Undergraduate Research Conference
Past Projects - 2008
Poster 1
Title: The Relationship Between Life Stress And GPA:
Authors: Brett Goodermote & Kerry Peck
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini
This
study looks at life stress and coping skills in traditional and
non-traditional college students in relation to GPA. Researchers used
an electronic survey to obtain information. The hypothesis is that
non-traditional students have acquired better stress coping skills due
to their life experiences and will have an average GPA higher than the
traditional student. It is also suggested that because non-traditional
students have better coping skills they may assign less importance to
traumatic events than traditional students.
Poster 2
Title: Timeline of the Atom
Authors: Darsa Donelan, Bridget Gormalley, & David Spolidoro.
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Adrienne Wootters
We
report on the key experiments and theories that led to the development
of a quantum model of the atom. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century, scientists made several important discoveries about
electromagnetic radiation. This, combined with the discovery and study
of the electron, led Niels Bohr to publish his quantum model of the
hydrogen atom in 1915. Throughout the early part of the twentieth
century, his model of the atom spurred scientists to further
investigate the makeup of the atom and led to the development of
quantum mechanics.
Poster 3
Title: Acquisition of Behavior Under a Fixed-Duration Schedule
Authors: George Charest, Jonathan Fox, Rebecca Gillespie, Brett Goodermote, Kara Gulotta, & Kerry Peck
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tom Byrne
Research
has demonstrated that both humans and nonhumans can acquire novel
operant responding when reinforcement is delayed. However, even small
reinforcement delays seem to impair learning and lead to adventitious
reinforcement of arbitrary behaviors. The current investigation extends
this work by examining whether human volunteers can acquire
fixed-duration responding in the absence of any explicit verbal
instructions. Upon entering our laboratory, subjects will be told that
they can earn points exchangeable for money. Subjects will sit in front
of an operant-response panel containing two buttons. One button,
assigned randomly, will produce points according to a fixed-duration 5
second schedule.
Poster 4
Title: Effects of Flooding on Macros in the Suncook River
Author: Corrinn Shogry
Faculty Advisor: Prof. Elena Traister
The
Suncook River located in Epsom, New Hampshire suffered a major flood on
May 16, 2006. This naturally occurring phenomenon caused the river to
create a new channel in which the entire river currently flows. A major
impact from this event was drastic sediment movement and scour along
the banks of the river. This project aims to identify changes in the
river ecosystem through collection and identification of
macroinvertebrates. Samples were collected quarterly throughout new and
old portions of the river in order to determine the impact of this
flood on the habitat and water quality of the river.
Poster 5
Title: The Effect of Mortality Salience on Religion
Authors: Darren Fitzgerald & Kim Kneutter
Faculty Advisor: Dr. April Horstman Reser
The
threat of death in TMT is referred to as mortality salience (MS). In
our MS manipulation, participants watch a bloody scene from a movie
depicting a battle from WWII and then are asked to respond to questions
about their religious beliefs. Participants in the control condition
watch a neutral video about spending time with other people. Our
hypothesis is that MS is causing people to re-examine their previously
held beliefs, thus causing them to do an "about face" with respect to
their faith.
Poster 6
Title: Aggression in College Students
Authors: Nicole Castella & Jonathan Fox
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini
In
this study we looked at types of aggression, overt and relational, in
the college community. We were interested in the circumstances that
elicited aggressive behavior, as well as the groups of people it occurs
most frequently in. We hypothesized that most aggression would occur
between sports team members and members of greek organizations because
of their wide social network. We also anticipated that alcohol and drug
use would be a predicting factor of aggression.
Poster 7
Title: Kids and Bullying: A World of Misperception
Authors: Nicole Castella, Angel Dailey,Rachel Pike, & Hannah Ross
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini
The
purpose of this study was to look at the relationship between beliefs
about bullying social norms and bullying behavior. We questioned 4th
and 8th graders first, about their opinions on bullying and second,
what they perceived their peersí opinions of bullying to be. We
anticipated that there would be a discrepancy between the student's
perceptions of their peerís beliefs and what their peers actually
thought, and we hypothesized that there would be bigger misperceptions
among the 8th graders, girls, and those students who tended to be the
victims of aggression.
Poster 8
Title: The Effects of Stress on Eating Patterns
Authors: Michelle LeBlanc & Alicia Miller
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini
The
present study investigated the effect of stress on male and female
college students' eating patterns. The main purpose of the study was to
find the difference between restrained and unrestrained eaters. It was
hypothesized that highly stressed female eaters who are considered
restrained eaters would eat more than unrestrained female eaters. It
was also hypothesized that female participants would report more
disordered eating patterns than males, regardless of being restrained
or unrestrained
Poster 9
Title: Neurotransmitters of Aiptasia
Author: Samantha Bowers
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anne Goodwin
Aiptasia, a sea anemone, has a nerve net distributed throughout the body. Neutrotransmitters initiate anemone muscle contractions in response to nutrient and wounding stimuli. In this project, I am identifying the neurotransmitters responsible for tentacle contractions in Aiptasia. First, pinch and electric stimuli were used to initiate tentacle contraction. Addition of the neurotransmitters epinephrine and antho RF amide also caused contraction, with higher doses resulting in shorter tentacles. Acetylcholine had no effect. To determine if epinephrine is the actual neurotransmitter used to regulate responses to pinching and mild electricity, I will add epinephrine receptor blockers before providing the stimuli.
Poster 10
Title: Ocean Conditions: Effects on Anemone Symbionts
Author: Steven Fikes
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anne Goodwin
Aiptasia
pallida is a tropical anemone that contains symbiotic algae,
dinoflagellates of genus Symbiodinium. Certain environmental conditions
such as ocean warming cause symbiont loss among many species of coral,
resulting in bleaching and death. My research focuses on how specific
conditions affect the algae living inside the body of an Aiptasia
individual. I am determining how changes in temperature, pH, and
salinity, both singly and in combination, affect the numbers of
symbionts living in the ocean.
Poster 11
Title: Real Time to Online: Assession Relationships Among "Communicator Styles" and Personality
Authors: Stephanie Cassie & Mychal Machado
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Maria Bartini
The
present study sought to explore the predictive ability of specific
personality traits on college students' communication preferences.
Students from a western Massachusetts college were recruited to answer
questions from the MBTI extroversion/introversion scale, the Social
Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and an
original scale designed to assess people's preferences for
communicating with friends, acquaintances, and professors. Researchers
then used a standard multiple regression model as a method of assessing
the ability of self-esteem, social anxiety, and
extroversion/introversion to predict the types of communication styles
people will adopt.
Skeptics Fair
Students
from PSYC 299, The Psychology of Superstition and the Unexplained, will
present results of their scholarly investigations of a variety of
unusual claims. Topics include therapeutic touch, electronic voice
phenomena, alien abductions, dowsing, perpetual motion machines, animal
acupuncture, and many others.
Papers
Title: From the Bomb to the Ballot
Author: Michael Jarvis
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
My
research project has focused on the change of the IRA from the bomb to
the ballot box. Throughout the 1980s to the 1990s the IRA slowly
started to change its policy from using violence to achieve its goals
to using politics and working to agreements with the British
government. My research has focused on this turn by looking at books
and articles that have talked about this change and including several
primary sources to help explain why the IRA changed its mean to achieve
the same ends.
Title: Causes of the Rebirth of the IRA in the 60s & 70s
Author: Heather Mackesey
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
After
a period of some peace, during the late 1960s and early 1970s the Irish
Republican Army (IRA) began to re-emerge in Northern Ireland, a time
known as the Troubles. There were many factors that led to the rebirth
of the IRA. Incidents and policy issues such as the civil rights
movement, interment without trial, Bloody Sunday, and the Sunningdale
Agreement all helped the re-emergence of the IRA during this time
period.
Title: Adults' Perceptions of Child and Adolescent Mental Disorders
Author: Jennifer Hug
Faculty Advisor: Maria Bartini
Previous
research suggests that essentialism and labeling are correlated with
the stigma assigned to social categories. However, this research has
neglected adults' perceptions of mentally ill youths. Due to this I
hypothesized the following: (a) children's/adolescents' mental
disorders would be essentialized and correlated with lower perceived
status; (b) youths with a diagnostic label would be more greatly
stigmatized; (c) that adolescents and children would be perceived
differently. In order to evaluate these hypotheses, a series of ANOVA's
were conducted revealing a main effect of essentialism in adults'
perceptions. Results also indicated that adults perceived children with
depression more negatively than those with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorder or obsessive compulsive disorder.
Title: Terrorism in Chechnya
Author: Luis Torres
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
If
we want to truly understand the evolution of terrorism in Chechnya, we
must look at the development of the first Russo-Chechen war of
1994-1996 and the events leading up to it, when pivotal actors such as
ShamilBasayev, DzokharDudayev, Boris Yeltsin, and countless members of
the Russian siloviki all collided in a struggle to mold the newly
independent Chechnya to their own aims. An examination of these
elements reveals that terrorism in Chechnya developed because of the
nature of Chechens.
Title: La Violencia and the Effects it Had on Colombia
Author: Caitlin Schneider
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
After
the eruption of La Violencia Colombia faced a time when politics was
ruled by violence and ripped the country apart. The violence
discredited any faith the people of Colombia had in their government
and created a long road of recovery that was not very successful.
However, the fight was much longer and drawn out then any country has
seen before. La Violencia affected the country of Colombia in many
ways. The people of Colombia in the time immediately following La
Violencia could no longer
Title: World War II: Life on the British Home Front
Auther: Jacob Brundige
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
This
project will explore the impact of the Second World War on the lives of
the British people. Issues such as the evacuation of children,
rationing, and changes in womenís roles will be used as examples of
change. Ultimately, the project will focus on how these changes stuck
in the minds of the people during the post-war period and helped
introduce new ideas into the British social and welfare systems."
Title: Shining Path
Author: Joseph Baker
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
The
Shining Path was a group of Maoist guerilla terrorists in Peru over a
dominating twelve years from 1980-1992. The attacks made by the Shining
Path were both random attacks and targeted individuals or structures.
My research explored the objectives of the Shining Path, the attacks
that occurred, and the Peruvians, which were, affected the most. I
argue that the objectives were to inflict fear on the Peruvians, along
with political discontent. The Shining Path was looking for complete
control over Peru.
Title: Common Place Books of Medieval & Renaissance Britain
Author: Lyndsay DeBord
Faculty Advisor: Prof. Rosanne Denhard
In
England, I researched Medieval and Renaissance "common place books." I
incorporated on-site learning at historic sites/museums and archival
library research. Common place books, or miscellanies, were a way of
compiling valued information: letters, recipes, prayers, scholarly
work, etc. In my archival research, I examined materials at the library
of York Minster, the British Library, the archives at Westminster
Abbey, and the British Museum. My paper discusses the miscellany's
importance in the 16th and 17th centuries. Further, my presentation
will show specific examples/pages from the researched common place
books.
Title: 1983 Beirut Marine Barracks Bombing
Author: Steve DeSantis
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
My
Research topic is the 1983 Beirut Marine barrack bombing. I will try to
explain the situtation behind the attack that killed 241 Americans and
show the events that lead up to it. I will also try to answer the
question of what was Hezbollah's main reason for the attack and what
did they hope to acheive from it. I will also look at why President
Ronald Reagan decided to send the Marines initially into Lebanon and
then deciding to send them back into the area knowing there was more
danger
Title: The Politics of Aging
Author: Jason Kaufman
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Diane Balduzy
The
drop in the crude birth rate and an increase in life expectancy in a
large number of industrialized countries have resulted in an aging of
the population. The purpose of this study is to compare nations from
around the world on how well they are caring for their older citizens.
In addition to social security, political issues include a wide range
of social policies, programs and services, such as retirement income,
home care, health care, prescription drugs, living arrangements, and
ageism.
Title: What Could Have Been: The Oklahoma City Bombing
Author: Lauren Casola
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
As
a revered United States Army soldier and winner of a Bronze Star in the
Gulf War, Timothy McVeigh may have seemed like one of the least likely
of American citizens to commit such a horrific attack on America. I
feel that even though Timothy McVeigh has been acclaimed as an
ìAmerican Terrorist,î the planning of the bombing of the Alfred P.
Murrah Federal Building could not have devised by McVeigh alone. In my
presentation, I would like to examine the possible accused parties that
could have been responsible for what occurred to Oklahoma city on April
19, 1995.
Title: Anyone's Daughter: Patricia Hearst and The Symbionese Liberation Army
Author: Megan LaMarre
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
Throughout
the course of my research I focused on the conflict surrounding
Patricia Hearst. Hearst was abducted by the Symbionese Liberation Army,
the most radical leftist group to take the political stage in America
during the 1970s. Hearst claimed to have been tortured and abused by
the members for nearly two years and that she was brainwashed. Many
people did not believe her then and do not believe her story.
Title: The Red Brigades: An Italian Phenomenon
Author: Brian Keenan
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
How
much influence did their Italian nationality have on terrorist group
the Red Brigades? The cultural, political, and historical factors of
Italy combined to create an experience impossible in any other place at
any other time. Without these factors, the Brigades could not have
survived or flourished like they did.
Title: Narration Through Stained Glass
Author: Valerie Hope
Faculty Advisor: Prof. Rosanne Denhard
Throughout
the literary world there are many ways for authors to tell their
stories. Not all of these techniques necessarily involve words, and in
fact, many of the most ancient and widely recognizable forms of story
telling make use of the pictorial element. Based on the research I
conducted while studying abroad for the Medieval and Renaissance
Britain travel course with Rosanne Denhard, I visited places such as
the York Minster, WestMinster, and St. Margaret's Chapel, comparing and
contrasting the various stained glass illustrations. In my research, I
am hoping to illuminate the historical significance of narration
through stained glass.
Title: Black September and Munich
Author: Kristean Kissel
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
The
terrorist organization Black September is most famous for their attack
at the 1972 Olympics. They were driven by frustrations of the Israeli
Government and their take over of Palestine. Their actions helped to
change how governments deal with terrorists, and how the media should
cover such events. They however they accomplished their main goal, to
gain world attention for a situation that they had tended to ignore.
Title: Sleep and Memory
Authors: Nicole Castella & Beth McWhirt
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Peggy Brooks
Previous
studies have shown that napping can be beneficial to certain types of
memory. 24 undergraduate students were divided into three groups:
habitual nappers who napped in the lab, habitual nappers who did not
sleep, and non-nappers. We had all students perform tasks for
declarative memory, problem solving, and procedural memory (auditory
reaction time) in the morning and then later in the day, post-nap, in
order to see which group had the best overall improvement. Our
hypothesis was that the greatest improvement would occur in the
students who took naps.
Title: The Effect of Sign-Postings on Vandalism in a College Dormitory
Author: Mychal Machado
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tom Byrne
The
present study sought to explore the predictive ability of specific
personality traits on college students' communication preferences.
Students from a western Massachusetts college were recruited to answer
questions from the MBTI extroversion/introversion scale, the Social
Avoidance and Distress Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and an
original scale designed to assess people's preferences for
communicating with friends, acquaintances, and professors. Researchers
then used a standard multiple regression model as a method of assessing
the ability of self-esteem, social anxiety, and
extroversion/introversion to predict the types of communication styles
people will adopt.
Title: Delayed Reinforcement: What's Really Being Reinforced?
Author: Scott Greenberg
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tom Byrne
Temporal
contiguity between a response and reinforcement has long been held to
be of critical importance. This has been challenged by recent research.
In the current investigation, delayed reinforcement was studied using a
nose-poke response. Ten Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to delayed
reinforcement conditions in where a nose poke through a hole started a
10-s delay. A second, inoperative photo-beam merely counted frequencies
of breaks. By examining obtained delays on the inoperative beam, the
role of adventitious reinforcement was examined.
Title: The Civil War in El Salvador
Author: Gabriela Rivera
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
There
is no contemporary topic demanding our attention with more urgency than
the use and abuse of power. Since C. Wright Mills, no rigorous and
focused work has examined the nature of those structures that support
political irresponsibility in individuals and in the dominant
institutions of our Governments. My research paper investigation is
from the rebels or ìgorillasî of El Salvador during the Civil war from
1980ís through 1992,and investigates the motives behind their use of
violence.
Title: Hamas and the Palestinian Commitment to the Peace Process: From Oslo until the Second Intifada,1993-2000
Author: David Dembowitz
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
How
did Hamas maintain its relevance during seven years of Palestinian
engagement with Israel to emerge within months of the beginning of the
Second Intifada as the dominant faction in Palestine? Hamas's success
was due partly to its patience, discipline, organizational strengths,
and involvement in community service work. More importantly,consistent
public opinion views within Palestine.
Title: The Design and Synthesis of Novel C1 Ligands
Author: Carolyn Cook
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Robert Harris
Chiral
molecules play a large role in chemistry. One enantiomer of a drug can
relieve the symptoms a person is suffering, while the other can cause
drastic side effects. Chemists have always looked for ways to design
reactions that only give one enantiomer of a product. This research
looks to devise such a method by using metal-catalyzed transformations
and a novel norbornane-based ligand. The research begins with the
synthesis of a new phosphorous(P)-nitrogen(N) containing
norbornaneligand.The overall goal of the research is to create a new
class of C1 ligands that will not be reaction specific. The modularity
of the synthetic approach will facilitate the discovery of a catalyst
with a broad range of applications in organometallic transformations.
Title: How was the CIA Involved in Political Violence in Indonesia during the Communist Reign of Terror?
Author: Zoe Sugg
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
How
was the CIA involved in political violence in Indonesia during the
Communist rein of terror? Could money be the underbelly of America's
partnership with Indonesia? Did the fear of Communism run so deep in
the American psyche,that it would turn a blind eye to genocide? The
organization that was designed to enforce security actually enforced
bloodshed and terror while keeping their hands clean.
Title: The Ulster Volunteer Force
Author: Zachary Slattery
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Anthony Daly
Ireland
during the mid 1960s up until the mid 90s was an island engrossed with
terror-ism and violence, specifically in Northern Ireland. During the
time of the "troubles," war broke out between the Catholic and the
Protestant communities. The UVF, or Ulster Volunteer Force, became the
Protestant paramilitary force responsible for defending the Protestant
community and their objective of maintaining Northern Ireland's union
with Great Britain. A cause meant to maintain Protestant dominance in
Northern Ireland.
Title:
Finding a Unique "Non-Distorting" Transformation Between a Second-Order
Linear Differential Equation and an Equivalent System
Author: Robin Clapper
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Alla Kucher
When
doing a mathematical problem, one can work backwards to check one's
work. While converting a system of two first-order linear differential
equations into a second-order differential equation and then doing it
backward, it was found that the system has another expression in
comparison to the original one. In this paper a general transformation
between second-order linear differential equations and corresponding
systems of first-order differential equations have been constructed.
The coefficients of that unique general transformation have been
determined. The construction itself proves the uniqueness and the
"restoring" property of the transformation.
Keynote Address
"You Want Me To What? Research, Graduate School, and a Real Life"
Gerol Petruzella '01
Gerol
Petruzella grew up in Pittsfield, attending public schools, Berkshire
Community College, and MCLA, where he earned his B.A. in philosophy in
2001. He moved to Buffalo, NY in 2001, where he was awarded a
Presidential Fellowship to enter the Ph.D. program in the Philosophy
Department at the University at Buffalo. During his five years in
western New York, he immersed himself in the academic community,
presenting at professional national and international conferences,
doing editing work on several books in philosophy, and pursuing his
other main academic interest, the study of classical languages, taking
a Master's degree in 2005 from the Classics Department at the
Univeristy at Buffalo. Gerol moved back to Williamstown in 2005 to
write his dissertation. While writing, he began teaching at Mt.
Greylock Regional High School in Williamstown, earning his
Massachusetts teacher's certification. He successfully defended his
dissertation in October of 2007, and officially took his doctorate in
February of this year. Gerol currently has an article under review in
the New England Classical Journal, and is working with the American
Philosophical Association and the Squire Foundation to bring philosophy
to pre-college education, with a high school Ethics Bowl team. He has
been an adjunct professor at MCLA in the philosophy department, and
teaches Latin, English, Greek, and Sanskrit at Mt. Grey-lock High
School. Sometimes he finds time to cook, although his results are
decidedly mixed.
Philosophy Paper 1
Title: Litter and the Environment
Author: Nicholas Raby
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Paul Nnodim
Everyone
concerned about the environment hates littering, yet most do nothing
about it. Environmental literature usually treats litter as a symbolic
issue in environmental health. In this presentation I will argue, to
the contrary, that the content and composition of much litter itself
creates substantive harm to the environment. Moreover, I will argue
that it is every person's duty properly to dispose of litter, even if
it was not personally owned. The aesthetic, behavioral, and symbolic
significance of litter is not trivial, as it represents an important
everyday expression of our respect for our world and each other.
Philosophy Paper 2
Title: On the Existence of Prenumbras: Right to Privacy
Author: Alex Poulin
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Matthew Silliman
I
intend to prove the constitutional existence of Prenumbras (implied
rights not specifically written in the constitution), using the 'right
to privacy as my main example. I will draw from legal philosophy to
prove my point.
Philosophy Paper 3
Title: David Hume On Miracles
Author: Jessica Dennis
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Matthew Silliman
This
paper analyzes David Hume's chapter ""Of Miracles"", specifically
looking at its seeming incongruity with the rest of his written work on
knowledge and human understanding. A proposition is made concerning why
Hume displays such inconsistency.
Philosophy Paper 4
Title: Anti-Global Warming Argumentation
Author: Peter Camacho
Faculty Advisor: Dr. Paul Nnodim
I
would like to present how certain special interest groups are employing
misused skeptical arguments in order to persuade the public into
believing that either: 1. Global warming is not happening, 2. Global
warming is happening but it is a natural cycle that is outside the
influence of humans, 3.Global warming is happening and humans are the
cause of it but there is nothing that can be done about it. This
presentation will involve me demonstrating what the basis of these
skeptical arguments are and then show that this basis is logically
unsound.
Student Art Show Opening: "Stories of North Adams"
Gallery 51
51 Main Street, North Adams
5:00-7:00 pm
Artwork by students at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts will be showcased in "Stories of North Adams: MCLA Student Art Show 2008," April 24 through May 25, in MCLA Gallery 51.
The exhibit will begin with an opening reception on Thursday, April 24, 5-7 p.m., in the Main Street gallery. The event is free and open to the public. It will include a performance by MCLA music professor Christine Condaris' New Music Consort, which will perform four original student compositions.
Although throughout the year, MCLA Gallery 51 exhibits works by artists from around the world, once a year, the College is delighted to showcase our own students, said Jonathan Secor, director of special programs at MCLA.
Coordinated by MCLA faculty, staff, and students, the exhibition will includes works from the advanced art lab courses, including artworks from the "People Project" by graduating seniors Alyssa Weissblatt, Anne Krivoshey, Aaron Andrews, plus meditations on nature in the Berkshires including paintings by Haley Waugh, Shanna Mezcywor and Sylvia Birns-Swindlehurst.
The show also will include numerous artworks from students across campus, as they reveal their own stories of North Adams.
"Each year, students from across campus create visual artworks of all types from gutsy photography, to subtle paintings and collage experiments. In previous years we've had about 100 students submit work for the show - this year is sure to be exceptional with many great visual surprises for all to enjoy," said Gregory Scheckler, MCLA art professor.