Undeterred by the lawn mower buzzing outside, a half-dozen psychology students -- undergraduate, graduate and post-doctorate researchers -- are providing feedback on each other's research projects.
Seated with them at the table in a second-floor room of the Sociology-Psychology Building is Harris Cooper, chair of Duke's Department of Psychology & Neuroscience.
"The feedback motivates us to move forward," says Saiying Steenbergen-Hu, a post-doctoral associate.
"I'm learning while I'm also presenting my material," psychology major Matt Truwit says of the weekly gathering.
That's the goal of the Monday morning lab -- for each student to benefit from the cross-pollination of ideas and input on their individual research, says Cooper, an expert on childhood education, especially homework.
Cooper says this type of lab concept isn't unusual, it's found all over campus. But what's different is having Duke alum Dan Kimberg T'07 return and take part in the lab, fulfilling Duke's mission of "knowledge in service of society."
"Vertically integrated projects are typically thought of as a professor, a postdoc or a graduate student and an undergraduate, you know, the four levels," Cooper says. "Because of Dan's involvement we've actually added a fifth here, and that's what's special."
For his senior honors thesis, Truwit is doing research at Student U, a Durham summer school program started by Kimberg that teaches local youth academic and other skills they need to succeed in college and life. Truitt is evaluating the program's effectiveness on improving student motivation and self-concept.
"We need benchmarks to track our program," Kimberg says. "We think a lot will come from the evaluation, measuring grades, attendance and more. The kind of commitment Matt has is unusual. Instead of having a one-time experience at Student U he connected with his students, who look up to him and really believe in him as their role model."
Coinciding with Truwit's research, graduate student Alison Koenka, his principal research mentor, is collecting data on the same Student U students' perceptions of their teachers' grading practices and how they relate to achievement motivation.
For example, how is the motivation of elementary or high school students affected when they know how they will be graded -- i.e. getting a 90 is an A (criterion) vs. scoring within a particular percentage of the class?
Koenka's research is related to her comprehensive exam and her dissertation.
"I find that it's a very valuable exercise," she says of the weekly meetings. "We're all required in grad school to give talks on our research and this is great practice, not only to get feedback but to realize as we're saying certain things what works and what doesn't, what needs to be thought out more and what's working well."
Other lab research projects include:
-- Steenbergen-Hu is analyzing existing research to study the effectiveness of computer-based tutoring systems on K-12 and college students' learning of subjects including math, statistics, physics and computer science.
-- Undergraduate Kristine Chen is researching the effect of positive and negative stereotyping on students' test scores.
-- Senior Sang Lee is helping the other researchers collect and analyze their data.
Truwit says the lab experience has benefitted him greatly as a young researcher.
"When I'm in the audience, I'm learning about what everybody else has to present," he says. "By asking questions that maybe an inexperienced person might ask, someone not as deep into the psych field might ask, maybe accidentally I'm teaching other presenters something as well."