Sunday, June 28, 2020
By:
Since I had officially finished up the activities that were supposed to take me the rest of the summer, the APS Programs department gave me the opportunity to try some new things.
When I talked to my new boss, Dr. Fracchiolla, she asked me to do a lit review: look through the literature and find out what research exists on the benefits of doing informal physics education on the facilitators. I thought that seemed easy enough, so I hopped off the video call and went about finishing up the rest of my other work. I then realized that I had never done a lit review, I had no idea what that meant, and although I had a vague idea of the purpose of one based on our earlier conversation, I had no idea what actual deliverables I was expected to give.
My first instinct was to Google it. From this I learned that a lit review could mean several things. At this point I had only met Dr. Fracchiolla twice, and I didn’t want to look like a total idiot, so I went back to my SPS mentor Dr. Hyater-Adams, who graciously explained a little more, and encouraged me to talk to Dr. Fracchiolla about it and just tell her I had never done one.
When I admitted I had no idea what I was doing, Dr. Fracchiolla responded “oh, that’s awesome!” and explained a little more. I gave her my write-up at the end of the week, turns out I did just fine, and it is way better than it would have been had I tried to forge ahead without actually knowing what I was doing.
While it’s probably good practice to Google things before asking basic questions, no question is actually bad. More often than not in physics, I feel extremely out of touch, and way behind in what I am supposed to know. It has rarely worked out for me to wing it and push through on my own. It has always worked out better for me to ask friends and mentors for help, information, and feedback.
Madison Swirtz