For students entering
college, choosing a major is a big deal. Most of the time, students have an
idea of what they want to do. Other times, students have no clue what they want
to do with their future. This is where research comes in handy. Going into
college, I knew that I wanted to me in the health-care field. I did not know;
however, what specific field I wanted to work in. Under the options of majors,
there is a major called health sciences. Other schools might call it pre-med or
medical sciences. In the field of health and medical sciences, there is more
than meets the eye to the research and theories that create a platform for
future learning. I interviewed Amy Reesing, a human development professor who
focuses on the development of the physical, cognitive, and socioemotional
aspects of life.
After
interviewing Amy Reesing, a professor in human development, there is a more
defined way of studying our selected discipline. Reesing graduated with a
degree in studies of human development. After being asked about the continuing
debates in the field of health sciences, Reesing focused on brain development.
Reesing stated “The field of medical sciences is never black and white, that is
the first thing to know and accept when entering this discipline.” We cannot
just place a brain in a jar and watch it grow. Even if we did we cannot know
why or what growths and what age mean what. Reesing said that the biggest debate
is over the importance of brain development within the first three years of
age. Some say that it is life-threatening important and critical to create the
right stimulation for the brain to grow. Others say that the brain has a
quality of plasticity to always be growing, not placing such strong importance
on the criticalness of the first three years of development. Reesing agrees
with both ends of the argument. Reesing opinion is “I agree that the
development of the brain in the first three years of life is extremely
important, yet I do think that there is compensation that can be made.” When it
comes to the general understanding and knowing of the discipline that Reesing
is specifically in, she focuses on how and why people change and remain the
same over the span of life. She mentions the three categories of development
(cognitive, socioemotional, and physical), and places much importance on their
interactions over several years to understand development of the human being.
Reesing states that in her discipline, both quantitative and qualitative data
are accepted. “Quantitative data including numbers and a wider-range of results
are more accepted and used in the health sciences field.”
We also conducted
another interview. Recently, I conducted an interview with a woman by the name
Michelle Jung, an ASU employee who works in the Motor Behavior field.
Throughout the interview I questioned her on many aspects of her discipline in
order to see how different her ideas, view points, and research vary from
others in the same or similar field. Early on in the interview I as her “What
are some of theories or main ideas seen throughout her field”, in which she
responded by saying, “The two main theories you would encounter are the Motor
Program Theory and the Dynamical Systems Theory.” These both involve how the
body produces signals to make other parts of our bodies move. Personally,
Michelle comes from a Dynamical Systems back round which is more involved with
the effects of the environment on the functions we perform. In order to
understand how she comes about her data, I went on to ask her “What kind of
evidence is more reliable, qualitative or quantitative?” She quickly, without
even a blink, went on to reassure me that the field she is involved with relies
heavily on quantitative data by informing me, “Any type of research done in the
field relies heavily on numerical data because it provides the best type of
evidence.” As the interview progressed and we became more comfortable with each
other was given the opportunity to ask, “Have you come across any gaps in your
field of study?” Granted this was slightly more personal than previous
questions I had asked, but she had no problem explaining to me about the
constant gaps in research she has come across in the past. Moreover, I asked
her to provide me with an example in which she had no problem doing as she went
on to explain to me, “[She] conducted a lab where she tested postural
stability, but instead of testing it from the ankles she measured the posture
from the torso and the results were nearly the same as those from the ankles.”
This is a fantastic example of how she tests the gap to see whether or not more
can be done then what already has been. Overall, the interview went extremely
smooth and lasted close to twenty minutes and I am extremely happy I was given
the chance to meet her because she was able to give me some different views not
only in her field but my field of study as well.
Each field
at any university will have specific research articles for their discipline.
After finding a couple articles from the discipline of health and medical
sciences and comparing them to those of other disciplines articles, there are
distinct differences that set my major and discipline apart from others. In the
first article that was analyzed, the research was focused on the composition of
the tendons in our body. Titled “Collagen Structure of Tendon Relates to
Function” this article claims that the collagen cells located in tendons are
formed a specific way to aid in the function of the tendons. According to
Toulmins way of analyzing research, this claim has other aspects. The data
collected from the article states that under microscopic view, cells of the
tendon appear to be in zigzag or crinkled in appearance. The author states “At
a first stage of tendon stretching, with very slow forces, a flattening of
tendon crimps may occur. Increasing the stretching, but still at small strains,
a straightening of molecular kinks of collagen fibrils may happen. Finally,
higher strains lead to molecular gliding within the fibril structure.” This
leads us to conclude that the warrant of this article is that tendons are
capable of more stretching due to the composition of the collagen cells that
form the tendon. Backing of this article includes microscopic examinations as
well as cell samples and physical observations. There is a reservation that
qualifies for this article as well, it is shown that although tendons are more
easily stretched because of their unique collagen cells, stretching of tendons
vary form one individual to another. The qualifier is that tendons are
structures that attach bone to muscle and require an ability to stretch more
than other collagen structures, thus they have specialized cells that allow
more stretching. In the interviews, it was stated that quantative data is more
broadly used in this discipline. The article supports this by creating a range
of experiments that slightly differ in their observations to allow a wider
range of information gathered instead of one large experiment. This increased
knowledge of the research done in this discipline because it was entirely based
on science. In other disciplines articles, they may have an experiment included
in their article, yet for the health sciences discipline, the experiment is the
article. It goes into more depth than a side experiment included in other
articles.
In
the next article analyzed, using Toulmin’s argument model, titled “Cell Adhesion and Spreading Factor” it
was easy to identify the claims, warrants, and backing to make this article easy
to follow. When connecting this article to the types of claims that are
normally seen in the discipline health and life sciences, there are multiple
instances in which quantitative data is collect to help back the claims made in
“Cell Adhesion and Spreading Factor.”
For example, this article made a claim that the fetal calf serum (FCS) factor
required for both the specific adhesion and spreading of baby hamster kidney
(BHK) cells has been purified 140-fold. The purified factor is a mixture which appears
to contain two active globular glycoprotein components. This claim, according
to Toulmin’s argument model has other aspects that need to be addressed as such
as data collected, warrant, and sensible backing which the author of the
article addresses soon after. For instance, the larger globular glycoprotein
component has a sedimentation coefficient of 12.5S and contains polypeptide
chains of about 215 000 D and the smaller globular glycoprotein components is 9S and
contains popypeptide chains of 94 000, 80 000 and 71 000 D. This is an
excellent example of quantitative data, which my interviewee Michelle Jung
stated “Is the most credible data in this field because it provides the viewer
with first hand evidence instead of qualitative data.” Being able to bring
information into your writing that is credible is single handedly one of the
most important things for a writer to attempt, otherwise he would be writing
for no one. After continuing to read this article it is easy to spot other
aspects of Toulmin’s argument model such as a warrant, backing, and more
research to help solidify the articles credibility. “The mixed factor has been
determined to have an isoelectric point of 4.0 and its amino acid and
carbohydrate composition have been determined,” is the warrant made by the
author in this article. This article helps me understand how arguments are
typically made in my discipline by showing me the type of warrants, claims, and
data that is reputable in this field. Not only does is provide me with great
examples of what type of data is more credible, but it also provides me with
one way to analyze the data I collect when conducting experiments which is
extremely beneficial. As the article slowly begins to end it provides us with
backing to help as shown, activity of the mixed factor requires its adsorption
onto the substratum surface and about 0.6-0.85 μg of adsorbed factor protein on
a 9.6 cm2 surface is required for complete cell adhesion and spreading to
subsequently occur. By doing so it increases the credibility, but it also gives
information to help identify any unanswered questions that were left. This is
crucial when analyzing information in the medical field because the more
quantitative data or reputable data inputted into the paper, the more
believable the article is, whether is on a subject as simple as breaking a bone
or as complex as cell adhesion. Finally the author provides us with a
reservation which goes as shown, “The mixed factor adsorbs preferentially to
the substratum in the presence of a high excess of BSA and promotes increased
cell adhesion and spreading as the density of the factor on the substratum is
increased.” When making a reservation it is important to explain how the
experiment went, what happen, and what you suspect will happen if someone else
tries to conduct the same or similar experiment. This will be seen often in my
discipline because duplication of experiments is happening every day. When using
the Toulmin’s argument model it adds plenty of depth to your writing and can
change the way people view your writing.
