Introduction

        My research topic on Ski goggles and reaction time is struggling a little. The main goal of this study is to collect as many people as I can for the project and accurately assess how people's reaction times change as ski goggle lenses change. In turn, this will help me know if ski goggles play a large role in skier safety or not. To do this, I am giving people a drop stick test 4 times, once with 3 different ski goggle lenses, and once with no goggles on at all, and making sure to write down the current weather conditions. They first sign a consent form, and then I use a reandom generator, and they wear all the lenses, no matter the weather, and then wear no goggles, but all in a random order in order to avaid particpents learning how to cathc the sticks and avoiding skewed data in that way. the peocess overall takes about 5 minutes, and is about as streamlined as I can get it.

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Progress

        I have collected some data. The first day I went out, I collected 2 people, which I saw as a milestone, as I had no idea how it would go, and if anyone at all would want to do it. The next big milestone I need to hit is 15, where I should be right now already. What's going well in my research project so far is that I know plenty of people who are willing to participate in my study, and believe that if I were bolder, I could collect more data, but I need to do my best to get it done.

 

Challenges

        My biggest roadblock for sure is having trouble finding people to do the study. The first day, I collected 2 people, the next weekend 2 more, and last weekend, none. I am in a constant battle with many factors, such as wind, snow, temperature, etc. Because the drop sticks are so cheap, the magnets are weak, and with little wind, the sticks blow away before the test even starts. There are a lot of adverse conditions, and the fact that the study has to be outside is becoming more of a drag than I thought it would. Overall, my boldness and the weather need to turn around to solve this issue.

 

Highlights

        Overall, my data is about what I expected it to be so far. It has been interesting how much ski goggles seem to affect people so far. A lot of my participants so far have said, "I have to wear that?" when I show them the lens that would be suboptimal for the condition, and that just goes to show how much it truly affects people while skiing. Overall,l my findings on tests during night have been the most interesting as those who wore the 10% VLT lens at night could hardly see the sticks at all, making for interesting research. I overall am very glad to see the overall trends in my data following my hypothosis and what I thoiught would happe, but im excited to get back out there and test in truly sunny weather, as thats a condition I have not tried yet, just because the weather has npot let up for that yet. 

 

Conclusion

        Overall, so far, I have learned a lot about not only my topic but what it means to be a researcher overall. It is hard; there are often unanticipated roadblocks that you have to work through, and coming through on the other side leads to a lot of growth in yourself as a researcher. I have learned how to overcome many issues with my research so far, and I'm hoping to solve my biggest one soon, getting people to participate that is. On my topic, I have learned so far that ski goggles may actually have a large effect on people's reaction time, and I'm really interested to test more and see broader trends.