Posted 5 Mar
Lisa Bailey 
Each year, UniSA offer Vacation Research Scholarships for students to undertake short projects. We were lucky enough to host three fantastic students this year. Each took a slightly different approach to analysing the huge data set we gathered in our Canopy exhibit last year. We asked thousands of our visitors for their thoughts on ethical issues around science and technology.
What made you interested in doing a vacation scholarship at MOD.?
The description for the project mentioned getting to research people’s ethical boundaries. While that is a broad topic, there’s so much about ethics and how people think and talk about their values and morals that interested me.
What research question did you investigate and how did you do that?
I had to really familiarise myself with the data, which is not uncommon in research. For this project it meant sitting by myself reading thousands of handwritten cards talking about some really deep, difficult questions. Flex had cards on which people could answer questions like “How would we think differently if people could live forever?” and that’s where I ended up focussing.
What was the most surprising or interesting part of the project?
That there’s so much hope! More than any other answer to “how would we think differently if people could live forever?” the answers were positive, about how we’d think differently about our environment, about each other, about our time here on earth.
What advice would you give to other students who are thinking about doing a Vacation research scholarship project?
Even though my project ended up occurring outside of the vacation period, it was very manageable and my supervisors were understanding about my other commitments. So, if that’s something that worries you, don’t let it! It was worth the time, even if just to be able to sit with some incredible, intelligent people and hear about their experiences behind the scenes at MOD and as researchers at UniSA.
What made you interested in doing a vacation scholarship at MOD.?
I was hoping to be more productive and active during uni break, and I came across MOD.’s vacation research scholarship about ethical boundaries. I have visited MOD. before and I think ethics is a controversial but fascinating topic. I thought it would be interesting to know what the visitors think about ethics.
What research question did you investigate and how did you do that?
My research is about how people perceive happiness. Do we all agree with a singular definition of happiness, or do we hold different opinions about what happiness is? I analysed visitor responses from select questions that are related to ‘happiness’ – e.g. pleasure, pain, risk, difficulty, etc. and looked at their ethical reasoning to try to find the answer.
What was the most surprising or interesting part of the project?
I really enjoyed going through the free-text responses and seeing different perspectives. A lot of them were really incredible insights and had inspired me tremendously. I plan to have some of the witty ones as my new mottos.
What advice would you give to other students who are thinking about doing a Vacation research scholarship project?
I know it sounds cliche, but really, just do it. Apply for it. What harm could it possibly do?
What made you interested in doing a vacation scholarship at MOD.?
First, the theme of the MOD is interesting and I have visited, so I would like to study further the outcome. Second, I am also interested in the exhibition setup and how to effectively engage visitors. I am interested in the interaction between people and space.
What research question did you investigate and how did you do that?
“How visitors asked questions to communicate on ethics exhibition” is the question for my research. I focused on the “Ask” cards where visitors had written their questions on their minds, and I selected the question which related to “Nature” as an example for this research. Through the selected data I will explore how visitors reflect on the ethical questions by analysing “How are the questions being asked?”
What was the most surprising or interesting part of the project?
Through this research, I learned that research is an endless learning process and might not have a correct answer, you have to set your own goal and deadline clearly, so you can find a direction and the outcome you are looking for.
What advice would you give to other students who are thinking about doing a Vacation research scholarship project?
Just apply it!!! Don’t be scared if it is out of your field or you may not qualify for it, everything you have learned and are about to learn will definitely be useful in some way, you just need to give yourself a chance and I am sure you will be surprised in this journey.
