MC alumnus Colby Beach’s Senior Study research accepted for publication
Jan. 27, 2021
Maryville College alumnus Colby Beach ’19 recently learned that his Senior Study research at MC, which explored physical activity behaviors associated with playing Pokémon Go, has been accepted for publication in Games for Health Journal.
Beach, who majored in exercise science, participated in several research opportunities as a student at Maryville College, under the direction of Dr. Jeremy Steeves, associate professor of exercise science. His Senior Study, “Differences in Physical Activity During Walking and Playing Pokémon Go: A Controlled Experiment,” was deemed “exemplary” by the Division of Health Sciences and Outdoor Studies and added to the College’s library collection. He worked to turn that research into a manuscript, which was accepted in December 2020 for publication in Games for Health Journal.
This is Beach’s second publication stemming from his undergraduate research at Maryville College. His first came from using data he helped collect from Gabrielle Billstrom’s ’16 exemplary Senior Study, “Maryville-Alcoa Greenway: A Descriptive Epidemiology of Users and Physical Activity Behaviors.” Beach’s observational study, “The Physical Activity Patterns of Greenway Users Playing Pokémon Go: A Natural Experiment,” was published in the February 2019 issue of Games for Health Journal.
Beach also will present similar research at the American College of Sports Medicine’s (ACSM) 68th annual meeting this June. Since the research was not published at the time of abstract submission, it was still eligible for a conference presentation. Using the same data, Beach submitted an abstract titled, “How Pokémon Go Playing Style Impacts the Volume and Pattern of Physical Activity” for presentation at the conference, which will be held virtually.
Beach, who is from Maryville, Tenn., is entering his final semester at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he is pursuing a Master of Public Health (MPH) in Global Health Epidemiology and Disease Control. He was awarded a competitive graduate teaching assistantship and works in the undergraduate exercise physiology labs in the university’s Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences.
“It’s really rewarding securing another published article and adding it to my CV through my research at Maryville College with Dr. Steeves,” Beach said. “It has prepared me to continue publishing research on physical activity, such as how COVID-19 has impacted physical activity patterns in the United States (my current master’s thesis at GWU). My experience at MC continues to be a major asset as I look toward applying for Ph.D. programs and starting my public health career.”
Steeves said he is not surprised by his former student’s continued success. He describes Beach as “one of the hardest working undergraduates I have worked with, who seemed to have an insatiable appetite for gaining research experience.”
“The summer (2016) before he stepped onto campus as a sophomore, he contacted me to see if there were any ongoing research projects that he could become involved with,” Steeves recalled. “That summer, he volunteered to help with variety of primary data collection research opportunities, including dedicating over 100 hours to help assess the physical activity behaviors of greenway users in Alcoa and Maryville, Tenn. Additionally, he helped collect data at county fairs as part of a University of Tennessee, Knoxville-led project interested in nutrition, access to healthy food, health and physical activity of those living in rural Appalachia.”
“Colby went above and beyond the majority of our students in terms of gaining research expertise,” Steeves continued. “As a result, to his tenacity, he produced a very impressive undergraduate research portfolio.”