SOAR Con Prep IC Student Research

What is SOAR Con?

Reducio

The Student-Organized Annual Research Convention, as its name suggests, is an annual event with the purpose of showcasing student research. We plan to let students put up posters in an empty classroom (or any other available location, open to suggestions) and tell visitors, other students or faculty, about their research findings. This convention is meant to prepare aspiring researchers for graduate school or other academic careers they intend to achieve. However, students with non-academic goals but like researching various topics in their free time can also utilize this occasion to share their interests. SOAR Con will be held late May every year, allowing time for reflection after the event and before students depart for the summer holidays.

We believe that knowledge is the key to unlocking many opportunities. Spread your wings and soar with us into the infinite sky of academia by joining the SOAR Con Preparation Club today.

Why was this club formed?

Reducio

This is the SOAR Con Preparation Club. As Hogwarts students, our education revolves around learning magic. Theories, Practice . . . we absorb the knowledge given to us by professors and textbooks, but we never learn how they are produced. The founder of this club, Robin Lockett, is a young student who sees a clear future for himself—to graduate, attend further education, and become a researcher of whatever interests him. Upon realizing that Hogwarts does not provide a direct opportunity for him to practice research skills, he decided to create that opportunity himself.

The draft of an annual research convention and a club to help students prepare for that event was, therefore, formed towards the end of his first year. It is still in the planning phase, and the first workshops will be held in Fall of 2026, with the first SOAR Con occurring in May, 2027.

What does SOAR Con Prep do?

Reducio

If Hogwarts does not teach research skills, how will SOAR Con even work? That is why this Preparation Club exists. SOAR Con Prep aims to assist members in familiarizing themselves with independent research and developing their unique scholarly voice. We will host monthly workshops and optional weekly work sessions to better achieve this goal. The contents of each workshop will be described in more detail below. Certain sessions will be consistent throughout the years, while others will discuss special topics relevant to the current academic environment.

As for the weekly work sessions, they are similar to typical study sessions where students come together and focus on their tasks for a specified amount of time. This allows for a period of zero-distraction and peer discussions if desired, but we recognize that some would prefer to work entirely alone. Therefore, these work sessions are optional. On the other hand, though there is no penalty for not going to the monthly workshops, attendance is strongly encouraged as they intend to provide valuable information for a young researcher.

What does a member do? (OOC)

Reducio

Weekly Work Sessions Reducio These sessions happen IC every Saturday 9:00 to 12:00, with a separately optional lunch table discussion. Sessions will not have regular RPs, but members are welcome to RP themselves going to one, or reaching out to other members to form an interactive private RP. You can also reach out to Robin Lockett, he will IC be there every session unless there are specific errands he would like to attend. You can mention Robin overseeing the meeting, "answering your questions", or maintaining order without making the thread a PV with me, but you cannot give him dialogue. If you want Robin to have dialogue or interact with you, just mention him as a participant in your PV thread, I will reply.

Monthly Workshops Reducio I am still deciding on the exact format, but currently I plan to make them semi-mass threads with repliers limited to club members. I (or another speaker) will write the first post, which would look similar to a lesson, with the speaker teaching the content. The end of the first post will likely include the speaker's instructions on an activity, and will definitely include asking if anyone had questions. The next posts will be from participating members, who can ask questions (which will be answered in the speaker's post, also the last post of the thread) and RP doing the activity if there is one. To ensure a consistent pace but also give time for players to reply, the workshop thread will be posted on the first day of that month, open for replies till the last day, while it IC happens on the first Saturday afternoon of its scheduled month. There will be no monthly workshops for June, July, and August, while January's might be postponed to its second Saturday if the first one occurred when it was still winter break. Regarding member volunteers: Member volunteers are members who indicated that they would be interested in hosting a workshop. I ask you to proactively follow up with me regarding details of your proposed session content. If you just want to host a regular session and not a special topic one, state which regular session you would like to host and whether or not you need relevant resources. I ask that you value the quality of your post, as we are technically RPing teaching in some sense. I am a college student IRL, but also an aspiring researcher who serves as the lab assistant to one of my psychology professors. I am not an expert on researching, but I took classes on it and know at least the basics and some tips. I also seek out opportunities to learn more in my free time, so the workshop content I make—despite not being perfect or accredited—will be the best work possible I put out there. You don't have to be a researcher or lab assistant like me to host a session, but please be willing to look into more details of the topic you intend to speak about. Like I said, you can ask me for resources if you need them. If this sounds too intimidating or if you don't want to commit at least some of your free time to writing this post—I regret to say this, but—please reconsider being a volunteer speaker. Your interest is appreciated, but I rather do more work myself in that case. Regarding guest speakers: According to site rules and my understanding of items specifically related to DNPCs, you cannot RP from their perspective. Therefore, guest speakers will not be characters you made up and control, such as your mother who is a magizoologist, your uncle who is an auror, or some renowned researcher you made up. Also, current lore doesn't allow non-Hogwarts adults to visit Hogwarts. Therefore, guest speakers will need to be Hogwarts professors, employees, or other students. Feel free to owl (or discord if you already have my account) me any suggestions, I (or the Outreach Coordinator if someone applied and they want to actually have this responsibility OOC) will invite them for you. However, note that they are not obligated to accept and speak at these workshops, so there's a possibility of a year having no guest speakers at all.

SOAR Con Reducio The IC main event of this club. However, from my perspective it is easier than the workshops. SOAR Con occurs on the last Saturday every May. It will be a full day event where students present their research on a poster in an empty classroom (or two, if there are too many presenters). The event will be IC advertised to the whole school with the intention of attracting more people to appreciate these students' research, but OOC it would be a thread where members post an RP of themselves explaining their work (you can make actual posters if you want, but visuals are not required). It will, like the workshop, be a semi-mass thread open to only club members, with the additional restriction of these club members being those who signed up as a presenter. You are allowed to RP anonymous or DNPC audience reactions, you can also mention your non-club friends' reactions if they gave you slight godmodding authority. Robin will likely also be presenting, so you cannot mention him walking around and nodding his head at you unless otherwise specified. If there are donations that year, presenters will be compensated (details in donation info below).