Last weekend, roughly 80 students from multiple colleges presented on various fields of study at the Penn York Undergraduate Research Conference, hosted by Houghton College. Michael Klausner, director of social sciences program and associate professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, said “The tone, presentations, attendance, and keynote speaker were all first rate.”
According to Laurie Dashnau, Houghton professor of writing and conference director, on Saturday approximately eighty students participated altogether from Houghton College, Hilbert College, St. Bonaventure University, Alfred University, the University of Pitt-Bradford, and the University of Pitt-Titusville.
Students had the opportunity to present their original pieces of work through oral and poster presentations in the subjects of physics, psychology, biology, chemistry, computer science, writing, linguistics, and history. Dashnau said the conference “affirms the high-quality of research students are doing” all while giving the students confidence and practice while sharing their information with professors and classmates.
Laura Johnson, a sophomore, gave a presentation titled “Caring for Caregivers: A Different Side of Alzheimer’s” in writing. “Conferences like this are important for scholastic growth,” Johnson said. “It allowed me to gain experience from presenting in front of an academic group of people that I don’t necessarily know, people who believe different things from me, and people who are trained to think thoughtfully.”
A group of students also participated with a presentation from the Science department. Sylvia Morrow, senior, gave a poster presentation titled, “A Study of Weak Magnetic Focusing” in physics. “Many of the presentations I have done in the past have been for people who are in physics,” Morrow said. “So it was interesting to have the opportunity to talk about my research with people who are not a part of that community.”
Kayla Miller and Olivia Morse, sophomores, gave a poster presentation on the “Relationship between Greenhouse Gases and Changes in Altitude.” Morse said, “The most valuable part of this experience was learning how to create a scientific poster that was visually appealing, concise, and informative.” While Miller said, “It took a while to put it in poster format. It was certainly busy trying to do it on top of homework for regular classes.”
A considerable amount of time was spent by each student preparing for this conference, not only in practicing to present their material, but also the amount of research for each paper and poster. Rebekah Kimble, senior, gave a presentation on “Martin Luther: Supporters and Detractors among the German Princes” in history. She spent a considerable amount of time writing and researching to prepare for the conference. Kimble said, “I gave a fifteen-minute oral presentation. I read it over a few times both to practice for the presentation and to reacquaint myself with the material.”
Jacob Hertzler, sophomore, gave a presentation in computer science titled, “Overlapping Community Detection in Dynamic Networks.” Hertzler said the overall work came from this summer “which totaled about six weeks worth along with about 8 months of prep on the topic over the school year last year.”
Morse said it was a great experience to present alongside other Houghton College students and other students from different colleges. Some of the presenting students also had some stories to tell about other presentations they attended. Johnson attended a presentation where a young man spoke about entomology, which is the consumption of insects for a main food source. She said, “He brought in cookies made with chocolate dipped crickets, along with cricket and mealworm quinoa for everyone to try. And it wasn’t half bad.”
