UB Child Health and Behavior Lab (HABLAB) Research Opportunity

Posted by Tim on July 22, 2020 in Honors Experiences, Networking, Research Information and Opportunities

Are you interested in child development? Parenting? Healthy eating? Obesity prevention? Gaining research experience?

The Child Health and Behavior Lab (HABLAB) at the University of Buffalo is looking for detail-oriented and enthusiastic undergraduate students to assist with research studies during Fall 2020 and Spring 2021. These research experiences would be under the leadership of Dr. Stephanie Anzman-Frasca, who conducts laboratory- and community-based studies in the area of children’s eating behavior and obesity prevention. More information about Dr. Anzman-Frasca’s work is available here: https://medicine.buffalo.edu/faculty/profile.html?ubit=safrasca, and more information about HABLAB is available at http://ubhablab.weebly.com.

This academic year, we have several online research opportunities including joining a behavioral coding team that codes data from video recorded tasks, such as parent-child interactions or a child frustration task in the laboratory. Coders become trained on an appropriate coding scheme and apply their new skills to contribute to the team’s work, coding videos each week and attending regular coding meetings for group discussion. In addition, we anticipate a restart of our in-person study activities at some point this academic year, in which case research assistants may have opportunities to help execute study protocols and interact with families and young children in the lab and/or in local restaurants. General responsibilities of student research assistants include: assisting with materials preparation, data entry and/or coding, and helping staff in the implementation of the study design. All incoming research assistants must be able to commit to at least 10 hours per week, with preference given to students who can commit to at least two semesters. Summer 2021 positions may also become available. For students who spend multiple semesters on the team, independent research projects, conference presentations, and/or thesis projects are possible.

The entire HABLAB team meets weekly for lab meetings (which are currently taking place via Zoom), in which various research related and professional development topics are discussed with our full team of faculty, staff, postdoctoral and graduate trainees, and undergraduate research assistants.

Interested students can apply by submitting an application and a resume to ubhablab@gmail.com, using “Student research assistant application 2020” as the subject of the email. Applications may be downloaded at http://ubhablab.weebly.com/students. We are currently interviewing candidates via Zoom and filling positions on a rolling basis.