Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

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  HR Machine Learning on Social Media Data

  Jake Harrison

  Human resource departments gather data from various sources to help make effective decisions related to recruitment, selection, strategic planning, and employee management. Social media profiles (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) are one recent source that many companies are turning to in order to gather unique information about current and prospective employees. The increasing abilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning may have an impact on the ease and validity of using social media information from applicants and employees to make employment decisions. In this research, we use previously published scholarly and trade sources to explain how HR personnel could use social media data in conjunction with machine learning to recruit, select, monitor, and communicate with potential or current employees. We further discuss associated ethical and legal risks and provide guidance for future research on this topic.

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  The Effects of Estrogen and Arousal on Latent Inhibition

  Michael Herron

  The behaviors of humans and animals are dependent on neurotransmitters and hormones that affect attention, alertness, and associative learning. These include the hormone estrogen (which plays an interesting role in cognition and attentional processes) and the neurotransmitter orexin (involved in wakefulness, arousal and goal-directed behaviors). Here we evaluated the roles of orexin receptors and estrogen in Latent Inhibition (LI), a measure of attention and associative learning. Latent inhibition is a behavioral phenomenon in which an organism's ability to associate new meaning to a familiar previously inconsequential (pre-exposed) stimulus is reduced when compared to associating meaning to a novel stimulus (non pre-exposed) in a classical conditioning paradigm. We hypothesize that orexin and estrogen have synergistic effects on latent inhibition (LI). Two-month-old female mice (OXR2-KO and WT) underwent aseptic ovariectomies and subsequently received subcutaneous placebo or estrogen treatment throughout the 10-day test. The mice underwent shaping, pre-exposure, conditioning, re-baseline, and testing. During pre-exposure approximately half the mice were exposed to a tone, while the other half were not. This stimulus was later paired with a foot shock on the conditioning day for all animals. On test-day the reaction (freezing response) to the tone stimulus was measured for both pre-exposed and non-preexposed animals. With the unfortunate circumstances of the current pandemic and inability to adequately increase the sample size, the effect of group (non-pre-exposed and pre-exposed), genotype (OXR2-KO and WT), and treatment (estrogen vs. placebo), all failed to reach statistical significance. However, both KO and WT placebo-treated animals exhibited increased freezing in the non-pre-exposed condition when compared to the pre-exposed condition, indicating a trend towards a normal LI response. There exists a necessity to further clarify the roles that orexin and estrogen play in a latent inhibition paradigm.

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  Crowdsourced Conservation

  Emmy Heywood

  Since the 1800s, America has been known for its massive conservation projects–setting aside huge swaths of land in public parks and passing legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Now, new technologies are making a different type of conservation project possible, and conservationists are capturing massive amounts of data to inform conservation efforts through community involvement. These crowdsourced projects harness knowledge and skills of large groups of people who can contribute to conservation goals. For example, the internet platform Sciestarter connects 100,000 registered citizen scientists plus millions of onsite visitors with over 3,000 individual conservation projects. The global networks facilitated by this technology can connect small scale projects with huge pools of volunteers. The eBird app is another example of crowdsourced science. Birdwatchers upload bird type, location, and time of sighting into the app, contributing to a massive database of bird observations from around the world. The crowdsourced data allows scientists to map the distributions and movements of birds, and has been used in over 100 peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals. Sciestarter and eBird are two of many conservation projects relying on crowdsourced science. In this research we examine whether technology-enhanced crowdsourcing has positive impacts on conservation outcomes. To do so, we examined existing literature on citizen science and crowdsourced conservation in addition to exploring key case studies of projects underway. Our initial research suggests crowdsourced science has the potential to foster bottom-up conservation that relies on community engagement for quality data collection. We also find leveraging technology could make citizen science even more potent and more research is needed in this area to realize these outcomes.

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  Associations Between Parental Attachment, Peer Attachment, and Moral Disengagement

  Jonah Hickman

  The goal of this study was to understand whether quality of attachment relationships with parents and peers affects moral disengagement. Attachment styles, founded in our parent's responsiveness to us in early childhood (Bowlby, 1973) carry into adulthood and predict relational functioning throughout development (Simpson & Rholes, 2017). Early attachment generalizes to peer relationships in childhood and in adolescence (Dykes et al., 2008). Moral disengagement, justification of actions contrary to the character of the perpetrator, is a form of anxious and dysfunctional behavior (Bandura, 2016). It is used to preserve self-concept while violating core values (Bandura, 2016). There is evidence that moral disengagement is impacted by attachment style (Chugh et al, 2013), suggesting moral disengagement could be impacted by relational influences. Based on previous research/theory, we hypothesized that secure parent and peer attachment would be associated with decreased moral disengagement. Using extant survey data collected from 403 college students in 2017 (N = 403, 289 women, 114 men, 90% White, non-Hispanic/Latinx), we tested multivariate associations between parent attachment, peer attachment, and moral disengagement, controlling for gender, in a regression model. Results showed that after controlling for gender, peer attachment was a significant negative predictor of moral disengagement, while parent attachment was not. However, results of an exploratory interaction analysis suggested a more nuanced relation between variables. Specifically, at the lowest levels of parent attachment, greater peer attachment was unrelated to moral disengagement. But at the highest level of parent attachment, greater peer attachment was associated less moral disengagement. Limitations include a lack of age, race/ethnicity, and gender diversity within our sample, and future studies would benefit from a longitudinal design. Our results suggest that certain attachment relationships are related to moral disengagement, but that for emerging adults, parental attachment may not have the same level of influence as peer attachment.

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  What Experiences Influence Individuals to Become an English Teacher?

  Amanda Horning

  How do past literacy experiences influence an individual to choose an English teaching major? There is a teacher shortage across the nation that shows that not many individuals choose to become teachers. People's career choices are often influenced by experiences and this study is to find out what experiences influence those few individuals to choose the pathway to becoming an educator, specifically in English. English teaching students at Utah State University were asked to participate in a survey inquiring about their past literacy experiences in order to find which ones had the most impact on their decision to become an English teacher. Interviews of two English teaching faculty members were conducted in order to find what experiences they had that led them to their career and what experiences they've recognized that their students have had. Finally, there was an analysis of English teaching student's writing that consisted of their past educational and literacy experiences, used to find similarities and patterns amongst the different English teaching majors. Though there were many different and diverse experiences explored in this study, there were three major concepts that kept repeating themselves, the first being that most individuals who choose an English teaching major in college are influenced by another English teacher in some way. The study also revealed that those who choose an English teaching career have enjoyable experiences concerning literacy activities such as reading and writing. In addition to the already listed influences, being recognized for a talent in reading and writing is also an impactful experience that leads individuals to choose an English teaching major in college.

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  Pure Breeding at Its Finest

  Justin Hunter

  This is a poster of my research on the affects pure breeding has on dogs and their health. There is a focus as well on the focus on neoteny and its affects on dogs.

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  How English Teachers Use Instagram and Other Social Media Platforms as Professional Development and Emotional Encouragement

  Katharine Jenkins

  How are high school English teachers using Instagram and other social media platforms as professional development and encouragement? This question is essential because the amount of information about education and teaching is constantly expanding, and through the use of social media platforms, teachers are now more readily able to communicate with each other. The widespread nature of social media has also created a new type of professional development through the past decade. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Teachers Pay Teachers, Twitter, and personal blogs offer professional development through the sharing of classroom materials, advice, and the collaboration of teachers. A review of literature also uncovered several articles and discussions about topics ranging from classroom management and how to help struggling students to methods of preventing and coping with symptoms of occupational burnout. Although there has been research conducted to find out the ways in which teachers use social media, little information is provided about how recognized these social media platforms are in terms of professional development and preventing teacher burnout. The researcher approached answering these questions through mixed methods:· Content analysis of three Instagram pages created by high school English teachers· Descriptive content and textual inquiry through the use of a Qualtrics survey and interviews of high school English teachers

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  Mitochondrial Pyruvate Consumption Decreases Glycolytic Flux in Postmortem Muscle

  Natalie Keele

  Mitochondrial pyruvate consumption decreases glycolytic flux in postmortem muscleColor, water-holding capacity and tenderness are important aspects of meat quality that are impacted by pH. The pH of meat is primarily determined by the amount of anaerobic glycolysis that occurs postmortem. As glycogen is degraded, it will produce ATP, pyruvate and hydrogen ions that acidify the meat, and this acidification process is essential for proper meat quality development. In the absence of oxygen, pyruvate is converted to lactate to restore NAD+ necessary for further glycolysis. In this state of anoxia, mitochondria are often ignored due to their reliance on oxygen to produce ATP. However, mitochondrial enzymes continue to function and may compete for pyruvate, causing decreased lactate and NAD+ production. This may limit glycolytic flux and slow the rate of pH decline. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of mitochondria on pH decline. To achieve this, we inhibited two key mitochondrial enzymes involved in pyruvate metabolism, pyruvate dehydrogenase and pyruvate carboxylase, with CPI-613 and avidin in an in vitro system. We hypothesized that inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase and pyruvate carboxylase would increase the rate of glycolysis. The increased rate of glycolysis in treated samples would indicate that the consumption of pyruvate by mitochondria decreases glycolytic flux. Pre-rigor pork muscle tissue was added to an in vitro system that mimics postmortem metabolism. Each tube was treated with inhibitors or control and analyzed for pH, glycogen, glucose, glucose-6-phosphate and lactate. Treated samples had lower pH (P < 0.05) as well as increased lactate production and glycogen degradation (P < 0.05). Glucose and glucose-6-phosphate concentrations were higher in the treated tubes (P < 0.05), indicating increased glycolytic flux. Collectively, these data suggest that inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase and pyruvate carboxylase increases the rate of glycolysis in meat, and mitochondria may play a role in modulating postmortem glycolysis.

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  College Students and Screen Time on Digital Devices During COVID-19

  Bailee Kent

  During this time of a global pandemic, people are most likely spending much more time on digital devices. That includes college students. It's natural when isolating or in quarantine to turn to digital devices for information and relationships. How much screen time is a good idea? Is there such a thing as too much screen time? Have college students thought of ways to reduce screen time? If so, has a digital detox been an option they have thought about? This project looks at college students and their screen time using a mixed methods approach. Two groups of students were surveyed: one will have had an experience trying Digital Detox, the intentional reduction of reduced screen time; a second group will not have had such an experience. Interviews of experts on computer use, screen time, and digital detox also revealed insights into this cultural phenomenon, which is exacerbated in the time of COVID-19.

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  Examining Ages of Birds That Have Fatally Collided With Windows at USU's C&SS building, Brigham City, UT

  Taylor Kenyon

  Around 97.6-975.6 million birds fatally collide with windows each year in North America. Bird age could be a contributor to the collisions. The central focus of our research project is to determine if there is a statistically significant relationship between the age of an individual bird and the likelihood of a fatal collision with a human-made window. The data collection method that will be used for this project is a hybrid of primary and secondary research. Personally collected data regarding window collisions, will be obtained from daily surveys of the Classroom and Student Services (CSS) Building at the Utah State University-Brigham City campus (Brigham City, UT 84302). These data will be combined with census data from three previous years. By examining the carcasses of the birds that have collided with the CSS Building to determine their ages, we hope to determine whether individual bird age is a determining factor in fatal window collisions. If the data we find suggests that there is a correlation between age and collisions, mitigation measures will be investigated. If younger individuals are more likely to collide, we could propose the placement of collision deterrents to the campus administration as juvenile mortality would be incredibly detrimental to bird populations. If a bird dies before reaching sexual maturity, population numbers can plummet. If it is found that older birds are more likely to collide, mitigation efforts could be oriented towards older individuals. Future projects may be needed to assess why younger or older birds collide more often. Should no correlation between age and collision likelihood be found, our work will serve as a useful source of raw data for future bird-window collision projects.

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  Is There a Doctor in the Book? A Study of Female Physicians in Literature

  Addy Kirkham

  Young children often look to characters in books, movies, and television to inspire their future career choices. This research project was designed to examine what female physicians in literature inspired young women to choose to become physicians. It is important to investigate the influences young women may or may not have had so that those inspiring characters if they exist, can be highlighted for future generations. To obtain data, I sent a survey to the Utah State University Pre-Med Club to gauge what literary influences inspired them to become doctors. I also interviewed three female doctors and recorded their influences and thoughts on the representation of female physicians in literature.

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  Using Lichens as Bioindicators of Air Pollutant Concentrations at Cache Valley Elementary Schools

  Angelia Klein

  Air pollution causes an average of two or more years to be lost from the lives of Utahns. Pollution from idling is estimated to contribute to one third of all of Utah's emissions, but no studies in Cache County have examined how metal content in the atmosphere changes with distance from idling zones. Lichens can be used to monitor type and level of airborne contaminants in air pollution. The objective of this study is to determine if lichens' metal content varies with proximity to the idling zones in front of schools in Cache County. We predict that the lichens closer to idling sources will have higher levels of atmospheric metals, specifically: Hg, Cd, V, Se, As, Co, Cu, Pb, Sb, Zn, Cr, and Ni.

  We identified six schools with trees that were at least 30 cm diameter at breast height (1.37 m) in each of three areas: 0–10, 20–50, and 60–90 m from the idling zone. Lichens were removed from the tree bark; freeze dried; homogenized; and then analyzed for C%, N%, and heavy metal content. I will use one-way analysis of variance and a post hoc test to determine whether lichens closer to idling zones have higher levels of heavy metals. This study will help address the serious problem of air pollution by better informing drivers, educators, school administrators, and county officials of the consequences of allowing vehicles to idle in school zones.

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  The Age and Origin of Precambrian Orthogneiss of the Grouse Creek Block, Northern Utah and Southern Idaho

  Skadi Kobe

  New geochronologic and isotopic analyses from the Grouse Creek block (GC) provide insight into the assembly of western Laurentia during the late Archean to Paleoproterozoic and establish the influence of the GC in the evolution of Yellowstone-Snake River Plain hotspot magmatism in the central Snake River Plain. The GC is primarily exposed in the Albion-Raft River-Grouse Creek metamorphic core complex of northern Utah and southern Idaho and includes a complex assemblage of orthogneiss, schist, amphibolite, and metasediments intruded by Oligocene plutons and overlain by Cenozoic sedimentary units. Many investigations of the GC have focused on the structural evolution of the Albion-Raft River-Grouse Creek metamorphic core complex (ARGMCC), but few have concentrated on the precise age and origin of exhumed igneous rocks and their relation to neighboring Archean terranes. Orthogneiss has been sampled from three locations within the ARGMCC for U-Pb geochronologic and Hf isotopic analyses of igneous and metamorphic zircons.These data will be compared to existing regional data sets to add to our understanding of the age and origin of the GC and the construction of western Laurentia.

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  Modeling Reflectance Spectra of Nanorod Arrays with Arrays of Light Sources

  Christian Lange

  It is known that carbon-nanotube forests, nanopillar arrays, and other formations of quasi-periodic nanostructures of various materials (semiconductors, semimetals, and metals) can display a very low light reflectance over a wide range of wavelengths, and that the reflectance eventually starts to rise beyond an onset wavelength. As these materials can be quite reflective in planar form, this phenomenon indicates that morphology rather than material plays a dominant role. However, a quantitative analysis of the reflectance spectra of periodic structures has yet to be established. As a first step, we use an array of light sources to model the reflection from an array of nanorods. We find that similar spectra can be generated. Details of our modeling and comparison with FDTD simulations will be presented.

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  Analyzing Fatal Bird-Window Collisions Occurring on USU's C&SS Building, Brigham City, Utah

  Jacob Larkin

  Fatal bird window collisions are often overlooked as minimally damaging to bird populations or viewed as inevitable collateral damage of human habitat expansion. In reality, these unnecessary collisions are truly monumental in number, and prove to be a serious threat to bird populations, especially endangered bird species. In the United States alone it is estimated that between 365 - 988 million birds fatally collide with man-made windows annually. We are focusing our study on fatal bird-window collisions occurring on the Classroom and Student Services Building (C&SS building) at the USU campus in Brigham City, UT 84302. We have selected this building as a potential location for a high frequency of bird-window collision for its inclusion of multiple large windows. Several studies have indicated that window area was positively correlated with the amount of window strikes. The objective of the study is to: Investigate the number of fatal bird window collisions that occur on the C&SS building, then determine if it is larger than the expected number of fatal window collisions per month for a low-rise non-residential building. The expected number is between 0 – 6 collisions per month. The objective will be accomplished through a two-step method. First, we will be analyzing data obtained through the conduction of daily surveys of the C&SS building during the months of August through November of 2020. The surveys will be conducted by ourselves and USU faculty. We will be looking for bird-window collision evidence. Finally, we will be collating our survey data with survey data obtained in the in the years 2017-2019.

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  German Thought and Animality

  Jack Leonard

  The question of whether and to what extent animals have minds is a key problem for philosophy, cognitive and animal science, and lived experience as a whole. This problem, which will be called "the Problem of Animality", concerns whether animals can be said to have the attributes of consciousness, thinking, moral worth, and other fundamental concepts.

  The modern approach to what will be called the "Problem of Animality" had its genesis with the philosopher Rene Descartes. The Problem of Animality was not a question in itself for Descartes, but instead, a question that was answered through the application of his modern epistemology. Descartes believed the animal was merely automata, unable to speak, think, or be conscious. Philosophers following him, most notably Kant, broadly accepted this conception, and Kant’s own ethical theory contains a similar notion.

  This paper will present a genealogy of German thought from Kant as it's point of departure, applying Hegel's, Husserl's, and Heidegger's systems of thought to questions of animal minds. The paper will examine whether or not the three other philosophers in question (Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger)'s thoughts contain broad Cartesian tendencies by comparing their systems' views of animals to Descartes' and Kant's own.

  The paper will begin by detailing Kant's ethical views on obligations toward animals and Hegel's reaction against Kantian ethics. It will rely on secondary sources that extrapolate Hegel's views on animals from his thought. From there, it will inquire into whether Hegel escaped from the Cartesian picture of the animal or not. What will be illuminated is another part of the Problem of Animality, a question of Otherness and phenomenology.

  This question will lead us to Husserl, which we will compare with Descartes and Kant before him. The essay will then examine early Heidegger's synthesis and reaction against his mentor Husserl, and his concept of the Destruktion of Descartes, the animals poverty-in-the-world, and whether or not his thought on the animal constitutes a destruction of the Cartesian tradition.

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  "Botley, You Need to Listen!" Exploring Young Children's Interactions With Robots While Learning To Code

  Selendra Lewis, Rebecca Peterson, and Kathleen Bullock

  Recently, there's been a surge of research about child-robot interactions as robots are being used in classrooms and homes in increasing numbers. Many of these studies are conducted in a laboratory-like setting followed by a survey. This project is unique in that we primarily rely on observational data in classrooms where students are using robots to learn math and Computational Thinking skills including Spatial Reasoning, Algorithmic Thinking, Debugging, and Decomposition. While the main purpose of the larger project is to develop curriculum and assessments for these skills, the structure of the FSRS project proposal allows us to also analyze these data for child-robot interactions. In this presentation, we will discuss the kindergarteners' interactions with robot coding toys during six lessons. Our research question guiding this analysis is: In what ways do students interact with and respond to the robots? Our sample consists of 32 students from two public elementary schools. Students worked in small groups with a teacher guiding them through various activities that require students to program the robots to reach certain locations on a grid or mat. We videorecorded 6 sessions per group (1,440 minutes total). We created content logs of the video data and then coded these them for instances where students talked to or about the robots, including their observations and questions. Two students that had particularly unique interactions, in both the amount of robot interactions and quality of the relationships they were developing with the robots, were selected as case studies. We will present these data and discuss how these results contribute to the current understanding of child-robot relationships. This research is part of a larger research project, Coding in Kindergarten (CiK) that was funded by the National Science Foundation and awarded to the mentors: Drs. Jessica Shumway, Jody Clarke-Midura, as well as Victor Lee.

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  "God Would Certainly Scold!": Understanding Religion, Sex, and Nonconformity Through an Analysis of Dickinson's "Over the fence–" and Surrounding Poems

  Hala Louviere, Jordan Forest, and Talia Roundy

  While a single poem of Dickinson's is full of meaning, analyzing the pieces that she placed before it thickens an initial understanding with additional perspective and nuance. To receive a fuller sense of Dickinson's interpretations of her final poem of one of her handbound collections, Fascicle 11, "Over the fence—" we analyze select poems of the eight sheets that proceed it. In nine lines, "Over the fence—" encapsulates the scope of Fascicle 11, depicting the ways in which women are both judged and limited within the social climate of 19th century America and within Christian religious communities. In this fascicle, Dickinson suggests through her speakers that nonconformity, while an honest and exploratory stance, brings with it negative social and religious ramifications. Understanding Dickinson‚Äôs commentary on this theme is fundamental to recognizing Dickinson's fluctuation as a religious believer, to appreciating the subversiveness of her work in context with the conventional literary boundaries of her time, and to learning about the experience of women in 19th century America. This analysis is informed by theories about her "nimble believing," a type of oscillation Dickinson exhibited between euphoric moments of belief and stark moments of disbelief. This argument will follow Dickinson's speaker through the eight sheets of the eleventh fascicle, focusing on images and transitions between poems to better understand the fascicle's main theme. By identifying prevalent themes in the fascicle then comparing them to themes in Dickinson's letters and biographies, we can come to understand the most plausible intended interpretation of "Over the fence—."

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  Are There Unidentified Frequent Issues Among Student Loan Providers?

  Dan Ludwig

  There are millions of students, many of whom cannot afford to pay for their schooling without a loan. Student loans are an important business for financial institutions. It's common for students to run into issues at some point when dealing with their loan providers and servicers. I'm using Natural Language Processing (NLP) Topic Modeling algorithms to analyze customer complaint narratives to identify important emerging problems beyond the ones defined prior to complaint collection.

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  Something to Believe In

  Carter MacDonald, Amma Christiansen, Robin Curry, and Sabrina Owens

  When interpreted as a whole, Emily Dickinson's manuscript booklets of writing, or fascicles, offer insight into individual poems. As many scholars have speculated, Dickinson expresses religious ideas with experimental instability. The collection of poems on fascicle five, sheet three, demonstrate an anticipation of life exalted after death. For example, "As Watchers hang upon the East -" changes from a hopeful poem about the afterlife, to a questioning one that encourages the reader to remain critical of religion. In this poem, there is mention of a beggar who, while pondering death, looks forward to the prospect of a heavenly 'feast' promised to those who follow God. The narrator of this poem insinuates that heaven may not exist in the way that society claims it does; they leave the poem on a very open ended note with the line, "[h]eaven to us, if true" which reinforces the idea – so common in Emily Dickinson's religious poetry – that she writes with unsurety concerning her beliefs. Dickinson's arrangement of these poems on the sheet explains that belief is a personal journey based on life experience. This is not to say that she did not believe in said afterlife, it merely implies that naivety and blind faith leads to disappointment and one should watch for personal confirmations of religious ideas. In a way, Dickinson acts as a spiritual advisor to readers. Neither confirming nor denying how one should live their life, but rather emphasizing individual spirituality.

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  How Do the Mental Health Services Offered by USU Pre-COVID19 Compare to the Present?

  Casey Mack

  How do the mental health services offered by USU pre-COVID19 compare to the present? COVID19 has essentially taken the world and changed it. People are required to stay inside more, there is a decrease in social interaction and there is a political aspect most weren't expecting. This question is important because in such tumultuous time, mental health and mental health services are of utmost importance. Isolation and a change in most every aspect of life can take a toll on someone's mental health. The approach to this project is done with mixed methods. Students majoring in English at Utah State University will be surveyed and there will also be an interview with a faculty member in the English department. Most students have not noticed an increase and if some had it was the minimum changes. These results are significant because even though USU has changed their services offered most students aren't being made aware of the changes. The global pandemic of COVID19 has been a struggle for everyone ranging from students of all ages, teachers and professors and business professionals. We need to take care of our mental health and that starts at the root of things like services offered to students.

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  Bird-Window Collision MItigation at USU's C&SS Building, Brigham City, Utah

  Hunter Martin

  Bird-window collisions are often not thought about as if they are a major problem to bird populations worldwide. This is not the case as bird populations are threatened by these collisions. In the United States alone it is estimated that 97.6 - 975.6 million birds fatally collide with human-made windows annually, and another 16 to 42 million collide in Canada per year. Our focus is to investigate a possible window collision problem and explore different mitigation efforts to prevent these collisions at the USU-Brigham City campus (Brigham City, Utah, 84302). We hope to determine how many fatal bird-window collisions are occurring on an annual basis. We are completing a daily census and already have data from previous years; however, those data cover only August to December, so our census will run for 12 months. Once enough information and data are collected, we plan to determine which types of mitigation efforts work best given the climate, location and behaviors of the local bird populations. We predict that large open windows with foliage nearby to be hotspots given previous data. These hotspots will be important locations to test out different mitigation efforts to be able to determine what works best to mitigate fatal bird window-collisions. When this is complete we plan to test the effects of our mitigation efforts by continuing the census. We also plan to educate the community on how to prevent these collisions at their own homes as more than 50 percent of collisions are on residential properties.

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  Take a Chance or Play it Safe? The Influence of Risk Orientation on Public Opinion Toward Immigration Policy

  Emilee Matheson and Lizzy Bickmore

  Despite well-documented potential gains from immigration, US immigration policy strictly limits immigration flows. This divergence between policy and research findings may be driven by negative individual attitudes toward immigration. Certain factors such as age, education level, political ideology, religion, and exposure to immigrants have all been shown to impact an individual's preference on immigration policy. Other theories, such as the labor market hypothesis or the fiscal burden hypothesis, point to the perceived economic threats of immigration as a leading cause of anti-immigration sentiment. Our paper focuses on risk orientation, a characteristic that determines an individual's trade-offs between risk and return, as a determinant of immigration opinion. We hypothesize that individuals who are risk-averse are more likely to prefer restrictive immigration policy than their risk-acceptant peers. Proving or disproving this hypothesis can aid policymakers in understanding what drives beliefs about immigrants and how that affects policy. For example, by framing immigration policy in a way that mitigates risk, more individuals may be willing to accept policy that is welcoming to immigrants.

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  How Communication Between Secondary English Teachers and Their Students During a Pandemic Has Changed

  Allison McMurry

  How has online learning affected teachers' communication with students, particularly regarding feedback for writing assignments? The increase in technology as well as current unexpected events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic have led to an increase in online learning at all education levels. This being said, online learning comes with many challenges that aren't present in a face-to-face setting. Through a case study of teachers' experiences with communicating online as well as surveys of current English teaching majors that have experienced the student side of online learning, these challenges and opportunities are described. The results may suggest best practices drawn from teachers' and students' experiences.

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  Still Life with Three Puppies

  Jenna Mills

  During the nationwide Covid-19 shutdown, there has been a surge in demand for man's best friend. As American animal shelters have issued calls for help amidst strained resources, adoptions have reached a level never before seen. Being isolated for an uncertain amount of time has encouraged many American families to bring home a new four-legged member. These so-called "Pandemic Puppies" have been a ray of sunshine in a dim world situation.

  Few artworks could better represent the current pet-owning situation than Paul Gauguin's "Still Life with Three Puppies". Although painted in 1888, many similarities can be drawn between the painting and our current circumstances. The setting of the artwork is personal and domestic, as is a typical quarantine day. At the same time, the composition is borderline cluttered and confusing, similar to the state of the world. The focus of the painting and its namesake, however, is three happy puppies, bringing joy to the viewer. For many, puppies brought joy to our lives during a challenging and unprecedented time. This project explores the concept and purpose of Pandemic Puppies in the lives of Americans through a parody artwork of Gauguin's famous work.