|
Contents
Notes from the Collaborative
A Note from the Collaborative Director
Collaborative Opportunities
Research & Academic Travel Funding Opportunities
Collaborative Research Showcase
2011 Summer-Fall Collaborative Grants Awards
Snapshot of Summer-Fall Collaborative Grants
Student-Faculty Development Endowment Fund Award Recipients
McNair Scholars Presentations
Student Profiles
United Nations New York Trip
Sponsor: Dr. Gratzia Villarroel
VanSchyndel & Hill-Soderlund
Important Dates
Mar. 19, 2012 Collaborative Summer-Fall Grant applications due
Mar. 29-31, 2012 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)
Apr. 20, 2012 Collaborative Continuation Grant applications due
May 4, 2012 Student Academic Travel Grant and Attendee Grant applications due
|
2011 Summer-Fall Collaborative Grants Awards
Descriptions of 2011 Summer-Fall Research
Teena Carroll and Haoqi Chen, “Ancient Egypt
Meets Ancient Greece: Combining Egyptian Fractions with Pythagorean Triples”
Ancient Egyptians used a time consuming and
inefficient method to write down fractions. Unlike modern and other historical
fractional systems, the same fraction could be written in infinitely many
different ways. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms of Egypt the number one had great significance, as evidenced by the
fact that the "Eye of Horus" used the same symbol. Possibly
because of this religious importance, the only "acceptable" fractions
used one as their numerator. In our research, we count some of the ways that
Egyptians could add fractions totaling to one. We look at many aspects of this counting problem; limiting the type, the
number, or the size of the fractions we use. For instance, we count how
many "short" sequences of fractions using only even numbers as
denominators there are. In the course of this project we have developed a
computer program that lists all of the Egyptian Fractions satisfying certain
parameters.
Additionally,
we have found a connection between certain sets of Egyptian fractions and
sequences of Pythagorean triples.
Pythagorean triples (a,b,c) are any three whole numbers so that a2
+b2 - c2. As originally studied in Ancient
Greece, each such triple gives the edge lengths of a right triangle. The
particular sequences of triples that we have found can be put together to form
spirals of right triangles. Our research introduces infinitely many of these spirals; where as far as we know only one
Pythagorean spiral was previously identified.
Anindo Choudhury and Eric Gale, “Parasites of
fishes of Soberania National Park, Chagres River drainage, Panama”
This is a continuation and extension of a project
started in January 2010. We will continue to collect and study the parasites of
freshwater fishes of the Chagres River
Basin, in Panama. We will examine freshwater fish species for their parasites
from the Chagres River proper, and from 4 tributaries, Rio Frijoles,
Limbo, La Seda and Mendoza. In August 2011 we will build on and expand the 2010 sampling to document and
analyze the diversity of the helminth parasite fauna. We will evaluate
the potential that this information has to address biogeographical patterns on
a broader scale related to the historical Great American Biotic Interchange.
Karlyn Crowley and Gretchen Panzer, “(Un)natural
Birth?: Gender Essentialism in Natural Childbirth Debates”
The documentary, The
Business of Being Born (2007, www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com), critiques the American hospital birth system as over-medicalized,
unnecessarily expensive, and dangerous.
The goal of the film is for more low-risk pregnant women and their
partners to embrace their birth options and opt for natural childbirth rather
than be “subjected” to hospital interventions such as a caesarian section. While we both admire the film and agree that
it presents a powerful and necessary alternative to “medicalized” childbirth,
we are both troubled by the language of what feminists call “gender
essentialism,” especially the privileging of certain forms of the “natural”
over the “socially constructed.” This
film is emblematic of the natural childbirth movement in its problematic
assumptions that say “natural” is always better. Our goal is to write an article that, while
sympathetic, takes critiques of the “natural” into account and tries to find a
middle ground in these contentious debates.
Jim W. Neuliep and Morgan L. Johnson, “A
Cross-Cultural Comparison of Ecuadoran and US Face, Facework, and Communication
Conflict Styles: An Extension
of Face Negotiation Theory”
The specific
focus of this study is to cross-culturally compare face, facework, and
communication conflict styles between
Ecuadoran and US college students. Participants in this study will include
Ecuadoran college students from Universidad San Francisco de Quito, (Ecuador)
and US native born students from St. Norbert College. Participants will
be exposed to hypothetical conflict scenarios and will then respond to a series
of documented valid and reliable Likert-type instruments that measure their
preferred face, facework, and communication conflict styles. The responses to
these instruments will be statistically analyzed for comparisons between the
two groups.
Matthew Stollak, Kevin Scribner, and Jordan Zeni, “The
Impact of Social Media Policies on the Staffing and Socialization Process”
Over
the past five years social networking has continuously grown into what has
become a major aspect of everyday life, especially among college students and
recent graduates. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and
Twitter are used as a means of communication with others. This online
interaction has lead to disciplinary action, lost jobs, and an ever thinning
line between work and private life. Many institutions have begun implementing
social networking policies in an attempt to protect themselves and their
employees. These new policies are extremely controversial as many argue that
they infringe on employee rights. We purpose to examine the impact that social
networking has on the workforce and the employers. The parties we will be
focusing on are employers that have implemented social networking policies,
employers that have not, and the employees of both.
|
