Undergraduate Research Symposium 2008

A Showcase of Scholarly Research

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Davis Hall Lobby

The Undergraduate Research Symposium, formerly known as Tomorrow's Leaders Symposium, celebrates its fifth year in 2008. The event showcases the innovative research, scholarship, and creative work that USF St. Petersburg's undergraduate students have produced during the year under the tutelage and with the support of the university's faculty.

This year, the Symposium hosts more than 47 student exhibitors and 25 faculty research collaborators packed the Davis Hall Lobby to showcase some of the campus' finest undergraduate research at this 5th Annual Symposium. Students represented all three colleges with topics covering all aspects of the academic spectrum. Symposium judges are: Mathew Daley, Cynthia Leung, Dan Marlin, Eric Odgaard, Janet Robertson, Bea Smith and Mark Walters.

The Symposium is co-sponsored by the USFSP Honors Program and the USFSP Department of Psychology.

 

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2008 Agenda

9:30 am - 10:45 am Students Set-up exhibits - DAV/Lobby

11:00 am Symposium Opens

11:30 am Short Presentation -

Regional Chancellor Karen A. White

12:10 pm Symposium Exhibition continues

12:30 pm Poetry Presentation

1:00 pm Symposium concludes

1:05 pm Awards Luncheon and Presentation

Honoring Students and Faculty

Davis Hall, Room 130

2:00 pm Closing Remarks

Undergraduate Research Symposium 2008

First Place

Caitlin Kuleci (Journalism – Honors Program)

“Content Analysis of Corn Ethanol in U.S. Daily Newspapers”

Faculty Sponsor: Prof. Mark Walters; Dr. Chris D’Elia; and Prof. Paul Wang

Abstract:  This paper analyzes the coverage of corn ethanol in four major daily newspapers for themes, attitudes and frames.  Corn ethanol has become a prominent topic of discussion as issues of oil dependence and supply become increasingly urgent.  Despite its promise, corn ethanol carries with it several scientific, technological and ecological problems.  The research compares science coverage of corn ethanol with political and economic coverage, and analyzes all three types of coverage in terms of frequency and attitude.

Second Place

Anthony Hernandez  (Psychology - Honors Program)

“Clinical Factors Associated with Crying and Post Crying Mood Change”

Faculty Sponsor:  Prof. Mark Pezzo

Abstract:  Crying, emotional tears, is most often thought of in response to sad or negative antecedents, and is commonly considered to be mentally or physically beneficial.  The present study aims to provide further clarification for the relationship between crying behaviors and mood change after crying moderated by depression and anxiety.  Survey data was used to test the hypotheses that the severity of clinical factors would be positively associated with crying indices and post-crying mood change would be negatively associated.  All our research hypotheses were supported. Post-hoc regression analyses were used to test the unique contributions of either variables and will be discussed further.  The findings reveal that the crying response in depression may be blunted, possibly because of learned helplessness, and more research is needed to understand anxiety and its relationship to mood change post-crying.

Third Place

Phillipp Conner (Environmental Science & Policy)

“Multimetric Analysis of the Peace River, Florida”

Faculty Sponsor: Prof. Deby Cassill

Abstract:  The concept of environmental tolerance and the effect it has on species distribution was pioneered by V.E. Shelford in the early 20th century.  Shelton’s finding’s have provided environmental scientists with the framework to conduct research using bioassessment. By using benthic macroinvertebrate assemblage metrics such as species presence, percent taxonomic composition, and dominant individuals, with chemical water quality measurements one can determine a water quality standard with which one can associate a measure of lotic (flowing water ecosystem) impairment.  This analysis will focus on a stretch of the Peace River (Florida) from Bartow to Arcadia.

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