2025 YIWC has concluded!

✨ Congratulations to the Winners of YIR’s Annual High School Science Writing Competition! ✨ We at the Young Investigators Review are thrilled to share the results of this year’s High School Writing Competition—designed to celebrate curiosity, creativity, and the next generation of scientific thinkers. In our largest application pool yet, talented students and aspiring scientists from across the country submitted pieces answering prompts in 1 … Continue reading 2025 YIWC has concluded!

Video Games: A New Way to Facilitate Cognitive Development in Students with Learning Disabilities

Author: Sean Krivitsky, Class of 2026 Figure 1. Image of letter tiles spelling out “Learning Disability” According to The Treetop ABA Therapy, approximately 1 in 7 individuals worldwide possess a learning disability and it is important to acknowledge and address these learning differences to facilitate their learning and development (1). Recently, video games have become far more prevalent worldwide, and a series of research examining … Continue reading Video Games: A New Way to Facilitate Cognitive Development in Students with Learning Disabilities

The Effects of Video Game Addiction on Children’s Cognitive and Learning Skills

Author: Amal Bilal, Class of 2028 Figure 1: A couple of young kids playing video games. Video games have become an increasingly popular source of entertainment among children, with over 90% of children between 2 and 17 years old actively playing video games. Although video games allow children to socialize and have leisure time, they can also lead to addiction. Excessive gaming can negatively impact … Continue reading The Effects of Video Game Addiction on Children’s Cognitive and Learning Skills

Efforts To Prevent Students from “Gaming” the System

Author: Ishmam, Class of 2025 Figure: “Gaming” the system has become a rising phenomenon of technology-based learning programs in education Educational systems have started using new technology to keep up with the evolution of our learning spaces and culture. The surge in Computer-Based Learning Platforms (CBLPs) has also resulted in a rise in students “gaming the system”, a phenomenon that exploits system mechanics to progress … Continue reading Efforts To Prevent Students from “Gaming” the System

EEG Research in Maternal Health – Implications and Resolutions of Racial Disparities

Author: Luis Caseñas, Class of 2026 Figure 1: EEG cap and electrodes placed on the head of a participant; the blunt nature of these electrodes works better with hair types from a white population rather than black. Maternal health refers to mothers’ physical and mental well-being during pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum. In the study of maternal health, electroencephalography (EEG), which generates event-related potentials (ERPs), is … Continue reading EEG Research in Maternal Health – Implications and Resolutions of Racial Disparities

Youths Making School Threats Have Significant Psychiatric and Experiential Similarities

Vignesh Subramanian ’24 Amid spikes in school threats, school shootings, and the proportion of K-12 students requiring emergency psychiatric interventions and referrals at schools in the United States, attention is increasingly being focused on the characteristics and needs of youths predisposed to violence or mental health crisis. Decades of research have repeatedly found that students who threaten or engage in attacks against people and campuses … Continue reading Youths Making School Threats Have Significant Psychiatric and Experiential Similarities

Sing and You Shall Learn: How Singing Enables Easier Language Acquisition

Thumyat Noe ’23 Learning a new language is challenging, but several studies claim that music may improve the learning process. For instance, primary school children with prior musical experience tend to have greater developed auditory working and verbal memories, allowing for easier language acquisition. Furthermore, according to a previous study, singing increased phonological awareness in Spanish-speaking students, yielding an improvement in English vocabulary recall and … Continue reading Sing and You Shall Learn: How Singing Enables Easier Language Acquisition

Making Magic in Medical Settings: How Magic May Improve the Patient-Student Connection

Thumyat Noe ’23 Many medical students often find themselves feeling emotionally detached from the illness experiences of patients. To combat this sentiment, medical education curricula recommend that students gain clinical immersion experience early to enhance students’ awareness of the patient experience. Past clinical findings suggest that performing magic acts as part of clinical immersion experience can further improve relations between medical staff and child patients. … Continue reading Making Magic in Medical Settings: How Magic May Improve the Patient-Student Connection

Music-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Improve Test Anxiety

Yukta Kulkarni ’22 From the ages of five to eighteen, school is a major part of a child’s life. A great deal of growing, making memories, and nurturing relationships are experienced during the hours a child is in school. However, education, with a focus on test performance, is considered the most important aspect of attending school. Unfortunately, many children suffer from test anxiety, something that … Continue reading Music-Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Can Improve Test Anxiety

Art and Medicine: The Effects of Technical Drawing Exercises on Spatial Visualization of Humans

Thumyat Noe ’23 Spatial visualization, the ability to visualize shapes and the orientations of objects in space, can help medical students learn human anatomy, which many consider a challenging area of study. Past studies suggest that high spatial visualization positively correlates with increased success in scientific disciplines, leading researchers from Kansas City University to believe that enhancing spatial visualization through technical drawing exercises may help … Continue reading Art and Medicine: The Effects of Technical Drawing Exercises on Spatial Visualization of Humans

Discrimination During COVID-19 Exacerbates Academic Disconnect of Asian Students

Zhifei Zeng ’23 Since January 2020, the world has been suffering from a pandemic brought about by COVID-19. In addition to the direct health threat posed by the virus, a survey showed that the rate of racist and xenophobic attacks against Asians increased all over the globe, especially in the United States. In fact, the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center has reported 3,800 hate crimes … Continue reading Discrimination During COVID-19 Exacerbates Academic Disconnect of Asian Students

Mindfulness Training Can Reduce Stress In University Students

Robyn Rutgers ’24 Psychological distress in university students has become a public health concern due to its increased prevalence. Evidence has suggested issues such as academic performance and financial struggles as potential causes of such distress. The increase in psychiatric disorders among university students presents a need for strategies allowing students to improve their psychological well-being. Research shows that mindfulness training in university settings produces … Continue reading Mindfulness Training Can Reduce Stress In University Students