In addition to the last-minute scramble by all students to turn in their final assignments for the semester, certain science students have been particularly busy after presenting their research at different conferences around the Midwest.
Senior Andrea Wallace presented her research at the poster session of the Midwest Ecology and Evolution Conference 2018 at Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station in early April. Professor of Biology Ranessa Cooper, who assisted Wallace in her research, joined her at the conference along with Associate Professor of Biology Jeffrey VanZant. Junior Erin Flaherty came to watch the presentation, as she plans on taking over Wallace’s research next year.
“Andrea presented her findings on floristic quality and compared her data to that of the baseline assessment of 2011,” Cooper said in an email.
Students from all over the Midwest came to present their research and learn about others’ research. Each presentation was around 15 minutes, aside from two-hour-long presentations from plenary speakers.
“I hope it becomes one of the annual conferences for our students to attend to present their thesis research projects,” Cooper said.
The biology honorary also recently hosted their annual Beta Beta Beta district convention. Students had the option to sign up and present their research on April 7 at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, Ohio, either orally or on a poster. The conference also featured a professional keynote speaker and an awards ceremony where Hillsdale students were recognized with multiple awards.
Senior Kelsey Gockman won second place on her poster presentation and senior Abigail Engel took home third place for her oral presentation.
Engel said she was able to determine whether the activity of the genes for these proteins are influenced by temperature by using the heat-shock proteins in the samples.
“There was so much really cool research being done and it was interesting to see research outside of Hillsdale,” Engel said.
Three psychology majors along with psychology department chairwoman and Psi Chi chapter adviser Kari McArthur traveled to the Midwest Psychological Association, an annual regional conference in Chicago, April 12-14.
Attendees included Senior Elyse Hutcheson, senior Mikaela Overton, and junior Lucile Townley, all Psi Chi members.
Overton’s research, social evaluations of preverbal infants as measured by physiological and behavioral responses, was an extension of research done by Assistant Professor of Psychology Kiley Hamlin of the University of British Columbia.
Hamlin ended up being at the conference and Overton got the chance to speak with her.
“It was honestly a surreal experience, meeting someone whose work I had been continuously reading for about a year now,” Overton said in an email.
This is the third year Hillsdale students have gone to the conference.
“The goal for next year is to get more psychology students involved,” Townley, who is next year’s Psi Chi president, said. “And more younger because having this opportunity early on would hopefully excite students and show them what a psychology major can do.”
