Aggies share research with state politicians
Undergraduate researchers from USU took a trip to the newly renovated Capitol building in Salt Lake City to present their research to legislators, and, according to Associate Vice President for Research Joyce Kinkead, possibly drum up some more funding for USU.
“The two research universities, Utah State and the University of Utah, are the two institutions that present their students on this day,” Kinkead said. “It’s not only to showcase our students but to let the legislators know the good work that’s being done by faculty and students here. If that results in enhanced funding, then that would be fabulous.”
Some of the students who presented this year include biology major Sherry Baker, who is studying cancer cell metastasis with faculty mentor Daryll DeWald; environmental engineering major Justin Berger, who is developing tools to provide online environmental observations of Utah’s watersheds with mentor Jeff Horsburgh of USU’s water research lab; geology majors Lynsie Daley and Shannon Babb, who conducted petrographic mapping of sandstone in the Uintah mountains with mentor Carol Dehler; Governor’s Scholar Katie Brown, a nutrition and food sciences major who investigated the eating habits of college freshmen with mentor Heidi Wengreen; and elementary education major Aubree Nielsen, who, along with her research partner Brianne Bartlett, has been researching advanced readers in elementary schools.
“In the wake of high stakes testing and school accountability systems, the needs of advanced readers have been shoved under the table,” Nielsen said. “Our project was to figure out the needs of the advanced readers. Often their needs aren’t met, and they aren’t challenged in school. I believe a child should be able to learn something new every day.”
Nielsen said she was contacted by a legislator who authored a bill to provide funding for advanced reading programs in elementary schools and wanted Nielsen to present her research to his committee.
“Many of these research projects are applicable to issues in society,” Kinkead said.
Another example of the real-world applications of USU student’s research is civil engineering major Kaitlin Neville, who is researching base isolators, the same technology which was just used to make the Capitol building seismically sound.
Kinkead said the undergraduate research day, now in its eighth year, was created because “there was some misperception on the role of a research university in undergraduate education. There were people who thought we should be focusing on teaching, not research. Our students know research is all about teaching and learning. We created this event so students could tell the story of how being at a research university influenced their undergraduate education. The misperception was that we should not be spending so much time on research. They thought that we weren’t paying attention to classroom issues and teaching.”
In all, 35 undergrads from USU went to Capitol Hill to display posters and discuss their research with legislators and members of the public.
“It’s to tell our story about what a research university can do for undergrads and give our own students the experience in talking to the public about their research and scholarship,” Kinkead said. “It looks really good on our students’ resumes that they’ve been selected to go to the Capitol.”
Nearly 100 current USU students are undergraduate research fellows, and the university’s Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities usually awards 60 grants annually to fund student projects. And 1,060 students are employed in campus research positions at USU in 2006-07, up from 702 in 2005-06.
“I am always impressed with how the senators and representatives come and visit the students in their districts and talk about what they’re doing,” Kinkead said. “Our government relations person, Michael Kennedy, says that now USU is known by the legislators for two things: Aggie Ice Cream and our posters on the hill.”
-graham.terry@aggiemail.usu.edu