Celebration of Scholarship

Celebration of Scholarship

February 18, 2013

Hanson Hall of Science

Schedule overview:

12:00 – 1:00Opening remarks by Dean Pareena Lawrence

Lunch in Hanson Science 2nd floor atrium

1:15 – 2:30Concurrent sessions (I)

2:45 – 4:00Concurrent sessions (II)

Faculty work (books, articles, chapters, photographs of creative projects) will be displayed in Hanson’s first floor atrium throughout the afternoon. This year’s bibliography of faculty work is also listed at the back of this program.

Concurrent sessions (I): 1:15 – 2:30

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A. Research on student learning: Hanson Science 102

Ellen Hay: “Group Work, Class Connectedness, and Learning”

One of active learning strategies that has consistently received attention is student-to-student interaction. On the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), for example, students are asked if they “worked with other students during class” or if they “worked with classmates outside of class to prepare class assignments.” Numerous studies have documented the impact of these collaborative efforts, but have not focused extensively on the student experience during these interactions. As Waldeck, Kearney & Plax (2001) noted, “Although peer groups have an influence on student socialization very little communication research has examined student to student participation in collaborative learning” (p.224). Similarly, Barkley, Cross & Major (2005) explained that. “The aggregated evidence from research studies appears highly positive, but we found student criticism or dissatisfaction with group work strongly lacking in research reports. The research just did not seem to report on or take cognizance of the student criticisms that every instructor who has tried group work hears from time to time” (p. 23). This study examined whether the type and amount of student interaction produces differences in learning and class climate, and whether student attitudes about such interaction may serve as a mediating factor.

Chip Morrow: “Can Computer Science Majors (and Their Instructor) Develop Android Apps?”

Applications programs for Android-equipped mobile devices are written in the Java language, which students use throughout our computer science curriculum. A recent sabbatical focused on the development of course materials (used for the first time during Spring term 2011-12) to allow students in our computer science capstone course to create Android applications.

Stacey Rodman: “Connecting the Math Used in Other Classes to Math Taught in Math Department”

I sat in on the classes: PChem, Micro Econ, Evolutionary Biology, Petrology and Mechanics. I saw several ways in which my math classes can better prepare students for their other classes. I am also working to motivate students to use math in their other classes, and to use topics from their other classes in my math classes. I hope to help students see how our new applied math major can be a powerful asset to their own chosen major

Rosita Tendall: “Longfellow Elementary School Music”

Music teaching at Augustana College’s partner school, Longfellow Elementary School

Moderator: Marsha Smith

B. The importance of place: Hanson Science 109

Araceli Masterson-Algar: “Madrid’s Latino Movida in AZCA 2000: Whose decibels?”

This paper is an exploration on the cityscape of Madrid’s business center (AZCA), and to the associations between its built environment, sonic history and social practices on its grounds. Specifically, I will explore how this cityscape has been redefined through recent Latin American immigration to Madrid—with an eye toward integrating analysis of culture, music and identity along with the urban shifts of contemporary capitalism.

Eric Stewart: “Space and Place in Early Christianity”

Modern geographers, anthropologists, and sociologists understand space to consist of the physical world in which people exist, the ideological underpinnings of understanding places as designated for certain activities while restricting other activities, and the lived practices of people within those places that sometimes challenge and sometimes reaffirm the expected uses of such places. Biblical scholars have only recently begun to consider how space fits into an analysis of the texts with which they are interested. These scholars use spatial theory to analyze the spaces of the Roman Empire and how Jesus and his early followers fit within those spaces, in some cases contesting dominant meanings and practices, while in other cases adopting the dominant spatial practices of their cultural contexts.

Peter Xiao: “Memories of Childhood in China”

I will show how I am expanding my repertoire by turning inward to events and spaces from my childhood in China.

Moderator: Margaret Farrar

C. Big data, physics, and student learning: Hanson Science 103

Dan Conway: “Analytics and the Food Supply Chain”

One of the more important problems facing the world today is the growing demand for food, and the recognized “lowest hanging fruit”in the problem is the poor information infrastructure today for collecting and disseminating that information. Analytics is the transformation of data to value, and the importance of the problem makes an analytics approach, well, ripe for the picking. We now have the capability to harvest vast amounts of data, but we are deep in the mud in trying to turn it into value. This project was part of an ongoing effort to architect a solution to many of the information problems facing the food supply chain participants.

Nathan Frank: “Research on Unstable Atomic Nuclei with Undergraduates”

From radioactive carbon dating to the natural abundance of the elements, the physics of the atomic nucleus is all around us. It is remarkable how a physical system of 10-15 meters in size composed of neutron and protons so strongly determines the structure of our universe. What is the structure of such a system? This is the main question that intrigues me as an experimental nuclear physicist.

Answering this question requires the study of atomic nuclei that you cannot find in a typical scoop of dirt in your backyard. Of particular interest in the field are nuclei that have extreme ratios of neutrons to protons since these nuclei demonstrate different properties than nuclei in dirt. These extreme nuclei are produced at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University for experiments performed by the undergraduate research collaboration of which I am a member. In this talk I will describe progress on equipment development and experimental results in this research program.

Dell Jensen: “Assessment of Literature Model for Organic Laboratory”

Traditional organic laboratory generally consists of a series of “cookbook” experiments that requires little or no engagement on the part of the students. POGIL, open inquiry-based, question-driven laboratories have addressed this issue and we will present a new literature-based model to add to the laboratory options. JCE’s “In the Laboratory” was our inspiration and resource for this new model. Students are provided a selection of articles and are expected to read and interpret the article, develop an experimental procedure, reproduce the experiment and explain their results. Students complete a range of experiments covering various organic topics within laboratory guidelines. Students use formal reports based on the ACS Style Guide for scientific paper to communicate their results. Our assessment examines student performance, SALG (Student Assessment of Learning Gains) data and student demographic information to evaluate the learning goals of our model.

Jim van Howe: “Tunable Picosecond Laser Source at 2.0 µm using Time-lens Compression”

Ultrafast light sources near 2.0 μm have seen rapid developments in the last few years due to potential applications in spectroscopy, remote sensing, eye-safe LIDAR,silicon-based photonics, industrial processing, and biomedicine. However, very few laser sources exist in this spectral region, and those that do are complicated, large, or costly. I demonstrate a new approach to ultrafast pulse generation near 2.0 μm in a compact, turn-key packagethat uses the concept of space-time duality.

Moderator: John Delaney

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Concurrent sessions (II): 2:45 – 4:00

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A. Flowers and critters: Hanson Science 203

Bill Hammer:“Two New Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs from Antarctica: Implications for Early Sauropodomorph Phylogeny”

The Early Jurassic Hanson Formation of Antarctica has yielded unprecedented insight into the evolution of high-latitude vertebrate faunas during the early Mesozoic. Our 2010-11 expedition collected additional material of Cryolophosaurusand Glacialisaurus, the two previously known dinosaurs from the Hanson Formation. Remains of two new genera of sauropodmorph were also recovered. Sauropodomorph A is represented by a nearly complete juvenile specimen, and includes portions of the skull, axial and appendicular skeleton. Sauropodomorph B is represented by three articulated vertebrae, a left ilium, both pubes, and a partial ischium. New U-Pb zircon dates of 194 +/- 1.6Ma from 20 meters below the Mt. Kirkpatrick sites help constrain the age of this fauna.A phylogenetic analysis of 56 taxa and 353 characters recovers the three Antarctic sauopodomophs as distantly related to each other, and both new species as more closely related to Sauropoda than to Massospondylidae. It is interesting to note that phylogentically the next nearest relatives of all three of the Antarctic taxa are from other continents, indicating wide geographical dispersal of Early Jurassic sauropodomorphs rather than endemic taxa forming separate clades on the various continents.

Jason Koontz: “Dephinium in Southern California: The Making of a Good ID Key”

During my sabbatical, I conducted basic taxonomic research on Delphinium (larkspurs). California is a center of diversity for the larkspurs in North America and I spent the Spring 2012 term at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Claremont, CA. I did fieldwork and worked in the herbarium to enhance my familiarity with this confusing group of plants. The goal is to write an identification guide to the larkspurs of southern California.

Tim Muir: “Characterizing the Cold-Conditioning Response in a Vertebrate Ectotherm”

Ectothermic animals rely on seasonal increases in cold hardiness to survive thermally variable environments, but a more rapid and supplementary increase in cold hardiness may be important for surviving short periods of extreme cold. We cold conditioned winter-acclimated hatchling turtles (Chrysemyspicta) by briefly exposing them to -3.5, -7, or -10.5°C and monitored their recovery from a subsequent more extreme chilling exposure. Cold-conditioned turtles from all three groups had higher survival rates after extreme chilling than did control turtles. Moreover, turtles cold-conditioned to -3.5°C had both the highest survival rate and the highest concentration of brain glucose suggesting that brain glucose may be protective at extremely low temperature.

Kimberly Murphy: “Measuring the Effects of Restored Wetlands Prairies on Amphibian Populations”

Habitat destruction is widely recognized as a primary factor contributing to amphibian population declines. Since 1992, the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service has worked with private landowners and local conservation agencies to convert croplands back into wetlands. In northern Iowa, we are studying the response of amphibians to the restoration of thousands of acres of wetlands: how they disperse from established to restored wetlands, distances they travel, and how they use the landscape to disperse. The information we collect on Northern leopard frogs and American toads can be applied to more rare, species of concern and help land managers design future wetland restorations on agricultural landscapes.

Moderator: Kristin Douglas

B. Ethics, Decisions, and Intentionality: Hanson Science 103

Mindi Mull: “The Role of Language and Second-Order False Belief Understanding in Children’s Developing Theory of Intentionality”

The ability to infer others’ intentions is essential for successful social functioning. Previous research suggests the development of a theory of intentionality is multi-faceted and occurs throughout childhood, with certain aspects of this understanding not emerging until 7-to-9-years of age (Mull & Evans, 2010). This study examined factors that may influence the emergence of different components of a theory of intentionality. Specifically, the role of language and second-order false belief understanding were explored.

Doug Parvin: “Peer Disagreement and Moral Relativism”

Reasonable people persistently disagree on a variety of ethical issues, and dialogue and argument often do little to resolve such disagreements. This fact has long been seen as a serious difficulty for any metaethical view that rejects relativism—that is, for any view that implies that whenever two people disagree about an ethical issue, at least one of their beliefs about the issue is not correct. In this talk, I shall outline a non-relativist defense of ethical disagreement.

Paul Weissburg: “Outraged! The MPAA, the NCAA, Moral Legitimacy and the Rise of Public Interest Cartels”

At first glance, the Motion Picture Association of American (MPAA), the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), and the Better Business Bureau would appear to have very little in common; one organization assigns movie ratings, one ostensibly exists to protect student-athletes, and one is a consumer watch-dog. These organizations do have at least two things in common, however. First, all three have leveraged their moral legitimacy into power; they are private governance organizations, possessors of rulemaking authority, despite the fact that they operate outside of the public sector. The other thing these organizations have in common is that all three of them have recently been accused of using that power for personal benefit, rather than serving the public interest.

This article looks at the recent rise of Public Interest Cartels (PICs), non-profit organizations that leverage public outrage into rulemaking authority but use that power for personal gain. The problem faced by social scientists, governments, the legal system, and the general public is how to differentiate between these organizations that are genuinely attempting to serve the public interest and those which are not. This article examines three cases of well-known non-profit organizations that have been recently accused of acting as Public Interest Cartels—the MPAA, the NCAA, and the Better Business bureau—and seeks common traits among them, then considers possible policy implications.

Cyrus Zargar: “The Virtue Underlying All Virtues: Volitional Death in the Thought of Najm al-Din Kubra”

In medieval Sufism, one’s rank as a spiritual master often came from his or her effectiveness with pupils. One of the most highly regarded masters in the medieval Sufi tradition was Najm al-Din Kubra, who was also known as “the saint-manufacturer.”Why was this figure so effective? One reason might lie in his ability to communicate the most effective, and indeed quickest, path to ethical and spiritual success. That path appears in one of his treatises as the path of volitional death, the virtue that underlies all other virtues. This article explores the meaning and implications of volition death in the thought of Najm al-Din Kubra and its implications for Islamic ethics more broadly.

Moderator: Pareena Lawrence

C. Literature and Aesthetics: Hanson Science 109

David Arbesú: “Recent Discoveries in Medieval Manuscripts and Why They Matter”

I will be discussing two recent discoveries of manuscripts related to one of the most important monasteries in Guadalajara, Spain and discuss their importance and their relation to medieval monarchs. I will also be discussing a third manuscript that I also unearthed related to the conquest of Florida by Pedro Menendez de Aviles.

Roman Bonzon: “Abusing Beauty”

Is beauty still relevant to art? For over 2,500 years (since Plato) it was simply assumed that beauty is not merely relevant to art—it is essential. Works of art were taken to be works produced for the sake of beauty. The 20th century may be characterized as the time when art first posed the question whether artworks really should or do aim at beauty. The works of celebrated artists like Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol seem to ignore or even mock beauty. My work is intended to recuperate beauty as the central concept of art. I do this in light of a new account of the nature of aesthetic concepts that places beauty in the same position among aesthetic concepts as that occupied by good among ethical concepts. It will turn out that, for all their protestations, so-called anti-aesthetic artists and critics really should or do rely on a concept of beauty.

Mari Nagase: “Women’s Water Martin: Transgendering Japanese Adaptation of a Chinese Classical Novel”

The Ming-dynasty fiction, Shuihuzhuan (J. Suikoden), or the Water Margin, has been one of the most popular classical works not only in China, but also in Japan. Since the Edo period until the present, the work was repeatedly translated by different writers and adapted into various media. One of the earlier Japanese writers who took great delight in the Water Margin is Takizawa Bakin (1767-1848), a famous gesakuwriter from the late Edo-period. He found inspiration in the work, started a new translation, and created an adaptation. The adaptation Female Water Margin (J. Keisei suikoden), published between 1825 and 1835, became an exceptional commercial success. The woodblocks for the first volume were worn out and recreated three times. In the adaptation, Bakin changed the settings and characters into those of Japanese. He wrote it in the format of gōkan (bound books), which featured pages that combined pictures and texts targeting female readers. Radically, Bakin changed all the main male characters of the Chinese original into females, and females to males. For example, the villain GaoQiu was made into the shirabyōshi dancer Kamegiku who worms herself into the favor of Retired Emperor Gotoba and abuses her authority. A hero Shi Jin was made into a village girl Koromode who was devoted in martial arts. The story closely follows the original, although the sexes were reversed. Examining this unusual adaptation, my presentation will illuminate the challenges and confirmations that this popular text made against the established gender norms.