study beginning in January. RAs will have the opportunity to gain hands on experience conducting classroom observations in preschools during the Spring semester.

Interested students can come to volunteer in the lab first and then will get help to apply for UCARE support. 10 hours/per week during fall semester and 20 hours/per week during summer semester.

Children's self-regulation of their attention and behaviors are important predictors of their academic and social success. This project seeks to understand what aspects of children's classroom environments support the development of their self-regulation skills.

Students will get to learn about Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNRIs) and how we can use fNRIs to help predict the outcomes of Cochlear implant that is device used by individuals with profound hearing loss.

This research project is part of an education abroad, global research experience based in Ethiopia and Zambia. This food security, health, and nutrition project is focused on studying the availability, accessibility, use-ability, and sustainability of foods, the impact of micro and macro-nutrient deficiency on health, and on diseases that prevent the use-ability of food.

An undergraduate in my research group will participate in investigating students' understanding of light and matter interactions. This will involve conducting qualitative interviews with students and transcribing and analyzing those interviews.

An undergraduate researcher in my group will be designing writing tasks to elicit scientific argumentation from chemistry students. This will involve reading primary literature, designing tasks, administering the prompts to students, collecting and analyzing students.

This project uses systems thinking and interdisciplinary integration approaches to develop a novel immersive educational simulation game and associated materials designed to highlight the role and importance of corn-water-ethanol-beef (CWEB) systems in supporting the ever increasing demands for food, energy, and water in the United States.

Project SPaRK is a study of what parents do to support youth who've experienced peer victimization. If you are interested in working with families, this is the study for you!

 Undergraduate research assistants will be trained to work directly with families (i.e., mom, dad, and teen), including recruitment, running interaction tasks, and conducting semi-structured interviews with both parents and youth. This is an excellent opportunity for students interested in pursuing graduate school for clinical, developmental, or school psychology or related field.

Undergraduate research assistants will be trained to complete behavioral observations of pregnant couples during a discussion task. This entails learning to code emotions, behaviors, and relationship dynamics through observation. The goal is to examine ways in which couples support one another during pregnancy and whether these strategies help to promote continued marital satisfaction and supportive parenting post-partum.

 This is an excellent opportunity for students planning to pursue graduate school in clinical, developmental, or school psychology, or a related field.