Search Results Within Category "Education"

The objective of this research is to determine the relationship between aircraft seat width and passenger comfort. Airlines are reducing the sizes of seats and improving their ability to fly planes at or near capacity. The combined effect is to decrease the quality of the experience of passengers. This work will help us to understand the degree to which comfort has been reduced.

Participants visit once, for about an hour. During that visit we will measure several body dimensions. Then the participant will evaluate a number of seating conditions for comfort and acceptability.

$20

Emerging technologies, particularly in the semiconductor industry, are advancing at an extraordinary pace in the United States, creating an urgent demand for a highly skilled workforce. In 1990, the U.S. held 37% of the global semiconductor manufacturing market; today, that share has sharply declined to just 12% (MASH, 2024). Meanwhile, most semiconductor production has moved overseas, with Taiwan alone accounting for nearly 60% of global output. This concentration of manufacturing capacity in East Asia is increasingly concerning, especially given China’s strategic goal to secure Taiwan by 2030. As such, the U.S. semiconductor supply chain has become a critical national security issue, further emphasizing the immediate need to rebuild a robust domestic manufacturing workforce. To reverse this trend, it is estimated that the U.S. will need an additional 230,000 skilled workers to double its semiconductor market share and regain competitiveness on the global stage (Lightcast, 2023). Achieving this goal requires a significant investment in education and training programs. The HI-TECH (High-Impact Technology Experiential Career Hub) program directly addresses this challenge by offering 75 recent graduates from Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs summer internships in the semiconductor industry over the next three years. These internships will provide invaluable hands-on experience, positioning participants for lucrative, high-demand careers in this vital and rapidly expanding sector. Through this initiative, HI-TECH aims to play a key role in strengthening the U.S. workforce, enhancing national security, and securing America’s future competitiveness in the global semiconductor market.

Participants will be asked to complete an online survey (15-20 minutes) about their experiences with CTE programs, employment in the semiconductor industry, and workforce readiness. Some participants may also be invited to participate in a 30-45 minute interview (conducted via Zoom) to provide further insights.

Up to 50 older adults (age 60+ years) will participate in a two-visit CRC study with blood sampling (40 ml per visit) occurring before and after a breakfast meal. Specifically, there will be four (10 ml) blood draws during each of the visits, with each blood draw timed one hour apart (T1 to T4). The two visits (short- and long-fasting) will be randomly assigned and counterbalanced for the order in which they occur and will occur at least a week apart. During the short-fasting visit, participants will arrive fasting and be given breakfast after the second blood draw (T2). During the long-fasting visit, participants will arrive fasting and be given breakfast after the fourth blood draw (T4). Aside from blood draws, and vitals obtained at the start of each visit, participants will be seated comfortably in a chair in a small room by themselves. They will be checked upon periodically to ensure they are not falling asleep, they are comfortable, etc. They will also be given a small packet of written questionnaires to complete after T1 and after T3 (i.e., after the 1st and 3rd blood draws). Each visit will be between 3.5 and 4 hours.

There will be two in-person visits both will include four blood draws.

$100 total

The purpose of this study is to examine public attitudes and willingness to pay for bird conversation activities on private forest lands.

This study aims to assess engineering design solutions for sustainable, low-cost housing which can be able to withstand extreme heat and flooding disasters. The information will be used in digital toolkits and platforms to provide recommendations to residents in this area to learn the options they can use to make their housing resilient to extreme events and how they can access the information to guide them in the creation of resilient, sustainable and affordable houses in flood and extreme heat prone areas.

The study will interview the subject matter experts for a maximum of one hour to obtain their experiential input on engineering design recommendations in Flood and extreme heat-prone areas in Florida and Pennsylvania. The interview will be on zoom

We are studying how children and adults learn second languages in the classroom. To do this, we ask children and adults to read words or sentences in English and in Spanish while we record brainwaves using noninvasive sensors. The participant wears a cap that looks like a swimmers cap with the sensors attached to it.

This study aims to learn about how university students interact with ChatGPT and how ChatGPT's support of autonomy, competence, and relatedness could either help or hinder students' ability to learn. We will interview students to understand how ChatGPT supports student learning and identify any challenges that may arise.

There will be a 60-minute interview.

$10

This is a driving simulator behavioral study. This study aims to investigate drivers' subjective feelings and driving performance in mixed traffic shared by automated vehicles and human-driven vehicles.

This study aims to investigate the effects of drivers’ driving style and automated vehicle penetration rate on drivers’ subjective feelings and driving performance in mixed traffic shared by automated vehicles and human-driven vehicles. There will be one in-person visit for the experiment. This experiment involves driving on a driving simulator and filling out several questionnaires.

$15/hour

The current study aims to investigate the development of English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' language skills over time, focusing on the interplay between the mode of production (i.e., speech versus written mode) and linguistic features related to complexity, accuracy, and fluency. To address this question, the study will collect spoken and written data from ESL learners in the U.S. at five measurement points throughout an academic year (FA23 to SP24), analyzing their production data using various complexity, accuracy, and fluency measures. The objective is to contribute to the existing body of second language (L2) development research by examining whether the interaction among time, production mode, and proficiency, as well as the varying relationships among the measures, significantly influence the observed outcomes.

Over the course of an academic year (FA23 to SP24), participants will attend five in-person visits, spaced at 7-week intervals. During each visit, they will be asked to write an essay for 20 minutes and deliver a 5-minute spoken monologue in response to prompts similar to those found in the TOEFL speaking section.

$75 ($15 per visit)

This study will involve surveying college students regarding their perceptions about how immigrants are portrayed in news media.

To provide better understanding of Chinese students' vocabulary learning Strategies and help develop better learning strategies

Complete seven sessions, which may take approximately 20-30 minutes of your time per session. Read several English short texts and identify meanings of target words. Possibly participate in a virtual interview that will be scheduled at your convenience.

We aim to study how minoritized students perceive multimodal cues in instructional materials to improve STEM teaching for their STEM identity development.

To participate in the study at Penn State, students will be accompanied with their parent or a legal guardian. During the 40-minute session, participants will be asked to complete a brief survey and take part in an interview.

$50

The purpose of this study is to create a tool that will evaluate a patients social determinants of health, which is the environment in which someone is born, works and lives. This tool could provide information to physicians that could help the patient avoid negative health outcomes.

In today’s climate of anti-Asian hate, we believe that it is important to uncover different aspects of what “being Chinese” could look like. To this end, we are looking for individuals who self-identify as ethnically Chinese, woman, and a member of the LGBTQIA+ community to participate in a one-time 90-minute online interview to learn about what they do in their regular, everyday life to try to show or tell others about who they are. As part of the study, we will ask interviewees to share some visual images (e.g., photos, drawings, etc.) that they own as a way of elaborating on the ways that they communicate their self-identity in everyday life.

The purpose of this study is to determine what golf equipment and swing characteristics best predict playing ability in a population of golfers. Golfers will hit shots with various clubs while the movement of their body, the club, and the ball are tracked.

Participants will come to the Penn State Golf Teaching and Research Center or the Penn State Golf Courses and hit golf shots using their driver, 7 iron, and putter. A golf monitor will be used to track the ball trajectory. The movements of participant's body, club, and ball will be measured in three-dimensions as they swing. Participants will receive brief feedback from a Class-A PGA Professional upon completion.

Participants will receive brief feedback from a Class-A PGA Professional upon completion.

The primary objective of this study is to examine, via online focus groups, the perceptions that are held by potentially-eligible subjects in the PSH DPP program in regard to the importance of physical exercise, particularly within the context of diet, social connectivity, and stress reduction. These perspectives will then be used to help develop, test, and refine additional motivational text messages that can be used in a text messaging intervention. Participants will receive a $25.00 gift card.

This study involves a content analysis of student newspaper political articles, as well as a survey of student journalists regarding their views about how politics are reported in student media.

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting everyone’s daily routine, our lives have changed drastically. The health of ourselves, families, friends, and communities is our biggest concern and finding a cure to this problem is still underway The purpose of this survey is to analyze how people are taking control of their health using various health applications forms.

The objectives of this study are to understand attitudes, emotional response, and behavioral intention related to receiving COVID-19 public health messaging via the Wireless Emergency Alert system.

This study includes the questionnaire related to "BRITE Synergy: Developing and Validating a Framework for Measuring Resilience in Low-Income Housing in the Post-Pandemic World" which has been previously submitted. The objective of this part of the research is examining the extent to which energy burden linked to the use of inefficient appliance within the context of a changing climate can be a good proxy for community resilience and if the ongoing building electrification drive.

Participants will be asked to complete an online survey via a link that will be accessed.

10 random participants will receive $20 gif cards.

In an increasingly global environment, both within the US and abroad, the ability to rapidly gain native-like linguistic competence is a critical asset. The ability to use an L2 in a way that is both expected and recognized by its native speakers is important both to the broad public, and to specific sectors, such as military personnel, that must develop native-like competence in a foreign language in a limited amount of time. The studies conducted under this IRB protocol will examine how learners/speakers of a second language acquire and process multi-word units (e.g., carry a business; run a store) in their second language, and how knowledge from the first language might influence the learning and processing of multi-word units in a second language.

Participants will complete a number of simple tasks on a computer in English and/or in Spanish (depending on language background).

$12/hour (behavioral sessions); $18/hour (EEG sessions); $20 bonus at completion of study when at least 3 behavioral sessions or 2 EEG sessions are required.

The purpose of this study is to better understand how human teams with non-human virtual agent team members operate and function.

If you agree to be in this study, you will be fitted to sensors that will measure your neurophysiological (i.e., brain, cardiac, and respiratory) signals while you complete group tasks in person or in virtual reality. This interaction will be recorded and coded. You will also be asked to complete several questionnaires about your demographics, behaviors, and emotions.

$40

This study is designed to better understand how people complete complicated tasks, and the best ways in which to measure their performance. If you agree to the study, you will be asked to fill out questionnaires on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; take a short interview on the same; and complete brain teasers and computerized tests of attention and learning.

There are several steps to determining whether you are a good fit for the study. If you agree to be in the study, then we will send you a link to complete online questionnaires (~10 min) on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. If you are a good fit, then we will schedule a laboratory visit in Moore Building at the University Park campus (maximum length of time = 3 hours). During that visit you will complete an interview and more questionnaires, brain teasers, and computerized tests of attention and learning. The visit will be video recorded for quality assurance.

$50

This is an exploratory study which looks at how caregivers define high-quality early education and care. Participants will fill out a questionnaire containing open-ended and closed-ended questions. It will take participants no longer than 20 minutes to complete.

This study is recruiting ONLY Medical and Nursing students. The study examines how these trainees assess pain during simulated patient interactions. Participants will watch videos of patients experiencing different levels of pain while undergoing functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity. The goal is to explore the neurological and behavioral processes involved in clinical decision-making

Participants (ONLY Medical and Nursing students) will complete pre-visit questionnaires at home, engage in simulated clinical interactions during a single fMRI session, and fill out post-visit questionnaires immediately after the MRI task. This study is designed to assess their clinical decision-making in response to pain scenarios.

55$/ hour + $150 commute from Hershey

Our first, aim is to quantify the superficial traits among the Hazara, Tajik, and Pashtun populations of Afghanistan by using a computer-based 3D morphometric method. We want to quantify the facial traits, voices and pigmentation, identify genetic regions affecting these traits, and plot phylogenetic trees to explain the probable facial variation and evidence of shared genetic basis they might exhibit across population. The expected number of participants in the study will be ~ 500 individuals which will provide us a better understanding of the evolution of superficial traits among these Afghan ethnic groups. This will be the first study to focus on Afghanistan's population which will provide important insights into a diverse and understudied set of human populations. As a result, a more comprehensive examination of facial genetics could be performed. Our second aim for the study is to uncover which genetic variants affect superficial trait variation by using next-generation sequencing (NGS). To achieve this goal, human saliva samples will be collected which will undergo genetic laboratory procedures for DNA extraction, amplification, quantification, and genotyping. The finding will help us to learn more about the qualitative and quantitative facial genetic variability. We hypothesize that facial variability among Hazara, Tajik, and Pashtun is greater than expected which can lead us to other questions about ancestry, migration, and human evolution. From their geographic proximity genetic and computational analysis will allow us to answer the question of how facial pigmentation and vocal variation among these populations leads to genetic diversity. Climate, migration history, and mate choice are the major contributors to phenotypic variation in the population. Our qualitative and quantitative data will be the best source of understanding facial morphological variation across populations, and how past migration affects gene flow, which has a direct effect on these traits which evolved jointly and differently in each population. Our third aim for this project is to look for forensically important markers that can contribute to the field of forensic genetics and enhance law enforcement and forensic investigations. The discovery of novel forensically important markers that can shape phenotypic variation will make major contributions to the field of forensic anthropology. The fourth and final objective of this research is to determine how human migration affects the variation of the oral microbiome and the subsequent effects of this diversity on human well-being, diet, energetics, and microbial genus.

Our team is visiting the participant location to collect hair, voice, saliva, and 3D images. It will take 30 minutes for each participant to complete the entire activity.

This is a psychological study to examine the effect of a new intervention that provides parents with tools to speak with their kids about race, racism, and privilege. Participants will complete a 2-3 hour long program and answer questionnaires over the course of 6-8 weeks. The total time required for this study is approximately 4.5 hours for parents and 2 hours for children. Parents can earn up to $165 and children can earn up to $50.

Parents and children will both be asked to participate, and all participation will be remote. Over the course of 6-8 weeks, parents will answer 3 sets of questionnaires in addition to completing 2-3 hour long interactive program. Parents will also be asked to participate in a recorded discussion task with their child, and will be invited back for a short interview as the final task. Children will answer 2 sets of questionnaires at the beginning and end of the study, and will also participate in the recorded discussion task with their parents.

215

The primary objectives are to identify why students choose where they live; what is their perception of value for housing; is this value based on their home city/state/country; how are they paying for housing costs; if their parents are paying for the housing, what perception of value do the parents have, what is their economic status, what is their home owning status, etc.

The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of artificial intelligence on ideation in groups (specifically the process of brainstorming). Facilitation and facilitator/participant perceptions will also be analyzed. This study collects qualitative data through surveys, interviews, and audio/video recording.

The purpose of the study is to gain an understanding of students’ experiences in college and their engagement help-seeking and healthy behaviors. Participation in the study involves completing a brief online-survey on Qualtrics, which we anticipate will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.