Students at the Coquitlam and New Westminster campuses of Douglas College are showing their work before judges this week to share their knowledge and get a chance to win a cash prize.
The annual Douglas College Student Research Days, which took place in Coquitlam today, April 9, and happens in the Royal City on Thursday, April 11, from noon to 3 p.m., has the largest turnout since the contest started in 2009 and includes some 50 applicants in all six faculties.
Among the open house presentations Thursday will be a prototype showcase of a one-handed zipper closure designed to help stroke patients, as well as a map about locating previously undiscovered about Indigenous petroglyphs on Vancouver Island.
Richa Dwor, co-ordinator for the Research and Innovation Office, told Glacier Media that this year’s competition has expanded to include research proposals and panel presentations, the latter launched in the library by college student Madison Martin who spoke before judges on a paper she wrote last year titled, “The Effects on the Kettle Valley Railway Labour Pool.”
Meanwhile, in the Atrium, many medical students offered their findings.
Nisha Khattra and Balraj Maird, who graduated yesterday, April 8, from the psychiatric nursing program, talked about their literature review of the potential ethical implications of MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying) for psychiatric patients, a topic that they found is lacking in roundtable discussions.
Nursing students Jason Wong, Hershey Marasigan, Sabrina Siojo and Eliza Redoblado also gave their take on stress levels for Year 1 versus Year 4 nursing undergraduates. They recommend nursing students decompress by socializing with friends, forming hobbies, listening to music and getting a good night’s sleep.
The four haven’t thought about what they would do with the prize money, should they win. “We just want to get the information out there,” Wong said.
Other work on display focused on stigma interventions for schizophrenia patients using social media; navigating professional boundaries; LGBTQ2S+ communications and media; and examining the relationship between student perception and feedback with emotion maturity.
The winner of the 2023 Douglas College Student Research Days were as follows:
- First place: Anna Parrish (Applied Community Studies)
- “Transgender Recreation Engagement Experiences in the Lower Mainland”
- Second place: Kiera Hadden (Science and Technology)
- “Water Quality Monitoring Methods for the Port Moody Ecological Society”
- Third place: Cara Paley (Science and Technology)
- “The Impact of Mirrors on the Female Dancers' Body Image”
