Abstracts for the Poster Sessions (some include the posters) and Art Displays
Browse the 2015 Poster and Art Displays Collections
Wildlife Rehabilitation and the Environment
04/24/2015Anthropogenic impacts to the environment form a suite of problems that are detrimental for native species: habitat loss and fragmentation, overexploitation, pollution, climate change, and the global re-distribution of non-native species. Wildlife rehabilitation centers are on the front lines of identifying and quantifying human impacts. This research uses historical records from the Stark Parks Wildlife and Rehabilitation Center, focusing on the taxa admitted to the clinic and the recovery rate of those taxa as a function of the cause of injury; natural or human-caused. We will also analyze results with respect to age and sex of the admitted species and the seasonality in which individuals are admitted. Learning more about what causes such injuries, whether it be pollution, predation, park visitors, etc., will give listeners a more well-rounded perspective of the importance of rehabilitation treatment and preventative measures.
The Life of Fred
04/24/2015A short comic illustrating and celebrating the life of Frederick Douglass in an analogous and modern setting. The comic focuses on his enslavement from an early age, his education, his incredible escape, as well as his eventual remarkable success and the influence that had. Also will be discussed; however, is Douglass’ famous speech “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” in which he detailed his experiences with slavery and the hypocrisy of a day commemorating freedom from tyrants in a nation where a sharply increasing number of people must live their lives as slaves. Connections between the past and the present will be made, uncovering why he made his speech at that time as well as what we can still learn from its wisdom and utilize in the modern day, such as the reasons that it did persuade his white audience and the effects of oppression on an individual.
That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles: The Effect of Food Craving on Working Memory
04/24/2015Previous research has suggested that preoccupying thoughts caused by food craving can impair performance on working memory tasks. This study tests this hypothesis by giving a baseline test of working memory and then randomly assigning participants to one of three experimental groups: 1) cookie craving unsatisfied, 2) cookie craving satisfied, and 3) a control group. Participants in the craving unsatisfied group were given a large chocolate chip cookie and told to look at it and smell it, but not eat it. Instead, they were given celery to eat. Participants in the craving satisfied group were permitted to eat the cookie. We hypothesize that working memory will decline for the craving unsatisfied group but rebound for the group that is allowed to eat the cookie. Implications for the role of preoccupying thoughts in working memory performance will be discussed.
Silent Outrage
04/24/2015This presentation focuses upon the lack of U.S. response to the German discovery of Polish mass graves in the forest of Katyn near Smolensk, Russia (1942-1943). The German military had found evidence of Soviet culpability; this evidence was labeled as propaganda by the United States government and ignored. In order to bolster their own findings, the German Reich requested numerous Red Cross investigations, and formed an investigative coalition constructed of forensic experts from outside of the German Reich. Although the evidence did suggest Soviet blame, no sanctions were ever made against the United States’ newly founded wartime ally, nor were any ever made post WWII; it was even suggested at Nuremberg that the Germans were responsible for the Polish deaths! In 1956, a U.S. congressional commission (the Madden Commission) investigated the happenings at Katyn; it found that the upper echelon of the United States government in place during 1942-1943 did know of the Soviet crime, and had swept it under the metaphorical rug for the good of the war effort by feeding the public statements declaring “German propaganda”. By analyzing primary documents collected by Polish historians Eugenia Maresch, Anna Cienciala and also the findings of the Madden Commission, it is the goal of this paper to demonstrate that the original evidence presented by the German Reich in 1943 was indeed enough to have raised an alarm, and to have been acted upon. Ignoring this evidence, the United States overlooked a humanitarian catastrophe in order to maintain a tempestuous alliance that would only lead to further conflict and for reasons of self-preservation.
Internships: Getting Your Foot in the Door
04/24/2015Employers are looking for more than great grades; internships have become the gold standard in job readiness. The Great Lakes Grant that was recently awarded to Kent State Stark has given greater opportunities to students to participate in paid internships within the community. In order to better serve the students of Kent State at Stark, The Corporate University is working with community organizations to create meaningful internship opportunities and it is necessary to assess the quality of such internships. Through interviews with HR professionals, Kent State’s Communication Program, and The Corporate University, as well as a review on the literature on this topic, we created new internship evaluation forms, which allow both the students and employers to assess the internship. We will be presenting a poster that highlights the importance of internships to Kent State students as well as ideas that the university can use to improve the internship process.