2 - What is my prior experience in academic or professional research?

I have only one memory that sticks out to me as truly being "academic" research: surveying classmates for Psychology 1010.

Sure, I have spent a majority of my life with Google at my fingertips and an undying urge to answer any question that pops into my head, but that doesn't truly qualify is "research" to me. And again, sure, I have spent some days just dumping hours into researching absurd topics like the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the history of cocaine in the United States, and a thousand different science topics brought to me by Veritasium or Vsauce, but did I bring anything new to the field? No, not really, I just sought out what already existed.

In Psychology 101 we were tasked with conducting a survey on a topic of our choice. I chose to conduct a survey on the average hours of sleep my fellow classmates were getting. After conducting a survey of 100 people, I recall having to pull assumptions from the data, such as what groups of people were more likely to sleep well. I do not remember what I learned, but I do remember being fascinated in how differently athletes, studious students, and slackers compared.

Outside of Psychology 101, I haven't done much research except for projects that revolve around gathering knowledge as opposed to generating it.