Southern Utah University students Jayden Peacock, Dylan Gardner, Korina Ziegler and Colton Davis, along with their faculty mentor, Hellen Boswell-Taylor, received the best Biological Science paper of the year award from the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. The award was presented to the group on Nov. 10.
The Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters was founded in 1908 in order to “promote investigations and diffuse knowledge in all areas of science,” per the organization’s website. In 1923, the academy began publishing papers that were presented during its annual meetings. Nowadays, one paper from each of the academy’s journal’s sections is chosen to receive an award for outstanding research in that field.
The group’s paper, “Ditch the Stress: How Mindfulness Activities Affected Perceived Stress, Mood, and Well-being in University Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic” studied the effects of various activities on students’ self-reported stress levels.
“We held an activity on campus where we had students do a bunch of different mindfulness activities, and we had a survey that they filled out to assess their mental health that day and then following each activity,” Ziegler explained. “Then, we asked them to pick one activity and do it for a week, and then they did a survey again. After doing the survey, we found that we have had a really positive impact on their mental health.”
According to the group’s research, one of the best ways for students to decrease their stress levels is by filling out a coloring page. Coloring requires very little resources, which makes it easy for many people to do so long as they have a printer and some art supplies. However, Ziegler noted that, in a few cases, coloring actually increased anxiety in some of the experiment’s participants.
The academy is constantly accepting new research for their conferences and journal. Those who would like a chance at publishing their research and winning the best-in-division cash prize can submit an application through the academy’s website.
Author: Jacob Horne
Photos courtesy of Korina Ziegler
Editor: Chevy Blackburn
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