Arts & Behavioral Sciences

Applicant: Margaret Mead-Finizio

Title: columbinus: creative research from page to community to stage through the lens of school shootings and their social and emotional impact

Period of Support: May 1, 2023 – April 30, 2024

Abstract: In April of 2024, the SVSU Department of Theatre will be producing the play columbinus directed by Associate Professor Peggy Mead-Finizio. The play’s subject matter revolves around school shootings through the lens of the Columbine High School tragedy. A companion project would provide high school students in Saginaw and Bay counties the opportunity to explore the topic/themes in the play with workshop/focus groups led by Peggy Mead-Finizio and SVSU students on a bi-monthly/monthly basis leading up to the performances of columbinus. As a culmination of the project, they would come to SVSU to see and/or perform in the production. Creative work generated by the high school students in the workshop/focus groups would also become a part of the live theatre experience. This project would enrich the lives and education for both the SVSU and the high school students. It would also generate and cultivate community partnerships in SVSU’s local community.

The goal of the research for this project is to fully develop the companion piece to the live theatre production by creating the curriculum, content, and testing tools needed to hold the workshop/focus groups and support the generation of creative research exploration by the high school students involved. This will also include the implementation of the support materials directly with the high school students in the groups. This will be accomplished through traditional information research methods using print and electronic materials, comparative analysis of the data and implementation methods, active learning with the high school students, creative research, and final project analysis.

Applicant: James Bowers

Title: Justice Research and Statistics Association Continuation with SVSU Students

Field of Study: Criminal Justice

Period of Support: September 1, 2021 – August 31, 2022

Abstract: The current Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) grant ends 9/1/2021. The current grant allowed for two student workers to be hired with the aim of understanding repeat victimization and feedback to the Saginaw Police Department Victim Services Unit. To continue the research, one student is needed for one additional year. This student will help by collecting data.

 

Applicant: James Bowers

Title:  ELERV (Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims) Continuation with Focus Groups

Co-Applicant: Joni Boye-Beaman

Submitted: October 2017

Project Abstract:  This project is a continuation of federal research that ended September 30, 2017. It is unlikely that funding will continue from the government. To date, SVSU has worked with Saginaw PD on gathering and analyzing data for the ELERV project. This current extension will allow for that partnership to continue as well as provide guidance and experience to student as they build their academic careers. Students will continue to contribute to the project with focus groups and transcribe the data. Students will conduct focus groups under the supervision of a faculty member to better understand residents’ perceptions of their interaction with police. The goal of the ELERV project is to understand the baseline of responses both before and after the implementation of the project. The next phase of the project is the focus groups. SVSU has collaborated with IACP and ELERV partners and feel this is the best avenue to continue understanding residents of Saginaw. We are particularly interested in maintaining community service relationships with Saginaw Police Department and the citizens of Saginaw. This project will allow that partnership to continue.

Students will be mentored with key journal articles discussions as well as taught how to look for qualitative themes. Numerous populations (that have come in contact with Saginaw police) will discuss their interactions in the focus groups. With this information, SPD will be able to better serve the populations (a goal of the IACP ELERV project). Information will be gathered and analyzed. The findings will be presented at national conferences (such as the Midwest Criminal Justice Association annual conference in Chicago). It is hopeful that the information can lead to a publication. Having this research experience will open doors for students when they apply for graduate school. Ideally, we would like to recruit two students with research experience and walk them through this project.

Applicant: Veronika Drake

Title: Title: X or Y: Alternative question formats in everyday interaction

Submitted: March 2017

Proposal Abstract: Linguistic resources of a particular language such as syntax and lexis afford different interactional outcomes while also "essentially defin[ing] the possibilities for social action accomplished through talk" (Sidnell, 2009: p. 4). I will be conducting a qualitative study of English alternative questions such as ("Is he American or Spanish?"), drawing on Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics. Through careful and detailed analysis of recorded and transcribed ordinary conversations, my aim for this study is to analyze the sequence organization and interactional functions of alternative questions. This includes documenting the formats of alternative questions and the response types given to them. Alternative questions, while studied from a variety of perspectives, have not been studied from an interactional linguistic or conversation analytic perspective. My study would address this gap and add to our understanding of how talk is organized through sequences of actions (questions and responses to them). Analyzing interactional functions and formats of alternative questions adds to our understanding of how grammar is fundamentally a language-in-use phenomenon, talked into being jointly by co-participants in conversations. As a faculty mentor to an undergraduate student, my goal is to serve as a role model to this student and to help them develop various skills. For example, the student would learn about the conversation analytic research method by being directly engaged in it. They would be introduced to the field, the kinds of questions work in this area can help answer, and the kinds of questions it can't answer. The student would also continue to develop skills not immediately tied to this research project as such, for example time management skills, presentation skills, and communication skills. Overall, my goal for mentoring a student would be to assist them in their development as a professional. My anticipated outcomes include at least one submission to a peer-reviewed conference.

 

Applicant: Sherrin Frances

Title: Interpretive Planning at Saginaw’s Roethke House Museum

Field of Study: English

Period of Support: May 10, 2021 – June 25, 2021

Abstract: This proposal seeks funding to pay up to three junior or senior level students to engage in preliminary interpretive planning activities at the Theodore Roethke museum in Saginaw. The team will build on prior archive and library work funded by a UGRP grant in Winter ’21, “Archive and Library Cataloging at Saginaw’s Roethke House Museum.” As part of the “Archive and Library Cataloging” grant, three students used PastPerfect Museum Software to create and populate a cataloging system for archival material including furniture and household objects, boxes full of additional artifacts, and various texts and photographs. The PastPerfect database provides the ability to curate virtual exhibits that will be freely available to the public through the FriendsOfTheodoreRoethke.org website. Student researchers funded by this new “Interpretive Planning” UGRP grant will begin planning our first virtual exhibit. They will also work with Anne Ransford, the Director at Friends of Theodore Roethke, and other members of the FOTR Board to reimagine and update the existing “historical tour narrative” to reflect the depth of the Roethke collection. This tour narrative would be used by volunteer tour guides and docents later this year, and additional materials may be developed including a self-guided tour document and multimedia elements (audio and video) for use with the on-site tours.

 

Applicant: Sherrin Frances

Title: Archive and library cataloging at Saginaw’s Roethke House museum

Submitted: October 2020

Abstract: This proposal seeks funding to pay up to three junior or senior level students to help create and populate a cataloging system for archival materials at the Theodore Roethke museum in Saginaw. Materials include furniture and household objects, boxes full of additional artifacts, and various texts and photographs. This project will provide an ideal opportunity for students interested in the practical aspects of archiving and collection acquisition, but it will also help them weave in underlying questions of structural power inherent in data structures. The team will be making organizational, keyword, and naming choices, decisions which often codify the worldview of the organizers and inadvertently marginalize the community represented in the catalog. Students working on the Roethke catalog will be asked to consider their classification decisions from both a practical perspective and an ethical, philosophical perspective.

 

Applicant:  Sherrin Frances

Title: Military Student Affairs “Special Collection”

Co Applicant: Bethany Alford, Military Student Affairs

Submitted: October 2018

Proposal Abstract: In Winter ‘19, SVSU will be hosting its third annual Human Library during which a dozen or so community members will volunteer as "books.” As a book, each volunteer will share a personal story in which they have experienced prejudice related to sexuality, religion, lifestyle, health, occupation, ethnicity, social status or political conviction. Readers can “check them out” for a one-on-one conversation. This year at the suggestion of Bethany Alford, Director of Military Student Affairs, we are piloting a “VA Special Collection” event. The Special Collection event will include books with military-themed stories, and it will be held during the reception after the Memorial Day Ceremony on May 23, 2019. The student researcher we are seeking will conduct genealogical research on the 22 names listed on the Marshall Fredericks "Eaton War Memorial" sculpture located on the SVSU campus. The goals of the genealogical research include locating family members living in the Saginaw area, extending an invitation to attend or participate in the event, and interviewing them as part of an oral history project. The student will also collect books’ stories as part of an oral history project. Finally, the student will write, at a minimum, a response to a relevant CFP based on this work, though we hope to have enough hours available to begin drafting an article.

 

Applicant: Natalia Knoblock

Title: Online Feedback in First Year Writing Courses at a Regional University: A Study of Effectiveness for Second-Language Writers.

Submitted: March 2017

Project Abstract: The project aims to identify the features of effective online feedback given to Second Language (L2) writers to help them improve their English composition skills. Studying abroad and in a foreign language is extremely challenging for international students. English composition is one of the hardest subjects they need to master, and many of them struggle in Engl 111, which is required for graduation and serves as a prerequisite for many other classes at SVSU. Because of that, investigating the most useful feedback strategies is of great importance for our program and department.

This proposed study will analyze the effect of online feedback on the quality of the revision by the students, identify the feedback features that resulted in the maximum improvement of students’ drafts, and produce a list of recommendations concerning successful feedback strategies helpful for L2 writers. The student researchers will be mentored in the data coding methods, cataloging and documenting the findings, and analyzing and interpreting the results.

The results are expected to contribute to the understanding of the features of feedback that the students best respond to during revision. Ideally, they will result in some practical recommendations and guidelines for First-Year Writing faculty who work with international students be those students in the “sheltered” sections of Engl 111 or mainstreamed and taking that class with native speakers of English.

 

Applicant: Elizabeth Rich

Title: E-Rich-UGR-2020-Literature and Historiography

Submitted: March 2020

Proposal Abstract: A trend since the modernist period of literary study has been to engage historical events and figures in imaginative literary forms, such as fiction, poetry, and drama. This trend strengthens after 1945 in postmodern literature, and produces a subgenre, called by Linda Hutcheon, “historiographic metafiction.” This is fiction that is self-aware of its formal engagement with historical narratives. That is to say that this fiction calls out the narrativity of historical record. Over the last several years, this study has developed another interest, biofiction.

My project will update work that I had done in a subset of historiographic metafiction that engages the historical document. The novels and collections of poetry in my study embed historical documents into the text so as to imagine with an ethical impulse the stories of human lives that are left out of the historical record, only gestured toward in the historical record, or else expunged from the historical record. Specifically, this book will sample six texts, four novels and two collections of poetry, to examine a trend in late 20th century literature in which imaginative writers perform the work of critical historiography. What brings these texts together is their

unique treatment of historical documents that they embed in or reference in the text and use a critical narrative construction to examine the possibilities of historical experience that the documents fail to represent. This faculty-led research project will update my study that was my dissertation and prepare it for publication as a monograph, which is currently under review by Lexington Books.

 

Applicant:  Arra Ross

Title: Literary Publishing: Poetry

Submitted: March 2018

Proposal Abstract: The Faculty-led Research project titled "Literary Publishing: Poetry" will help a student gain extensive knowledge and experience pertaining to the discipline of creative writing in the specific realm of literary publishing. While the actual creation and revision of creative material (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction) is certainly a huge bulk of the work in the creative writing field, the other part consists of the extensive research, work, and time that goes into creating and sustaining a publishing agenda. Understanding how to navigate the publishing realm is as essential for success in the field of creative writing as the writing itself.

During this project, the student will help support the publishing of sections of poetry work created during Arra L. Ross's Braun Fellowship, "Poetry: Sacred Mythic Women," a research/creative writing project which fuses poetry with deep research into archeology, mythology, and place to ask questions about humanity's relationship to compassion, judgment, and acts of inhumanity.

The student will create and engage in, under the mentorship of the professor, an extensive and sustained literary journal publishing agenda, which will include expansive research into literary journal and small-press publishing aesthetics, norms and procedures, and strategies. The most important thing a student will take away from this research is a use-able model of publishing strategies for their own future publishing endeavors.

Applicant: Martin Arford

Title: Soil Conservation and Water Quality in the Saginaw Valley

 

Submitted: March 2020

Abstract: The Saginaw Bay has been designated as an Area of Concern (AOC) by the Environmental Protectio

n Agency due to poor water conditions resulting significantly from soil and fertilizer washing from agricultural land, the dominant land use in the watershed. Fertilizer nutrients, including nitrates and phosphates, result in excessive algal and cyanobacterial growth during summer. Algal blooms can create low dissolved oxygen conditions which form dead zones in the Bay, or they may result in harmful algal blooms (HABs) when Microcystis species proliferate and release toxins into the water. It was similar HABs that caused municipal water system closures in Toledo, OH, in 2014. Newer conservation practices aim to reduce or eliminate the leaching of nitrate and phosphorus from entering the waterways, but it is often difficult to get buy-in from farmers to implement these practices. This research project aims to quantify the amount of nitrate and phosphate entering waterways from local farm fields, and to evaluate the effectiveness of using Water Control Structures (WCS) to reduce nitrate and phosphate loss from farm fields. Our results will be useful to conservation officers, agribusinesses, and local farmers. It will also provide a test site for other farmers to visit and may help encourage the adoption of WSCs by more area farmers, thus improving water quality in the Saginaw Bay.

 

Applicant:  Martin Arford

Title: Tile Water Nutrient Monitoring from Agricultural Fields using a Water Control Structure

Submitted: March 2018

Proposal Abstract: Water quality in the Saginaw Bay region is largely determined by the types of agricultural practices in use here, since crop farming is the dominant land use in the watershed. Nutrients leaching from farm fields into waterways is a key component of poor water quality, resulting in excessive algal and cyanobacterial growth; this can manifest as harmful algal blooms (HABs) and the formation of dead zones in the Saginaw Bay, which both have serious safety and economic consequences. Newer conservation practices aim to reduce or eliminate the leaching of nitrate and, especially, phosphorus from entering the waterways, but it is often difficult to get buy-in from farmers to implement these practices. This research project aims to quantify the amount of nitrate and phosphate entering waterways from local farm fields, and to evaluate the effectiveness of using Water Control Structures (WCS) to reduce nitrate and phosphate loss from farm fields. Our results will be useful to conservation officers and local farmers, and may help encourage the adoption of WSCs by more area farmers, thus improving water quality in the Saginaw Bay.

 

Applicant: Julie Commerford

Tile: Temperate Forest Response to Anomalous Wet Conditions

Field of Study: Geography

Period of Support: June 28, 2021 – June 24, 2022

Abstract: Trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs all produce pollen as part of their annual reproductive cycle. Many of these pollen grains settle at the bottom of lakes within annual layers of sediment, and become a valuable proxy for reconstructing past landscapes. One undergraduate student and I will examine a new pollen record from Martin Lake, Indiana, to evaluate vegetation changes in forest composition over the last 2100 years. By examining this pollen record, we will target an important period of climate change: the Medieval Climate Anomaly (950-1250 CE), an anomalous wet period in this part of North America. It is important to understand how forest composition responded to this wet period in the past if we hope to predict how it might respond to future wet periods. The student who accepts this position will learn multiple new skills, including how to identify pollen under a microscope, how to analyze quantitative data, and how to report research results.

 

Applicant: Julie Commerford

Title: Contextualizing human-induced landscape changes with natural landscape changes

Submitted: March 2020

Abstract: Pollen grains trapped within annual layers of lake sediment are a valuable proxy for reconstructing past landscapes. With the help of two undergraduate students, I have been examining pollen from a Midwestern lake to assess vegetation change and human impacts on the landscape. By examining part of this pollen record, we confirmed that humans were impacting the landscape through forest clearing and agricultural activity during 300 BCE – 300 CE, and again during 1150-1450 CE. We also analyzed general plant ecosystem composition change during those two periods of time. Yet, in order to give context to the changes that occurred, it is necessary to examine the remainder of the pollen record from this lake. The students who accept this position will learn multiple new skills, including how to identify pollen under a microscope, how to analyze quantitative data, and how to report research results.

 

Applicant: Julie Commerford

Title: Interpreting early Native American (300 BCE – 300 CE) impacts on the landscape

Submitted: March 2019

Proposal Abstract: Pollen trapped within layers of lake sediment are frequently used to reconstruct past ecosystem composition. However, these pollen grains can also be used to interpret human activity in places where humans were present. With the help of an undergraduate student, I have been examining pollen from a Midwestern lake to assess ecosystem compositional change and diversity over time. While working on that project, new questions have arisen about how an earlier group of Native Americans impacted the site. A surprising amount of change in the pollen composition is exhibited during (300 BCE – 300 CE), which is when a group of humans known as the Baumer-era Native Americans lived in the area. It was previously thought that prehistoric groups of humans in North America did not leave significant impacts on the landscape, but preliminary pollen data from this era indicates otherwise. My previous UGRP focused on analyzing plant ecosystem composition change during a more recent era (1150-1450 CE), while this grant will focus on interpreting the activities and impacts of a much earlier group of people (300 BCE – 300 CE). Specifically, this grant will focus on identifying the magnitude of land clearing conducted by this early group of Native Americans and identifying the crops that they cultivated. The student who accepts this position will learn multiple new skills, including how to identify pollen under a microscope, how to analyze quantitative data, and how to report research results.

 

Applicant:  Julie Commerford

Title: Evaluating temperate forest resilience following concurrent flooding and human disturbance

Submitted: October 2018

Proposal Abstract: Ecosystem resilience is assessed as an ecosystem’s ability to recover from a disturbance event such as a fire or land clearing by humans. However, re-establishment of an ecosystem sometimes takes longer than can be measured over a human lifetime. In addition, post-disturbance ecosystems can be different in composition than pre-disturbance, which makes it impossible to assess resilience over the span of a few years because it is not obvious whether an ecosystem has recovered. For these reasons, a long-term perspective over several decades to centuries is necessary to fully evaluate ecosystem resilience. I am currently examining pollen from a lake sediment core to reconstruct vegetation composition in the temperate forest ecosystem following land clearing by early groups of Native Americans in the lower Ohio River Valley between 300 BCE-300 CE, and 1000-1300 CE. The student who accepts this position will learn multiple new skills, including how to identify pollen under a microscope, how to analyze quantitative data, and how to report research results. The student’s contribution will be part of a larger collaborative project focused on assessing how early Native Americans impacted the landscape in comparison to present-day land use.

 

Applicant: Andrew Miller

Title:  Opioid-Crime Mapping Initiative of the SVSU Center for Geospatial Research and Learning

Submitted: October 2017

Project Abstract:  We seek to examine the prevalence and extent of the Opioid epidemic in the Greater Saginaw region. This project will consist of two components. The first component will employ Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety (DDACTS) data standards to conduct hot spot analysis of Opioid arrests, overdoses and offenders. The second component of the study will use the hot spots generated in the first part of the study and merge it with Opioid users distance to overdose to potentially generate Opioid catchment areas to help predict dealer activity. This will allow the faculty-student collaborative team to better understand the demographic characteristic of the Opioid user and opioid markets in the Greater Saginaw region.

Research assistants will be selected from students who have completed Introduction to GIS, and Advanced GIS. Students must possess the skills offered in these classes in order to assist with the project. Dr. Miller will supply the data management and geospatial techniques expertise while Dr. Bowers will provide the criminal justice expertise needed to complete the project. It would also be very helpful (but not necessary) if students have had one of the following courses: Crime Mapping, Urban Geography, or Issues and Policies in Criminal Justice.

 

Applicant: Rhett Mohler

Title: Using a UAV to measure re-growth rates of the invasive plant species Phragmites australis on the Crow Island State Game Area in the second growing season after herbicide treatment.

Period of Support: July 1, 2023 – December 22, 2023

Abstract: Phragmites australis is a highly invasive plant species in wet and semi-wet environments such as marshes and shorelines. If not treated, P. australis can quickly spread to form dense monocultures over large areas. Consequently, wetland managers are interested in tracking the spread of this plant in order to better prioritize their control efforts and evaluate the effectiveness of these control efforts (usually herbicide treatments). Imagery from Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an ideal tool for doing both. In fall of 2021, several large patches of P. australis were treated with herbicide on the Crow Island State Game Area (CISGA). Last year, a student and I used UAV imagery to quantify the effectiveness of this treatment. This study will continue that work by monitoring these areas for P. australis regrowth and quantifying any re-growth. To do this, a student and I will compare the amount of P. australis present in new imagery gathered in the summer of 2023 to maps generated the previous year. These maps will be shared with the Michigan DNR (MDNR) to help inform their treatment processes in the future. A student will be involved with every step of this process, from conducting background research, to gathering data in the field with a UAV, to processing the imagery in the laboratory, to disseminating the results of the research.

 

Applicant: Rhett Mohler

Title: Creating an online map of the Frankenlust Township Nature Park by UAV and GPS.

Period of Support: May 1, 2023 – December 22, 2023

Abstract: The Frankenlust Township Nature Park (FTNP) is a small park located not far north of the SVSU campus. For the last two years, I have been using an externally-funded Bay Area Community Foundation (BACF) grant to pay students to map as many features in the park as they can, including man-made objects such as benches and trails, natural features such as trees and other plants, and invasive species control efforts such as spraying, burning, and native plantings. These mapping efforts have been critical to the continued management of the park, hence the reason that BACF saw fit to fund them. However, while BACF funded much of the mapping effort, the scope of that grant did not include the next step, which is to use the mapped features to create an online map of the park that we hope to make available for public use in the future (like a customized version of Google Maps/Earth specific to the park). Therefore, the goal of this grant will be to finalize these data collection efforts and to put our mapping data into an online Geographic Information System (GIS). To accomplish this, a student and I will work this spring and summer (2023) in the field with an Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and a GPS-enabled field computer to complete data collection, and will work this summer and fall to put all data from years past and from 2023 into the online GIS. A student researcher will be involved with every step of the process, from helping to create an action plan, to gathering GPS and UAV data in the field, to processing those data, to putting them into an online GIS, to presenting the work at a forum such as the SVSU Student Showcase.

 

Applicant: Rhett Mohler

Title: Using a UAV to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Herbicide Treatments on the Invasive Plant Species. Phragmites Australis on the Crow Island Game Area

Period of Support: June 22, 2022 – December 22, 2022

Abstract: Phragmites australis is a highly invasive plant species in wet and semi-wet environments, such as marshes and shorelines.  If not treated properly, P. australis can quickly spread to form dense monocultures over large areas.  Consequently, wetland managers are interested in tracking the spread of this plant in order to better prioritize their control efforts and evaluating the effectiveness of these control efforts (usually herbicide treatments).  Imagery from Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an ideal tool for doing both.  This study will compare UAV imagery that was gathered in summer 2021 to imagery from the summer of 2022 to assess the effectiveness of a herbicide treatment in fall of 2021.  Imagery and ground-truth data will be gathered starting in July and continue through August and possibly late September.  Each image will be processed to locate any P. australis, and the accuracy of this process will be calculated.  This will produce maps both of areas where P. australis was effectively killed and where the herbicide treatments were ineffective or spots were missed.  These maps will be shared with the Michigan DNR (MDNR) to help inform their treatment processes in the future.  A student will be involved with every step of this process, from conducting background research, to gathering data in the field with a UAV, to processing the imagery in the laboratory, to disseminating the results of the research.

 

Applicant: Rhett Mohler

Title: Tracking the spread of the invasive plant species Phragmites australis with UAV imagery on the Crow Island State Game Area

Field of Study: Geography

Period of Support: June 28, 2021 – August 13, 2021

Abstract: Phragmites australis is a highly invasive plant species in wet and semi-wet environments, such as marshes and shorelines.  If not treated properly, P. australis can quickly spread to take over large areas of suitable habitat, often forming dense monocultures.  Consequently, managers of wetland ecosystems are interested in tracking the spread of this plant in order to better prioritize their control efforts, which typically involve spraying the plant with herbicide.  Imagery from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) is an ideal tool for studying the distribution and spread of P. australis in wetland environments that are difficult to access on the ground.  This study will use UAV imagery from the summer of 2021 to track the spread of P. australis patches on the Crow Island State Game Area.  Specifically, imagery gathered in summer 2021 will be compared to similar imagery gathered in summer 2020 to measure the rate of spread, and also to identify key factors that may be responsible for faster or slower rates of spread in some areas.  Because the phenology (life cycle) of the plant changes throughout the year, weekly imagery will be taken to replicate the imagery taken in summer 2020.  Sampling will begin in July and continue through August.  Each image will be processed to locate any P. australis, and the accuracy of this process will be calculated.  Patches of this invasive plant will be compared to those from summer 2020 and conclusions will be drawn about the rate of spread.  A student will be involved with every step of this process, from conducting background research, to gathering data in the field with a UAV, to processing the imagery in the laboratory, to disseminating the results of the research.

 

Applicant: Rhett Mohler

Title: Examining phenology as a variable in mapping the invasive plant species Phragmites australis with UAV imagery on the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge

Submitted: March 2019

Proposal Abstract: Phenology is the timing and pattern of seasonal vegetation changes, with seasonal leaf changes in deciduous trees being a common example.  Phenology can help to identify plant species in aerial imagery, including that from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).  This study will investigate how phenology changes in the invasive species Phragmites australis affect the ability to map it with UAV imagery.  Mapping is important to land managers because this plant must be located before it can be treated.  To conduct this study, weekly imagery will be taken of known patches of P. australis from May (the beginning of the growing season) through August (the end of the growing season) on the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge (SNWR).  Each image will be processed to locate any P. australis, and the accuracy of this process will be calculated.  This will yield valuable information regarding the best stage in this plant’s phenological cycle for accurate mapping, and this information can then be used by land managers.  The student working on this project will be mentored at each step in the process, from conducting background research, to gathering data in the field with a UAV, to processing the imagery in the laboratory, to disseminating the results of the research.

 

Applicant: Evelyn Ravuri

Title: Measuring Changes in the Population and Built Environment of Saginaw County Before, During, and After the Great Recession of 2008

Submitted: March 2020

Abstract: This project examines changes in the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of census tracts within Saginaw County between 2000 and 2018 to determine the effect that the Great Recession of 2008 had on the population and the built environment of Saginaw. Urban revitalization efforts have been underway in the City of Saginaw as well as the suburbs since 2012. These revitalizations include repurposing of building stock in downtown Saginaw, revitalization along the Saginaw Riverfront, commercial revitalization along the Bay Road corridor as well as the building of biking, jogging, and walking trails throughout the city and county. However, not all sections of the City/County have benefited from revitalization. This study is also interested in tracking the downgrading of areas within the City or County that were prior to 2008 in relatively good condition. The data used in this study goes beyond usage of census data to explore a new database that lends itself to the analysis of urban change; that is Google Street View.

Applicant: John Baesler

Title: The American Occupation of Central Hesse, Germany, 1945-1991: The Informal Diplomacy of Citizen and Soldiers

Submitted: October 2016

Proposal Abstract: This project is a continuation of faculty-led research I have been conducting in the fall of 2016 with two student researchers. Students will interview veterans and their dependents from mid-Michigan, who during the Cold War spent time in central Hesse, Germany. The goal of this research is to record and understand their experiences and the impact these experiences had on their subsequent lives and views. I am particularly interested in the ways in which living in Germany shaped the views of GIs and their families on Germany’s past, but also their views on their own country.

I plan to mentor the students by discussing with them historical background information and key scholarly texts on conducting oral histories. We will then collaboratively review questions and strategies for interviews with Michigan veterans. During the interview process we will collectively analyze and review the results. After recording and transcribing the interviews, I will donate the material to the SVSU archives (I have consulted with Thomas Zantow and Rose San Miguel and received their unqualified support; we are in the process of setting up the necessary server space to preserve and make accessible the interview recordings and transcripts through the SVSU archives).

The results of this research will support my larger project on gender and sexuality in German-American relations in central Hesse during the Cold War. For that project I am in the process of writing a scholarly article to be submitted in an academic journal. However, since the topics for questions will be broader, I strongly hope that the students who participate in the proposed project will be able to utilize the information as well, for example for papers they can submit at student conferences or as the basis for a writing sample in preparation for graduate school.

Applicant: Jane Girdham

Title: Children's Choir Research

Submitted: March 2015

Project Abstract: Children’s Choir Research by Jane Girdham, musicologist. The project is to identify materials that can be used as a program of study for the Major Chords for Minors choir in Saginaw, suitable for students in grades 1 through 8. The mentored student, who is a current director of the choir, will perform bibliographical research under the supervision of the faculty member, who will help her develop an annotated bibliography of potentially useful materials, acquire the materials for study, and develop a presentation for the Michigan Music Conference. The student will also identify similar choirs in order to ask their directors which materials they find work successfully, with faculty guidance on interview technique and collecting pertinent data. Faculty member and student will then explore the potential of the identified and acquired materials to make a final selection to be used with the children’s choir in Fall 2015. A final assessment of the success of the materials will be conducted by the student and faculty member jointly in December 2015.

Applicant: Agnes Simon

Title: The Benefits of Using Board Games to Teaching International Politics

Submitted: March 2015

Project Abstract: This project investigates the applicability of semi-complex board games to classroom teaching, with the aim of making students understand the mindset, dilemmas, and responsibilities of political leaders in a continuously changing international political environment via personal experience. Students in PS130 World Politics learn about decision-making and its determinants, but there remains a gap between their knowledge and the understanding of the burdens and complexities of decision-making in international politics. The research uses an experimental setting to examine the use of board games to bridge this gap. The anticipated research outcomes are twofold: 1. Presentation at a major professional conference; 2. Publication in a peer-reviewed journal. The student researcher will participate in all stages of the project. S/he will use, adapt, and expand research and analytical skills obtained during her/his studies including surveying the literature, preparing the experiment and the related surveys, processing and analyzing results, and presenting the findings. The student mentee will work on the project in increments with regular deadlines and continuous feedback by the faculty member. S/he will also engage in self-reflection; comparing the learning goals established at the beginning of each research phase and his/her accomplishments.

Applicant:  Ranjana Dutta

Title:  Development of Delay Behaviors and Procrastination in China and the U.S.

Submitted: March 2019

Proposal Abstract:  As a developmental psychologist, I have been interested in understanding delay behaviors in young adults across multiple domains, going beyond the focus on academic procrastination. My prior research at SVSU has examined delay on tasks in six life domains (work, finance, home-upkeep, social relationships, health, and academic) in college students using a newly developed Multidomain Delay Scale (MDS). We asked students about their delay behaviors, when they began delaying and how parental modeling, socialization, autonomy support, psychological control, and behavioral control influenced them. With my cultural interests, I am now extending this work to China (funded Faculty Research grant) because of its different cultural context. Unlike in the U.S., Chinese parents push children more in middle and high-school years to secure admission into a reputable university/college. Furthermore, with Ming Chuan University on our campus and the office of global engagement, I would have access to resources. The objectives of my cross-cultural study are to (1) revise the MDS measure we developed with the U.S. sample and compare delay behaviors in Chinese and American young adults and the impact on academic grades and psychological well-being. (2) examine how the MDS correlates with established measures of procrastination in China and the U.S. (e.g. the Pure Procrastination Scale by Steel, 2015); (3) explore how delay behaviors are influenced by parental values of timeliness and modeling delay; and (4) examine the role of peers in influencing delay behaviors in both cultures. Data will be collected online from students at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China, and analyzed using SPSS and other appropriate statistical tools. I will mentor 2-3 students, sophomores/juniors, with a background in research methods, statistics, and exposure to or interest in social/cultural research. This project allows me to involve less experienced students (freshmen/sophomore) as well, who could benefit from initial exposure to research experience of time-limited research tasks such as translation and back-translation of measures, making publicity posters, and assisting with recruiting participants for data collection.

 

Applicant: Travis Pashak

Title: Mental Health Assessment Methodologies – Development & Dissemination

Submitted: March 2020

Proposal Abstract: This grant application seeks funding for three undergraduate students in psychology or related fields to conduct a mentored research experience together in the topic area of clinical psychological assessment. The request is for funding for three students, for one academic year, totaling a cost of $6,500. The goals are to write, present, and publish three studies which are related in their focus upon mental health assessment methods. The first project addresses the measurement of trauma resilience in college students; the second project addresses the structure and scoring of a distress screener for young adults; and the third project addresses the design of an implicit assessment tool for psychoanalytic variables. Each student would be responsible for taking a leading role on one of the three projects, and each would serve as supporting coauthors for one another on the other two projects. The anticipated outcomes of this grant proposal hence include six research presentations conducted by students both locally and nationally, as well as three published articles in professional peer-reviewed psychology journals. The mentorship method is student-focused and team-based, centering around weekly meetings and delegation of various research tasks including literature review, drafting, and data analysis. The grant applicant is committed to student success and aims to have this experience be a valuable source of career development for students.

 

Applicant: Travis Pashak

Title: College Mental Health and Careers Research Dissemination Experience

Submitted: March 2019

Proposal Abstract: This grant application seeks funding for three undergraduate psychology students to conduct a mentored research experience together in the topic area of college mental health. The request is for funding for three students, for one academic year, totaling a cost of $6,500. The goals are to write, present, and publish three manuscripts which are related in their focus upon clinical psychology issues and their relevance to college students. The first manuscript addresses sexual trauma in college women; the second manuscript addresses the effectiveness of group therapy for college counseling centers; and the third manuscript addresses vocational pathways for college students interested in mental health. Each student would be responsible to take a leading role on one of the manuscripts, and each would serve as supporting co-authors for one another. The anticipated outcomes of this grant project include six poster presentations conducted by students both locally and nationally, as well as three published articles in professional peer-reviewed psychology journals. The mentorship method is student-focused and team-based, centering around weekly meetings and delegation of drafting tasks. The grant applicant is committed to student success and aims to have this experience be a valuable source of career development for students.

Applicant: Rosina Hassoun

Title: Taking Refuge in Michigan: Arab American Women's Health Needs Assessment Continued

Submitted: March 2015

Project Abstract: Michigan has one of the largest refugee populations in the US, particularly refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. Refugees may have greater health needs as a result of violence in their countries of origin and their displacement. There is a moral imperative to try to provide for their health and well-being. Community agencies face problems obtaining accurate information to address refugee health needs, particularly women’s needs. This project is a continuation of a community research project with ACCESS, one of the largest nonprofit social service organizations working with Arab and refugee populations in Michigan. This proposed project builds on the refugee women's needs assessment currently underway. Three SVSU students will: learn about the process of doing research, abide by human subjects review/IRB, gain cross-cultural competency skills, and improve analysis and academic writing abilities. The expected outcomes include scientific publications, recommendations for a larger study, and for additional or changes in services that may help refugee women, if implemented by ACCESS. In this second year, one of the students from the previous study will act as a student mentor to the other two students.

 

Applicant: Rosina Hassoun

Title: Taking Refuge in Michigan: Arab American Women's Health Needs Assessment

Submitted: October 2014

Project Abstract: Michigan has one of the largest refugee populations in the US, particularly refugees from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. Refugees may have greater health needs as a result of violence in their countries of origin and their displacement. There is a moral imperative to try to provide for their health and well-being. A problem community agencies face is obtaining accurate information to address refugee health needs, particularly the needs of women. This project directly addresses that problem by proposing a community research project with ACCESS, one of the largest nonprofit social service organizations working with Arab and refugee populations in Michigan. This proposed pilot project will be a refugee women's needs assessment performed by constructing an appropriate research instrument and interviewing 20 refugee women. Three SVSU students will: learn about the process of doing research, abide by human subjects review/IRB, gain cross-cultural competency skills, and improve analysis and academic writing abilities. The expected outcomes include scientific publications, recommendations for a larger study, and for additional or changes in services that may help refugee women, if implemented by ACCESS.

Applicant: Jennifer McCullough

Title: Examining Children’s Comforting Communication Skill Development

Period of Support: May 10, 2021 – April 30, 2022

Abstract: Emotional support is a form of communication that is both consequential and ubiquitous. However, relatively little is known about how individuals develop competence in this type of communication. Thus, this project will essentially ask, what factors are associated with children’s emotional support skill development? Based on the constructivist theory of communication, the researcher predicts family interaction patterns will, indeed, influence children’s willingness and ability to produce effective emotional support messages. Family interaction variables (e.g., Baumrinds’ parenting typology) as well as motivation and cognitive variables (e.g., perspectivetaking skill) will be examined.