I'm going nucking futz. I'm panicing really really bad. I have to have my initial draft of my methods for my research project handed in by Tuesday morning. That means I have to choose a subject, and plan the whole damn thing out by then. Then I have to get it all perfected and set up by the beginning of March, when I'm required to start it.
So, apperantly I'm supposed to do my two HUGEST projects of my college career over the month of March on top of performing in the musical and all my other classes.
How the frell am I supposed to do that?
I figured that I'd be able to split up my semester and tackle these projects at different points. I figured that for February, I'd memorize my one-man show and work with Murch-Shafer on developing a project. March would be me practicing my butt of for my show, and wrapping up details on my project. April would be me performing my show in the first weekend or so, then running my research project, and then May would be me analyzing data and putting together a paper and presentation for my project. Then, I would be done.
But no, I have to do both at the same time. While I may be able to analyze data and do the paper/presentation later, I still have to do my research in March. Which doesn't make any sense to me what-so-ever. Why am I being so rushed to do this? It doesn't seem fair.
So, I'm frantically trying to rack my brain for possible project ideas. Dr. Murch-Shafer suggested doing something involving lab work-type stuff, because that's the kind of stuff I'll actually be doing with my bio major out in the real world. But I honestly have no idea what I would/could do that I could accomplish in a relatively short amount of time.
Using the Biopac machine is the only route I can think of that will allow me to do my experiment in any reasonable amount of time. But the question is: what do I do with it? Basically, it lets be hook up electrodes to people and measure various electrical activity emanating from them.
Idea #1: have subjects play a variety of videogames and determine IF and to what extent hand-eye coordination is improved. It's definitely the more extensive and scientific of my two ideas. It also requires me to test people multiple times, thus it would run longer. My main problem with this idea is that I have no idea how/if I can directly measure hand-eye coordination. I've been searching scientific journal databases all night and can't find a damn thing on it.
Idea #2: expose subjects to a variety of media designed to induce fear (i.e. scary movies, horror novels, scary noises, horror videogames, etc.) to determine what the body's physiological response to fear is, and which medium produces the strongest effects. Sounds good, and sounds do-able. I e-mailed Dr. Murhc-Shafer about it earlier this evening. Now that I think about it, however, it might not be so easy. First of all, I would have to be monitoring a variety of different responses, including heart rate, respiration rate, skin temp., muscle tension, and maybe more as possible bodily reactions. I'm doubting that the biopac machine can monitor all those different things at once. So I cut down on responses required, right? Well, then there's problem #2: I'm required to do all my testing while there is a professor in the building to supervise. That means that most of my research would have to take place during the day, and, well, daytime doesn't particularly lend itself to horror movies. I'd be surprised if I could get anywhere near the responses I'd need because the subjects would be sitting in a sunlit room. oooooh, spooky . . . Then there's the problem of having each subject sit through all the media. I mean, can I really have 20+ people all sit through 2-3 movies, read a book, listen to a CD of spooky sounds, and play one or two video games? That's a HELL of a long time.
Ugh, so many frustrations. I hate seeing all the holes in my ideas. I'm also WAAAAAAAY behind in memorizing my one-man show. I don't forsee myself catching up any time soon when I have to deal with all this research dren either.
