The Language of Science and the Science of Language Buckeye Language Network Summer REU Research Program

The Language of Science and the Science of Language Buckeye Language Network Summer REU Research Program takes place in the Language Pod is an interdisciplinary research laboratory that operates inside of COSI, a public science museum in Columbus, Ohio. The Pod has two primary goals: 1. To conduct research in linguistics, psychology, speech and hearing science, and other related fields through recruitment of the public at COSI. 2. To educate and perform outreach demonstrations for museum guests that teach about language science and the work we do as language scientists. For this program, students get the opportunity to engage in both of these aspects of the lab’s work. For their research experience, they are assigned an OSU faculty member or graduate student and their advisor, as a mentor. They work on an existing research project with them. At the end of the program, they prepare and present a poster on the work. For the outreach component, students use our set of interactive demos to introduce museum visitors to the science of language. For example, they might invite them to play a video game, which shows them the Stroop Effect, or teach them about different aspects of communication systems using dinosaurs. At the end of the program, students develop and present their own new activity that teaches visitors something about language.