Week 5: Questionnaire sent out & MIM Solo!
Aashi H -
Hello everyone! This week has been exciting and a huge step in my project! It sent out my questionnaire for responses, and it was my first week of going solo at the MIM.
Questionnaire Updates!
This week, I sent the questionnaire to all my Starbucks coworkers. First, I sent it to one coworker to see how my recall prompt was, and if it prompted a stress response. After perfecting the prompt, I sent the questionnaire to three random coworkers to see their responses and if I needed to change the form. All three results showed that music reduced their stress! I am excited to get more responses and see how the general trend changes.
Additionally, I am still working with people from other fast-food chains to perfect the recall prompts. It is essential that the recall prompt is vivid in detail and includes sensory images to get an accurate response. Thus, I am working with current employees at certain fast-food chains to perfect these prompts.
For example, my prompt for Starbucks is the following:
“Imagine the following:
It is peak on Saturday morning. You are on warming. Earlier, your right oven broke, so you can only use your left oven. It smells like smoke all around you. From the number of Bacon Goudas and Bacon Egg Bites you made this morning, you can almost taste them just by looking at them.
You’re already sweating from the oven heat and the weight of everyone’s stares around you. You’re working as fast as you can, and the insistent beeping of the oven as you struggle to put a Lemon Loaf into a pastry bag does not help.
Then, you see an entire kids’ soccer team walking in wearing red jerseys. You hear each one of them order a sandwich and pastries. You still have mobiles and drive-through food items coming in, and only one oven.
Imagining yourself in the above scenario, respond to the following questions:”
As you can see, the prompt above vividly engages with the five senses for a maximum imaginary experience. I am working on other prompts to make them this detailed as well.
Going to the MIM solo!
As many of you recall, I have started volunteering at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM). I have been trained and gone through orientation, and this week I was finally able to Gallery Guide on my own! My job as a Gallery Guide is to walk through the entire museum and engage with patrons: directing them, answering questions, elaborating on interesting works in the museum, etc.
However, I am not that familiar with the museum myself. So, I took a pair of headphones and a guideport and I started exploring. I spent about two hours walking through the museum on my first round (oops!). I was so interested in the Mechanical Music and US & Canada galleries that I completely lost track of time! The second time through the museum was better; I took my headphones off to engage more with the patrons and got through the museum in an hour.
It was also very rainy this week, and the museum was in desperate need of help! They hosted about 1,900+ people on the rainy day. I was a greeter that day: asking people how their day was, introducing them to the museum, and directing them to the appropriate ticketing line. So many people were visiting from Minnesota or Ohio, and they were very intrigued with the museum and excited to get to view the Stradivarius exhibit.
I will be going back next week for more volunteering, and I can’t wait to learn more! Every time I go through the museum, I learn about something different or see a new instrument I want to learn about. The learning never ends!
Future plans?
Next week, I hope to start my data analysis journey with Dr. Carpenter. I also hope to see how the trends in my data change, and if my project is looking to be successful or not statistically significant enough. I’ll see you next week with some numbers!
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