USCA Scholars Showcase, Part 2

Here a few more of the outstanding students from the University of South Carolina Aiken's Scholars Showcase on Friday, April 14, 2017.

Michaela Day, a USCA Honors Student, gave an oral presentation in which she compared and contrasted the work of two prominent nature photographers. Her presentation was lively and interesting, and her interest in photography dovetails with her plans to become a field biologist.

Michaela Day at USC Scholars Showcase

Michaela and her colleague Rachel Saxon also presented a poster about their field research about the parenting practices of Wood Storks. Even scientific poster presentations require oral communication; the presenters have just enough time to give a quick elevator speech to people who are walking past them. Good visual presentation, such as photos, large graphs, and attractive colors help catch visitors' eyes so the poster will get more attention. More and more graduate schools want applicants to have some research experience, so events like Scholars Showcase give students an opportunity to start. Michaela and Rachel's poster used great color and photos to help the reader.

Matt Haslinger & Sara Puckett at Scholars Showcase

Sara Puckett and Matt Haslinger presented a poster about their work in Elaine Clanton Harpine's reading clinic. They also made good use of color to help the reader understand their work. They presented data in a bar graph, which is much more appealing visually than a squiggly line graph that requires viewers to squint at the page. They also had quick, enthusiastic elevator speeches to explain their work to the viewers who walked past their display. The Scholars Showcase gave them, as well as many other undergraduate students, the opportunity to discuss their project. In this case, they gave a report about their experiences helping children learn to read.

Collytte Cederstrom

In addition to her oral presentation about student internships earlier in the day, Collytte Cederstrom presented a poster giving some research data from her work in Elaine's reading clinic. Lively and interesting, her quick poster talk led to questions and answers from the people who walked past her display. Collytte will continue this project in 2017-2018, during which she will be a University of South Carolina Magellan Scholar under the direction of Dr. Adam Pazda.

Ashley Conklin at Scholars Showcase

Many good research projects are group efforts. USC Aiken students Ashley Conklin, Matthew Haslinger, and Collytte Cederstrom collaborated on an explanatory project called "Helping Students for the Years to Come."  Ashley took the lead in presenting the project, which was also grew from Elaine's reading clinic. This poster also displayed some great visuals, including pictures, and gave the students a chance to explain their work, to talk about what they learned during the project, and to present a vision for the future.

Overall, it is important for students to learn to do research. One of the great benefits of American higher education is that, instead of simply memorizing facts, students learn to investigate topics that interest them and to draw original, creative conclusions that are supported by data, experience, analysis, and reasoned evaluation. My two blog posts (see earlier post) talk about only a few of the many students who presented at this event. And--on April 21--many of these students will be on the University of South Carolina Columbia campus for Discover USC. Stay tuned!