“Gather in!” Ms. Chown’s voice rang out. I collected my belongings, (lunch box, journal, pen), and I raced up the hill that led down to the ponds. Our class crowded around Ms. Chown. She had her schedule in hand and was reading out the groups. “Professor Ulloa, Psychology, Life Sciences Room 106. Margaret, Nick’s mom is the chaperone, and in that group is Will, Nick, Ella, Halle and Rigel.”
Our group ran over to Ms. Margaret. We headed to professor Ulloa’s office. Rigel and Will were jumping around, dancing and singing to “Everything is Awesome” from the Lego movie. Ms. Margaret stopped us. “Guys,” she said in a serious tone. “We are not lego men. “We are scientists. Let’s take 3 deep breaths.” I took 3 deep breaths, feeling silly. Rigel and Will started swaggering toward the Life Sciences building where Professor Ulloa’s office was located. Ms. Margaret stopped in the doorway in front of the life sciences door. “This is what a lecture room looks like.” She whispered, even though nobody was in there. We crept up the stairs and I sat in a seat. I looked like an amphitheater, however it was inside. At the bottom there was a table and a podium with a computer on it. “Come on guys!” I said impatiently. I didn’t want to be late!
We went in the doorway that said Life Sciences and went down two flights of stairs. “Where do we go now?” We went through a doorway and saw some stairs and a steep ramp on the other side. “I think we should go down the stairs.” The air smelled strongly of mildew. “I think we're underground.” I whispered.
“No wonder it smells so weird.” Will replied.
We came down the stairs and we found ourselves face to face with a locked door. “Back up the stairs!” Ms. Margaret chirped. Rigel and I ran up the ramp. We went out ANOTHER doorway and down ANOTHER flight of stairs. Our party came to some professors having a meeting. “Do you know where Dr. Ulloa’s office is?” Ms. Margaret inquired. “Room 106?”
“Down the stairs, to the left and through a doorway.” The professor answered. “Thank you!” We chorused. The social science department of Explorer Elementary, (plus one parent) hurried down the stairs, turned a left (into a cactus garden) and through the doorway.
We saw a sign announcing “Psychology Department. We saw long corridor with many doors on either side. It reminded me of a labyrinth. On top of each door there was a plaque indicating the room number. 131, 130, 129, 128, 127… It went on and on. “We’re on the right track!” Ms. Margaret said. We turned a corner and saw the room 106. Halle knocked. No one answered. I knocked. No one answered. “Would you like to knock Nick?” His mother asked. Nick knocked. Rigel knocked. Still, nobody answered.
I tried the door. It was locked. I listened. I could hear voices. The next door was ajar. We went in. There was a desk with a woman sitting at it. “Do you know where Dr. Ulloa’s office is?” Ms. Margaret inquired again.
“He is at a meeting, but he will be back soon. Would you like to go into a conference room to wait?” The lady asked. “Sure!” Ms. Margaret replied. “Look guys!” I exclaimed. “Carnivorous plants!” My friends and I ran over to the large tank, (after asking Ms. Margaret). There were Venus Fly Traps and lots of other plants that I did not know the names of. I was disappointed. There were no insects for the plants to eat! “Professor Ulloa is here!” Halle called. We fast-walked over to the room where Professor Ulloa was. We introduced ourselves, saying we were from the Explorer Elementary Department of Social Science.
We went into the room. There was a huge polished wooden table and chairs on each side. On the wall at the end of the table there was a GIANT television. There was a white board on either side of the room. On the table there were compartments with wires in them. Professor Ulloa said that you could plug your computer in and your presentation would show up on the screen. Now it was time to begin our interview. Here are the questions that we asked him and their answers:
Question: What do you do?
Answer: I collect information that helps my students and I research about human behavior.
Question: How did you become a psychology professor?
Answer: I was always interested in feelings.
Question:What is the most interesting part of what you do?
Answer: I learn new things everyday.
Question: What makes a good research question?
Answer: You have a sense of what the answer might be, however you don’t know without testing it.
Question: What is action research?
Answer: You don’t understand the problem however you can do research to help it.
Question: What do we need to do to conduct action research ethically?
Answer: You want to make sure that you don’t harm anyone. You even have to be careful asking questions because some people can be really sensitive.
Question: How do academic researchers share their research?
Answer:The primary way is publishing your piece in a journal. You can also have a conference, you can share your work with students or you can do a presentation.
That was our interview! My favorite thing that Professor Ulloa told us was experiences change the way people think and see things. For example, if you had a good experience, you might see a things in a good way. However, if you had a bad experience, you might see things in a bad way. I thought that was really interesting. One thing in life could change your future!
After our interview, we said goodbye to Dr. Ulloa and we walked back through the cactus garden, (I noticed a pond that I had not seen before, but there were no fish or turtles in it, there was only a plastic duck and a bunch of lily pads completely covering the surface and some reeds in the back corner,) back up the stairs and through the door of the Life sciences building and back to the sundial where we we meeting our class.
We were the first ones there, so we went down to the turtle pond and played, pretending we had pet turtles. (Well, Halle and I were). A few minutes passed and Ms. Margaret called us back up to the sundial. The rest of the class was there and we took a picture in front of the majestic building behind us. I said thank you to Ms. Margaret and to Stephen, Mikaila’s dad, who is a professor at SDSU and who organized this whole trip for us! Ms. Chown called our car group to her. Addison’s mother was driving but she was at work. In my group was me, Addison, Anelisa and Leila. We walked back to the parking garage. We went down the elevator and walked back to the car.
As we sped back to school, I thought, “What a great trip!”
By Ella