Students practice what they learn
John Weeks
Issue date: 4/8/04 Section: News
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Although many people saw Tuesday as a break from classes, more than 300 students and nearly 150 faculty members opted to work overtime.
Students and faculty celebrated research in the 17th annual Undergraduate and second annual Graduate Research Conference Tuesday. The symposium was composed of 254 presentations, 325 student presenters and 148 faculty members.
"It is like a Disneyland day of scholarship," said Marc Rice, assistant professor of music.
Senior mathematics major Erin Gibeson contributed a presentation about the mathematics of musical tuning systems.
Gibeson said her math degree requires her to complete a research project, and she said she thought the student research conference would be good practice.
"I'm going to be a teacher eventually," Gibeson said. "I think just getting up in front of people, speaking and presenting a project is really beneficial."
Jeff Osborn, associate professor of biology and chairman of the student research committee, said each division has a faculty member on the committee.
"We wanted to make the day a campus-wide celebration that's a showcase for student work," Osborn said.
Tuesday's conference was the second year to include performance and studio art pieces, graduate students' presentations and its own Web site.
"We very overtly tried to pro-actively reach out to the whole campus and all disciplines," Osborn said.
He said he thinks students benefit significantly from practicing their discipline outside the classroom because it makes them more marketable.
"Having students engaged in real discovery is very critical," Osborn said.
Rice, the committee's fine arts representative, said the conference attempts to create a real-world element.
"This is organized the way professional conferences and meetings are organized," Rice said. "This kind of creativity is the type of work that students will be doing once they leave."
Janet Davis, professor of communication and the language and literature representative, said she is interested in research and active in pursuing her own scholarly career.
"You have to keep growing in your field, or ultimately, you are going to be very boring when you talk about it," Davis said.
Rice said the conference and committee is on the right track for success, but he said he hopes future conferences grow in attendance.
"My dream is to someday achieve on one level or another 100-percent campus involvement, where every student either presents or goes to something," Rice said.
Osborn said his goals for next year include allowing students to upload presentations online.