Noah E

- Research Program Mentor

Project ideas

The Lasting Effects of COVID on School Attendance

As most schools have returned to the pre-2020 model of school administration (no longer wearing masks, social distancing, etc.), do students still attend school when feeling under the weather at the same rates as they did previously? Alternatively, are students more cautious about infecting their classmates, or perhaps less? In this project, we will design a survey that will attempt to get a picture of how students think about the risks that they pose to other students when sick, as well as the risk that other students pose to them. Using both qualitative and quantity survey methodology, in addition to broader scholarly research, this project will try to understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected school attendance during and after the pandemic.

The Struggle for Integration in American Professional Sports

The mid-1900s has numerous examples of players breaking "color barriers," but not all sports approached integration in the same way. Analyzing the most popular sports of the time period, including basketball, baseball, and football, this project will conduct a historical analysis of how American professional sports differed in its approach to integration. Which leagues were the slowest to integrate, and how did the leagues' justifications for their actions differ? What forces may have been most significant in causing the leagues to take different approaches?

Social Determinants of Health

What social factors are most significant in affecting health outcomes? This project will analyze some of the extensive scholarship research on "social determinants of health" to understand what social factors repeatedly arise as driving health outcomes (some examples of social determinants include income, education, geography). Students could also pick one social determinant specifically, diving deep to understand how and why a particular factor affects a population's health.