2008 Woodie Awards
Conference showcases research
Kalen Ponche
Issue date: 4/14/05 Section: News
Senior Christianne Greiert spent 25 minutes improvising Elizabethan court etiquette for last year's Student Research Conference: Truman's celebration of student research, scholarship and creative achievement.
This year she will perform in a presentation titled "Audition Showcase: Preparing for the Professional Theater" with senior Leslie Sikes.
Greiert and Sikes are just two of the 391 students who are giving a record 321 presentations at the 18th annual Student Research Conference today. In addition to the more traditional oral paper and poster presentations, some students will give performance art, studio art and technology showcase presentations.
"If I was looking at a scientific presentation, they can give me lots of information on theories," Greiert said. "We're different in that we are just putting information we know about human nature and what we observe out there in a more physical form."
Greiert and Sikes' each will present three audition pieces for the audience. Greiert said the presentation is based on the independent course Theater 481, in which she prepared several monologues and songs throughout the course of the semester. She also read the play from which the monologue came and researched the process of auditioning, she said.
"I pick 10 audition pieces I want to work through, and a faculty member critiques me and gives me pointers," she said. "It's just preparing for going out there. It helps build repertoire."
Greiert said she decided to participate in the Student Research Conference for the experience of performing for a larger audience.
"We need an audience, not necessarily for their feedback, but it's just a heightened [experience]," she said. "I think the hard part is that when you only perform for [your faculty adviser], your audience awareness goes down."
Junior Katie Hartmann also decided to participate in the conference because she hopes it will help her prepare for her future.
Hartmann said she hopes to go to graduate school for psychology and said presenting is an integral part of the field.
"I completed an independent study, and I thought it'd be a good way to improve my skills in public speaking," she said.
Hartmann will give a presentation titled "Math Anxiety at Truman" with senior Sarah Macey.
Hartmann's faculty adviser, Scott Alberts, assistant professor of mathematics, surveyed a group of freshmen on their level of math anxiety in fall 2003. Hartmann and Macey re-collected data this spring and studied how the students' answers changed.
"Math anxiety is when people feel tense or anxious about math, and that can interfere with their performance," she said. "People who had taken required math courses, their math anxiety decreased significantly."
Hartmann said they saw an increase in math anxiety in students enrolled in calculus.
"[The finding] wasn't significant," Hartmann said. "But it was there."
Hartmann said getting ready for the conference took careful preparation.
"It takes a lot of organization, making sure you don't do extra work and regulating yourself so you keep up with deadlines," she said.
Presenting at the conference offers students the chance to directly engage in their discipline through scholarly and original work, said Jeffrey Osborn, professor of biology and chairman of the Student Research Conference.
"By doing biology, by doing social science, by doing nursing, you learn so much more about your discipline and your curriculum than if you're just book learning," he said. "It's a great way for students to become interested and engaged."
Several changes to the Student Research Conference's Web site have made it more user-friendly for students, faculty and conference attendees, Osborn said. The submission process for abstracts is entirely electronic, and now students can create a custom schedule of presentations they want to attend.
"It's an opportunity to develop a Web site and use it to showcase creative work of the students and to make it more accessible to students," Osborn said.
Additionally, students now are able to upload files, such as graphs, papers and video, to the Student Research Conference Web site, which permanently will be archived with their abstracts.
"If a music student had composed a new piece, they could upload a digital audio file, an mp3 file of their composition," Osborn said.
This is the third year the abstracts have been online. This year also follows the trend of the last few years with an increased number of presentations and presenters. Osborn said the committee has tried to spread the news of the opportunities for students to present to teachers and departments.
"This is a great way to showcase the innovative and exciting and original scholarship work that our students are doing," Osborn said.
Elizabeth Paul, chair of the psychology department at the College of New Jersey, is the plenary speaker for the conference. She will be speaking on community-based research at 11 a.m. in VH 1000. She spoke Wednesday about the emotional realities of hooking up in college.
back to main page
This year she will perform in a presentation titled "Audition Showcase: Preparing for the Professional Theater" with senior Leslie Sikes.
Greiert and Sikes are just two of the 391 students who are giving a record 321 presentations at the 18th annual Student Research Conference today. In addition to the more traditional oral paper and poster presentations, some students will give performance art, studio art and technology showcase presentations.
"If I was looking at a scientific presentation, they can give me lots of information on theories," Greiert said. "We're different in that we are just putting information we know about human nature and what we observe out there in a more physical form."
Greiert and Sikes' each will present three audition pieces for the audience. Greiert said the presentation is based on the independent course Theater 481, in which she prepared several monologues and songs throughout the course of the semester. She also read the play from which the monologue came and researched the process of auditioning, she said.
"I pick 10 audition pieces I want to work through, and a faculty member critiques me and gives me pointers," she said. "It's just preparing for going out there. It helps build repertoire."
Greiert said she decided to participate in the Student Research Conference for the experience of performing for a larger audience.
"We need an audience, not necessarily for their feedback, but it's just a heightened [experience]," she said. "I think the hard part is that when you only perform for [your faculty adviser], your audience awareness goes down."
Junior Katie Hartmann also decided to participate in the conference because she hopes it will help her prepare for her future.
Hartmann said she hopes to go to graduate school for psychology and said presenting is an integral part of the field.
"I completed an independent study, and I thought it'd be a good way to improve my skills in public speaking," she said.
Hartmann will give a presentation titled "Math Anxiety at Truman" with senior Sarah Macey.
Hartmann's faculty adviser, Scott Alberts, assistant professor of mathematics, surveyed a group of freshmen on their level of math anxiety in fall 2003. Hartmann and Macey re-collected data this spring and studied how the students' answers changed.
"Math anxiety is when people feel tense or anxious about math, and that can interfere with their performance," she said. "People who had taken required math courses, their math anxiety decreased significantly."
Hartmann said they saw an increase in math anxiety in students enrolled in calculus.
"[The finding] wasn't significant," Hartmann said. "But it was there."
Hartmann said getting ready for the conference took careful preparation.
"It takes a lot of organization, making sure you don't do extra work and regulating yourself so you keep up with deadlines," she said.
Presenting at the conference offers students the chance to directly engage in their discipline through scholarly and original work, said Jeffrey Osborn, professor of biology and chairman of the Student Research Conference.
"By doing biology, by doing social science, by doing nursing, you learn so much more about your discipline and your curriculum than if you're just book learning," he said. "It's a great way for students to become interested and engaged."
Several changes to the Student Research Conference's Web site have made it more user-friendly for students, faculty and conference attendees, Osborn said. The submission process for abstracts is entirely electronic, and now students can create a custom schedule of presentations they want to attend.
"It's an opportunity to develop a Web site and use it to showcase creative work of the students and to make it more accessible to students," Osborn said.
Additionally, students now are able to upload files, such as graphs, papers and video, to the Student Research Conference Web site, which permanently will be archived with their abstracts.
"If a music student had composed a new piece, they could upload a digital audio file, an mp3 file of their composition," Osborn said.
This is the third year the abstracts have been online. This year also follows the trend of the last few years with an increased number of presentations and presenters. Osborn said the committee has tried to spread the news of the opportunities for students to present to teachers and departments.
"This is a great way to showcase the innovative and exciting and original scholarship work that our students are doing," Osborn said.
Elizabeth Paul, chair of the psychology department at the College of New Jersey, is the plenary speaker for the conference. She will be speaking on community-based research at 11 a.m. in VH 1000. She spoke Wednesday about the emotional realities of hooking up in college.
