The public is invited to IUPUC on April 11, 2023, to learn about efficient wind-turbine blades, creative mental-health care for the Asian community, how educators can support children recovering from trauma, and much more. The Office of Student Research (OSR) will feature 13 projects from 23 students and 9 faculty members during its 13th annual exhibition, 2:30 to 4:00 p.m., at the Columbus Learning Center Student Commons.

“We are so pleased to highlight the work of bright, motivated and creative undergraduate and graduate students, along with supportive, innovative and impressive faculty,” said Chancellor's Professor Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, Ph.D., who has been leading IUPUC’s OSR since its inception.

Each student-faculty team received up to a $1,000 OSR grant to fund their project. To earn the grant, students submitted detailed project proposals, passed a rigorous vetting process by a review committee, and then completed their projects with direction and guidance from a faculty mentor.  

“OSR projects have made important contributions to various and diverse communities and disciplines,” Goodspeed-Chadwick explained. “In fact, many of our OSR award winners go on to present their OSR-sponsored work at professional conferences across the state and country, and some co-publish with their professors.”

She added that OSR students benefit from working on long-term, meaningful research projects and building close working relationships with their professors. The process helps prepare students for success in their continuing studies and professional endeavors. Additionally, each student is honored at IUPUC’s annual Honors Convocation.

The April 11 exhibition will be held at the Columbus Learning Center, 4555 Central Ave., and is free and open to the public.

For more information, visit iupuc.edu/osr or contact Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick at (812) 348.7270 or juligood@iu.edu. 

 

2023 Office of Student Research projects

 

Project: Trauma-Informed Learning Environments

Description: This project focuses on incorporating practices that support children recovering from trauma into their learning environment, based on interviews with educational professionals.

Student: Sarah Achenbach, Greenwood
Faculty mentor: Lawrence Ruich, Ph.D.

 

Project: A Farm-University-Library Partnership in Elementary Civic Science Teacher Education

Description: Students designed, implemented, and analyzed the impact of community-engaged civic science outreach at a public library. They hosted an Earth Day storytime and used participant surveys and interviews to further elementary environmental-sustainability education.

Students:  

Sarah Achenbach, Greenwood
Chanel Martinez, Seymour
Lily Thompson, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Laura B. Liu, Ed.D.

 

Project: Entrepreneurial Benefits Through Use of Business Simulations

Description: Students developed distribution, marketing, sales, and manufacturing plans, along with a weekly business analysis to stakeholders, using the Business Strategy Game on an international scale.

Students:

Austin Baecke, Bargersville
Todd Coons, Columbus
Tatum Downing, Columbus
Carson Farmer, Crothersville
Jordan Kelley, Columbus
Bryan McGaha, Franklin
Andrea Rodriguez, Seymour
Tina Russell, North Vernon
Samuel Willis, Trafalgar
Faculty Mentor: William Haeberle

 

Project: Pre-service Teachers’ Decisions for Including LGBTQ+ Children’s Literature in Their Future K-6 Classrooms

Description: This study examined how Education students’ demographics, place in the program, university, family background, and their own elementary school location(s) may have influenced attitudes and behaviors towards incorporating LGBTQ+ children’s literature in a K-6 classroom.
Student: Sophie Barrett, North Vernon
Faculty mentor: A’ame Joslin, Ph.D.

Project: Creative Approaches in Counseling Asian Americans

Description: To improve outcomes when counseling Asian American clients, this study gathered information from mental-health professionals working with Asian American clients using creative approaches that demonstrated positive results.

Student: Austin Finney, Nashville, Ind.
Faculty mentor: Debolina Ghosh, Ph.D.

 

Project: Inside The Bell Jar

Description: Using current research in psychology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, this project concentrated on analysis and discussion of trauma as it pertains to women in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar.

Student: Kaleigh Goode, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, Ph.D.

 

Project: Hush Hush No More: Understanding Vaginismus from a Mental Health Counseling Perspective

Description: This project aims to understand the biopsychosocial components of vaginismus, as well as counseling interventions and alternative medicines to relieve distress.

Students:
Natalie Heidenreich, Indianapolis
Dariagne Romero Lopez, Indianapolis
Faculty mentor: Debolina Ghosh, Ph.D.

 

Project: Learning from Our Stories, Aprendiendo de Nuestras Historias

Description: The student-researcher authored an autobiographical, bilingual children’s book and created a supporting lesson plan, which she presented to second-grade students and helped them share their own stories with one another.

Student: Anakarína Hurtado, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Laura Liu, Ph.D.

 

Project: The Mediating Role of Rumination in the Relationship between Neuroticism and Death Anxiety

Description: Previous research concludes that severe death anxiety is associated with specific personality traits. This study investigates whether ruminative thinking explains the relationship between death-anxiety severity and neuroticism.

Student: Kylei Kinworthy, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Kimdy Le, Ph.D.

 

Project: Investigating Predictors of Academic Performance amongst ESL Middle School Students

Description: Using survey results from 21 middle school ESL students, this research found that self-esteem and perceived social support positively impacted these students’ academic performance, while stress had a negative effect.

Student: Joseph Lampton, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Kimdy Le, Ph.D.

 

Project: The Effects of Parental Divorce on Emotional Development

Description: This study looks at whether parents’ marital status influences young adults’ emotion regulation and adjustment. It also studies the effect of sibling order.

Student: Natalia Alexandra Martinez, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Elizabeth daSilva, Ph.D.

 

Project: In the Shadows: Immigrant Stories

Description: This project aims to better understand how discrimination against national origin, language, and citizenship status are perpetuated. It includes art and stories of immigrants who arrived to the region undocumented, as well as survey data.

Student: Yamileth Martinez, Columbus
Faculty mentor: A’ame Joslin, Ph.D.

 

Project: Design and Development of Wind Turbine Blades using Additive Manufacturing of Continuous Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite

Description: This project developed and tested wind-turbine blades manufactured using continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composite; lighter blades reduce the overall weight of the turbine and require less force to rotate.

Student: Paul Meyer, Columbus
Faculty mentor: Mohammed Noor-A-Alam, Ph.D.