Classes were cancelled March 30 so that students from the College of Arts and Sciences could present their work to their peers at the second annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Symposium. Dr. Dawn Webber, dean of CAS, welcomed students, faculty, staff and friends to the event.

“The symposium is an opportunity for us to feature a number of outstanding students – students who are making a difference in our world through their original research and creative endeavors,” Webber said. “Today is a day of celebration.”

Besides gaining experience in their field, Webber said students who complete major research projects and creative works are more likely to remain at the university and go to graduate school.

Throughout the day, 65 students presented 53 projects from various fields, ranging from biological experiments to psychological studies to works of art.

The event was divided into seven sessions of oral presentations and two poster-based presentations.

Session One

The first presenter of the day was Phillip Wages, a senior biology/toxicology major, who shared the results of his study, “Joint Toxicity of Permethrin and Atrazine to Zebrafish (Danio rerio).”

The study looked at the way pesticides affect non-target organisms. He said this subject has been well-studied in the case of individual pesticides, but the effects of combinations of pesticides are not often considered.

Wages studies the combined effects of permethrin, a common pesticide used on pests in an urban setting, and atrazine, a common agricultural pesticide for weeds. He used zebrafish as subjects, measuring their growth and ability to move.

Permethrin had significant impact on the fish both in terms of growth and mobility when used individually, but the addition of atrazine to the permethrin had a minimal effect.

In this case, the mixture is non-additive, according to Wages, which means that the combination does not have a significant effect.

Senior Emily Hoernschemeyer, a creative writing major, followed Wages’ presentation with a reading from her novel, “Redeeming Elise.”

Hoernschemeyer read a portion of the first chapter, which depicts an emotional argument between Elise and her mother.

“She was a balloon that had been filled with helium…” Hoernschemeyer read. “…She needed an outlet, somewhere for the atoms inside her head to escape to. …Elise scanned the yard again, looking for anything that could stand the hot air inside her.”

In the following scene, Elise takes her anger out on a trash can, beating it repeatedly.

Several narrative comments and bits of dialogue foreshadowed elements of the plot in the rest of the novel.

“‘You probably have no idea what Mom and Dad did to us,'” one character said to Elise in the novel, setting up the rest of the story and creating suspense.

The third presentation was a return to science with a study by Lauren Bernath, a senior from the family and consumer sciences department, whose presentation explored “The Effects of Fair-Trade Knowledge on Buying Habits of College-Aged Consumers.”

Bernath said that, for the purposes of her study, fair trade was defined as an organized social movement and marketing-based approach to improve working conditions in developing countries.

Her study was designed to find out how much students already know about fair trade and if knowledge of the subject would affect their buying habits.

Bernath surveyed students before and after showing them a brief film about fair trading practices. The results of her study showed that 79 percent had little or no previous knowledge.

Her hypotheses that students would think more about their buying habits after viewing the DVD were supported by the study, with 64 percent responding that they did intend to purchase clothes from stores that support fair trade in the future.

The final project from the first oral session was a speech by Courtney Long, a senior speech communication major. Titled “Media Bites Dog: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Myth and Menace of Pit Bulls,” her presentation explored the reputation of the pit bull and how the media may have affected the way the public perceives the breed of dog.

She cited the Best Friends’ Society’s definition of a pit bull as “short-haired, muscular mutts; gentle, loving,” but added that most people perceive pit bulls as violent.

“Another common myth is that pit bulls are ticking time bombs,” Long said, adding that there is no factual evidence to support this claim. “Just like humans, dogs should be treated as individuals.”

Long compared the raising of dogs to parenting; some “bad” children behave that way because of how their parents raised them. Similarly, according to Long, some dogs are “bad” because they were raised to compete in dog fights or serve as guard dogs.

Session Two

The second oral session of the day commenced at 10:15 a.m.

Sara Garksa, a senior English major, was the first to share her presentation on the play “Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman,” which was written by Laurence Sterne back in the 18th century.

Garska’s focus was on a crucial component to the play: the role men played during childbirth. In one of the most intriguing moments of the presentation, Garska discussed the crudely outdated instruments used to deliver babies, such as forceps. Overall, the presentation was informative as well as enlightening.

After Garska’s discussion on 18th century procedures pertaining to childbirth, junior Edward Carney, junior Jordan Black, Melissa Bloomfield, sophomore Jacob Haury and sophomore Katie Vargo demonstrated a dancing genre known as Plastique Animee. This unique form of expression through dance is based on the musical nuances within a song. For example, if there is a crescendo within the music, the performers might incorporate wider, looser body movements to imply expansion.

As music majors, the group acknowledged the pedagogical value Plastique Animee could have when teaching music since it is an alternate way to think about it.

The group danced to a tango number and depicted the tension and aggression in the song through fast, jerky movements; through these movements, they were able to tell a story.

Senior Katie Mock followed up with this performance with her presentation on adoption success rates in comparison to a child’s mental health or behavior.

Mock found, through the research she has conducted, there is in fact a positive correlation between adoption success and potential disabilities a child may have.

The final presentation of the oral session was conducted by senior Sam Becherer, who is an English major. He dedicated his research on a type of revolutionary music genre known as “Noise Music,” which is a cacophony of sounds that are framed to have an aesthetic quality.

Becherer addressed the history of noise music, as well as various bands that have adapted the music style such as Throbbing Gristle, and worked to convey to the audience why Noise Music is not simply noise. Overall, Becherer’s presentation gave the audience a new way to think about music.

Session Three

During the third oral session, Joshua Risner presented the idea that an artist’s philosophy is reflected in their artwork and showcased his own art while explaining what each piece means to him.

“I believe that my role as an artist is to depict [parts] of reality that do not have a physical presence,” Risner said.

Risner discussed Pietà, a piece by Michelangelo; Duchamp’s Fountain, a urinal submitted as “found art”; and Odd Nerdrum, who Risner considers a personal influence.

Risner pointed out that not everyone grasps the idea that the artist is trying to convey in their work.

“It’s not just that people don’t want to understand, maybe they can’t,” Risner said. “Maybe we can’t see the way we’re meant to see.”

After Risner’s display, Javier Felipe Garcia-Wasnich presented “Pop,” a reading from several of his original poems.

His first reading was, “The World Went Through Amherst Massachusetts.”

“That is a poem based partially on the life of Emily Dickinson and partially on my fantasies of the life of Emily Dickinson,” Garcia-Wasnich said.

“I have focused my poems on searching through two different trends in culture,” he added. The first trend is high-brow culture, such as Emily Dickinson, and the second is pop culture, such as his second reading, which was an excerpt from a poem titled “Theology of a Real Housewife.”

“This poem kind of has the narrator embody one of these housewives,” he said, referring to the various reality TV shows about housewives in various cities.

Session Six

Any close observers that attended the symposium may have been able to draw connections between each of the day’s presentations. Each session featured a wide variety of fields, but in some cases, they could still relate to one another.

One primary connection that related several presentations was the exploration of the complexities of each student’s specific study in comparison to the complexities of life at large.

During the 3 p.m. session, the diverse set of presentations included an examination of the government’s financial balance, a study of philosophy in a quantum mechanics principle, a report of conditions for the homeless and a performance of an operatic scene.

Economics major Sarah Muse presented “A Reconstruction of the Federal Government’s Balance Sheet,” in which she argued for using the National Balance Sheet to measure the financial wealth of the United States.

Muse said that National Balance Sheet includes assets and liabilities held by the United States that are otherwise unaccounted for. She said that with the National Balance Sheet’s inclusion of these missing financial elements, there is $64.36 trillion that the federal government must pay for.

The presentation ended by posing the question of what should be done to correct this, weighing between cuts in spending and raising taxes and pondering if there is nothing that can correct this deficit.

Philosophy major Keith Darsee presented “The Philosophical Implications of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle,” which looked deeply into the idea that the position and momentum of a particle cannot both be exactly known; for example, the more precisely its position is known, the less precisely its momentum will be known.

In a crash course of philosophy and quantum mechanics, Darsee determined that this principle is philosophically sound. He said that people cannot be absolutely certain of which choices they will make, nor can they control their exact progression in reality; to have such control over the moral outcomes in one’s life, he said, would create moral insignificance within that person.

English major Brian Stevens presented “Homelessness and Humanity in Cleveland,” for which he lived as a homeless person for a period of time in Cleveland. Stevens said, “To solve the problem of homelessness, I had to find an alternative way of understanding it.”

Stevens lived out the hardships and struggles that the homeless naturally encounter, as well as those brought on by improper conditions in various shelters and centers. He shared his experiences with the many people he met and how they relied on each other.

He also told of the challenges he faced with the cold and using the bathroom, among other issues, and he pointed out the various ways in which homeless centers need to improve. Such ways include creating a safe atmosphere, eliminating staff violence, having appropriate supplies and providing various basic needs instead of just a few.

Finally, the first scene from Gian Carlo Menotti’s opera “The Old Maid and the Thief” was performed by music students Derek Jackenheimer, Kara Minton, Johanna Regan and Katie Vargo. In the scene, normal conversations were beautifully sung and the seemingly idly chitchat between Regan and Vargo’s characters showed humorous tension between them, as well a deeper drama within them as they sang in unison, “Life is but a broken promise.”

Minton added to the wonderful vocal talent and Jackenheimer, an equally skilled singer, brought more laughs as a handsome and charming beggar who was nearly disrobed by the women in a very comedic end to the scene.

The singing group emphasized the amount of preparation in their rehearsals, similar to the amount of research and reflection that Muse, Darsee and Stevens committed to their respective projects.

The students that displayed work on this day spent numerous hours researching, crafting and developing their theses and presentations, all to explore the complexities of their chosen topics in the manner that they wanted to. They seized the opportunity to study what is meaningful to them and present it to their peers and professors, enhancing their collegiate experience and the education of presenters and audience members alike.

Collegian editors Missy Loar, Amanda Eakin, Cody White and Glenn Battishill contributed to the reporting of this story.