Alyssa Chen's Engaged Learning Research Project
Major
Biology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2021
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
My Engaged Learning experience is doing research under an introduction to research course. Our research project team, led by Dr.Stuart, is interested in the impact of competition of sexual dimorphism, specifically interspecific competitors. Interspecific competition is when different species are competing for the same resources in an ecosystem. From our investigation, there are two "parent" studies who seem to ask a similar question so we have modeled our project around their data and questions. We spent Fall 2020 examining all the articles that cited either Meiri 2014 or Butler 2007 (articles linked below). There were hundreds of citations each so this took all of the fall and some of the spring. Early Spring 2021 we concluded this examination and have extracted raw data which we plan to analyze with a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is a statistical test that allows researchers to combine data from multiple studies addressing the same question in order to establish the significance of the data reported. We are currently in the middle of determining the proper effect sizes to successfully carry out a meta-analysis that will measure heterogeneity of data between various studies sampled. We cannot wait to see what our results conclude, so check back for updates!
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Yoel Stuart
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Alyssa Chen's Engaged Learning Research Project
My Engaged Learning experience is doing research under an introduction to research course. Our research project team, led by Dr.Stuart, is interested in the impact of competition of sexual dimorphism, specifically interspecific competitors. Interspecific competition is when different species are competing for the same resources in an ecosystem. From our investigation, there are two "parent" studies who seem to ask a similar question so we have modeled our project around their data and questions. We spent Fall 2020 examining all the articles that cited either Meiri 2014 or Butler 2007 (articles linked below). There were hundreds of citations each so this took all of the fall and some of the spring. Early Spring 2021 we concluded this examination and have extracted raw data which we plan to analyze with a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis is a statistical test that allows researchers to combine data from multiple studies addressing the same question in order to establish the significance of the data reported. We are currently in the middle of determining the proper effect sizes to successfully carry out a meta-analysis that will measure heterogeneity of data between various studies sampled. We cannot wait to see what our results conclude, so check back for updates!