Victoria Farmer worked part-time at EDOR with Professor Rachael Taylor and Professor Jim Mann, while she completed her PhD. Her research project was the PLAY Study.
Play study
The Play study involved 900 children in Otago and Auckland and investigated whether changes in primary school play environments aimed at encouraging children to experience and manage risk, affected physical activity, body weight and bullying.
Victoria reports that the people attracted her to this area of research:
"My supervisors are very supportive and really help me in growing my research potential. I enjoy working with people and this is novel, exciting research as well as being a large, long-term study. It involves collaboration, networking, relationship building and problem-solving."
Working in a research environment
Victoria says: "Juggling multiple tasks and prioritising can be challenging when you have immediate things that need attention as well as tasks that need to be completed to achieve long-term goals. But having lots to do and getting the task done well has been one of the most rewarding parts of my job and PhD."
"I want to continue to learn and acquire new skills. You can never learn enough and I enjoy asking questions and finding the answers. The University is a good environment and there are so many opportunities when you have a solid background of research and have had experience in different areas."