Undergraduate Research Dispatch: Jenny Jiang
This year, BCNM initiated its undergraduate research fellowships, which offer undergraduates the chance to engage in direct research experience with BCNM graduates. Jenny Jiang was selected to work with Jennifer Higgs on her project Education & Digital Talk.
In her own words:
I served as a research assistant for Jennifer Higgs on the Education & Digital Talk project. This project is to study the relationship between learning and digital talk in K-12 classrooms in the nation. There are three parts of the study: Big Data provided by Subtext, teacher survey, and teacher interviews. My job is mainly to analyze teacher survey data via statistical analysis and some exploratory data analysis for the big data.
I double major in Statistics and Media Studies, with a minor in education. I am very passionate about data science and design. Throughout the research, I was able to utilize my statistical knowledge along with my passion for design to create a holistic analysis for the project. When analyzing the teacher survey data, I applied descriptive statistics, chi-squared tests and MANOVA tests, sentiment analysis to develop an understanding of the relationship between the usage of Subtext and school settings. I was able to put my statistical knowledge into application, especially in a topic that I am passionate about. We are always talking about how advanced technology has become and how our daily life has been changed; however, has technology changed our way of education?
This Education & Digital Talk has allowed me to combine my interest in education and passion for numbers together. It is very fascinating to see how different disciplines intersect with each other and spur some interesting findings. Additionally, doing this research has given me a great practice for graduate studies. I am interested in pursuing a master/PhD degree in data science after Berkeley. This research experience has prepared me for further studies.