Gifted Education Commons^™

Walking With Helen, Carter Johnson

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Walk with me, Helen.

Come walk in the Garden of the Gods.

Sit with me under the red rocks

and look - the snowy peaks reach at the sky.

This is a worthy spot to talk,

Here among the green and grand.

Helen, my love,

Your face launched a thousand ships,

And burnt the topless towers of Ilium.

Your name will not die,

And your story will not cease.

But was it worth it?

Who Was Che Guevara?, Kaleb Harkins

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Explanation of Format

◼ To answer this question, I have chosen several musical selections that I feel represent different stages/aspects of Che’s life. For this presentation, I have provided links to these selections along with lyrics, and then a description of my reasoning for each piece.

Painting The Negative Space: How Faulkner Silhouettes The Living Ghost Of Flem Snopes, Jessica Fanczi

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Like porch lights, mosquito bites, and last-minute glasses of sweet tea, ghost stories are an experience innate to the South after dark. Whether or not a person believes them, these tales have the ability to characterize houses, streets, even entire cities. For the citizens of Frenchman’s Bend in William Faulkner’s The Hamlet, convoluted stories of Antebellum and Civil War ghosts permeate the area. Distracted by the buried men of the past, the people of Frenchman’s Bend fail to realize that they themselves are living in one of the most sprawling, epic ghost stories ever to unfold in Mississippi: the story …

Golden Honey, Dom Fonce

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

In the pews, the whispers say

the Eucharist discs delight

the tongue with a dab of golden honey.

I smell a tart perfume not far away.

There is a nakedness being raked

up and caked against me. I have come

here drunk and contrary, losing myself

in these halls—a hum sways from the podium

dais. I want to meet my maker calmly.

I want to beat my faith off walls.

My father’s shadow murmured the Lord’s

Prayer whenever I looked above. My eyes

were young and seething. He died at fifty—

shriveled down and minced, powder-soft,

A Comparison Of Corrosion Potential, Installation, Maintenance, And Anti-Microbial Efficacy: Copper Combined With A Polymer Matrix Or Stainless Steel For Use In A Hospital Setting, Barika Mirza

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

According to Boev and Kiss in their article, “Hospital-Acquired Infections,” hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), also known as nosocomial infections, are currently the leading cause of deaths and disability in hospitalized patients (2017, p. 51), so they cost both patients and hospitals a lot of money. As of right now, QualityNet reports on their “Scoring Methodology” page that Obamacare’s Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program requires for hospitals with high cases of HACs to be subject to a reduction of Medicare payments (n.d.). The World Health Organization explains in Prevention of hospital-acquired infections: A practical guide, 2nd edition that HAIs can be acquired …

Burger Reward, Spencer Patterson

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Family pictures deserve a reward. I’m not trying to pull off facial yoga for an hour and not get something out of it. My fifteen-year-old self can only handle my five younger brothers for so long. So, what exactly is the reward? A trip to Five Guys, featuring greasy burgers and big wedgy fries.

“Order number fifty-one, fifty-one!”

Dad holds both Nehemiah, eight months old, and the door to Five Guys for my mom, myself, Samuel, Elijah, Caleb, and Luke. I breathe in the smell of burgers that weigh in at three-and-a-half inches and 800 Calories. A fat man who’s …

1 In 4, Audrey Miklitsch

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

The statistic that 1 in 4 women are sexually assaulted has been repeated over and over again. I wanted to create a piece that allowed women to react to their experience with sexual assault. Through the Red Tape Project at the University of Denver, as well as my own friends and family, I found a variety of women to participate in the piece. Some participants chose to do it together, while others made their creation in private. Each participant was given six cardboard squares. They were simply told to react to their experience using the squares. They could do anything …

Conservative Colonization: An Ethical Analysis Of Galactic Expansion, Parker Vesely

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Space: the final frontier. Humanity has long held a fond appreciation for this vast unknown, and it has been featured in both art and academia since the dawn of time. Scientific knowledge of both the Earth and the solar system have greatly advanced in the last seventy years since humanity launched its first object, a German V-2 rocket, into the atmosphere. This obsessive curiosity did not cease with the Lunar Landing, but instead increased ten-fold with dreams of extraterrestrial life and extraterrestrial living. As the day humans will set foot on Mars steadily approaches, humankind faces a daunting dilemma: how …

Closet Land: Combining Theatre And Film For A Psychological Thrill, Ashley Snead, Janet Hayatshahi

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This paper reflects an intense study of the benefits of how film can be integrated into theatrical live performance. Traditionally, live theatrical performance has used three-dimensional bodies in space to help in its storytelling. This research seeks to find ways in which live performance can be complimented through the use of multimedia components. Based on an analysis of the script Closet Land, by Radha Bharadwaj, this research highlights moments from the text by showing how the use of video and still images displayed through projectors in the live performance enhances the storytelling and gives broader depth to the characters’ subconscious …

Cultural Support In Nursing, Sabine Knoppke-Wetzel

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This literature review explored the available cultural support existing in the United States and abroad for internationally-educated nurses (IEN) and foreign-born student nurses (FBSN) in order to better understand how to improve patient outcomes by ensuring a successful cultural and linguistic transition into American nursing schools and clinical facilities. Fourteen articles regarding IEN and 12 articles regarding FBSN were used to compile recommendations to help create a more inclusive and supportive environment for IEN and FBSN in the United States. The results of this literature review indicate that there is an abundance of information regarding interventions for FBSN, but much …

The Mechanics Of Scientific Belief, Michael Cook

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

In "Science: Conjectures and Refutations," Karl Popper establishes a criterion for the scientific character or status of a theory: its falsifiability. And in one move, he turns a host of common scientific postulates—like the Ideal Gas Law, the Law of Conservation of Mass, Newton's First Law, and the Theory of Evolution—into "metaphysical research programs" whose nature renders them impossible to disprove though observable experiment ("Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind"). According to Popper, the nature of such postulates transcend the physical world; making them just as unfalsifiable as a spiritual power, or a god. In this way, they concern …

Moving Foward With Family Centered-Care: One Step At A Time, Adrianne Nicole Dunbar

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Family-centered care is an evolving process between patients, families, and health care providers. The family centered care model emphasizes the strength families bring to the healing process. The research project was a quasi-experimental pre-and post-test study with a communication intervention phase. The study was conducted in a Surgical-Trauma Intensive Care Unit (STICU) in a university affiliated hospital in the Southeast with restricted visitation hours. The purpose of this IRB-approved study was to measure the nurses’ perceptions of communication involvement with family members before and after the intervention phase. Approximately 50% of eligible participants responded. The communication intervention phase consisted of …

Cage's Dungeon, Gage Bradley, Brett Hall, Sam Troncin

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Cage’s Dungeon specifically refers to the work of the influential composer, performer, writer, and philosopher, John Cage. More precisely, his later compositional style which emphasized the use of chance operations within a musical composition. Cage was highly influenced by eastern philosophy, Zen Buddhism in particular, and he was fascinated by the chance operations found in the ancient I Ching text. As a result, Cage wrote many works that were nothing more than a set of simple guidelines for the performer to follow, with the outcome of the process creating the piece. These indeterminate compositions are not so much about the …

Each And Every Minute, Jacob Boles

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This film started as an assignment of creating a film using a piece of non-diegetic sound. Initially I had a completely different song, as well as a completely different story planned out for the video. However, on the day I had scheduled to start filming I came across ab interview with Henri Cartier-Bresson while doing an assignment for another class. I was so immediately drawn to his words that only a couple hours before shooting I decided to throw out my original plan and come up with a brand new concept using a few segments of the interview as my …

“Northern Spy”, Anne Livingston

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Crack the geode

with your teeth

to swallow honeyed skin

golden jewels spill down your chin

crisp like the firs

t lie you told your abuelita. You wish

it could no longer hurt

you ignore snow white’s

lore to keep the meat

down. does it taste

as delicious as you remember?

Non-Suicidal Self-Injury On Youtube: A Content And Comment Analysis, Nathan Lowry, Carol Ewert

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is a prevalent public health issue that affects millions of teenagers and young adults each year. With the ever-increasing use of social media among youth, it is important to understand how NSSI is represented online. The goal of the current study was to update the research of Lewis and colleagues (2010) to examine how NSSI is represented on YouTube via a content analysis. We also examined whether certain types of NSSI related videos may encourage or trigger viewers to engage in NSSI themselves by coding comments posted in response to videos. For this study, we searched “self-harm” …

The Physics Behind Garage Door Springs, Tal Joseph

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Pushing a button to open your garage door before going to work seems trivial until the motor fails to lift the door. There are various explanations for a garage door malfunction, but this paper will focus on the most common of them all—a broken spring. Inspired by the fact that garage door technicians must match the right spring to the appropriate garage doors, this project produced a spring conversion calculator. This paper provides a preface and comprehensive explanation of the mechanisms of overhead garage doors. Initially, it introduces the garage door and its components, then provides a detailed explanation of …

"My Paintings Would Be No Different Than A Picture In A Biology Textbook", Andi Kur

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

I find that there are innate balances in life, universal dichotomies that permeate our understanding of the world. My paintings are about a duality such as this that exists between art and science. We are told from youth that these subjects are poles in constant strain, as miscible as oil in water. I spent thirteen years in school believing that I must choose between the two, that it is unnecessary to carry both with me. Drawn between a distinct love of each, I realized how vehemently I disagreed. Everything: every rock to every tree to every person is suspended between …

A Sliding Scale: Nuclear Proliferation Among States, Jessica Lui

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Why do states engage in nuclear proliferation? Nuclear proliferation is a major security issue affecting the international arena. Existing studies debate both the strength and direction of determinants of nuclear proliferation and the effect of domestic and international circumstances on proliferation. A clear understanding of why states choose to pursue nuclear arms is critical to promoting and maintaining international security. By analyzing what factors may make a state less prone to proliferation, the international community may incentivize disarmament. My research question considers membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) as a potential correlate of nuclear proliferation. Are countries that …

Temporary Meddlers: Friars In Measure For Measure And Romeo And Juliet, Sarah Friedman

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Shakespeare wrote during a time of intense religious controversy, as Protestants, Catholics, and Puritans vied for spiritual authority in England. Although Henry VIII broke from the Catholic Church in the 1530s, Shakespeare’s work seems to still have been heavily influenced by Roman Catholic traditions. Both Measure for Measure and Romeo and Juliet are set in Catholic places and Catholic friars manipulate the outcomes in both plays. The portrayal of these characters offers insight into how Shakespeare may have viewed Catholics, as he did not leave behind clear evidence of his own religious convictions. The friars in Measure for Measure and …

A Cultural, Economic, And Industrial Analysis Of The Republic Of Poland And Its Financial Services Industry, Jeremy Eberly

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Through its thousand-year existence, the state of Poland has been a continental anomaly. The very existence of the state was questioned, challenged, and influenced by foreign powers intent on empire. At the end of World War II, the then-communist Polish state remained tightly under the influence of the Soviet Union. After years of underlying dissatisfaction with the pitiful performance of a centrally planned economy, the Poles, through “Solidarity,” forced democratic reforms in the late 1980s and capitalism was formally embraced. Explaining why the Poles rejected communism, French anthropologist and renowned political scientist Emmanuel Todd suggests that the roots of the …

The Use Of Simpson’S Diversity Index To Develop A Diverse Community For The Enrichment Of Experiential Learning, Quinn Nguyen

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Diversity is a buzz-word in our society, and within an academic institution, it plays the role as a tacit of what an institution is able to offer its students to better themselves and contribute to more knowledgeable citizens. While many programs and institutions promise diversity, some of these entities lack the requisite of diversity through their broad, loose definition. In this study, the Simpson’s Diversity Index (SDI) is introduced as a possible quantitative method for eradicating the loose definition of diversity. With that, 103 institutions were randomly sampled from a list of 1500 institutions to create a normal distribution curve. …

Connexin-43 And Traumatic Brain Injury: A Potential Target For Therapeutic Intervention, Lauren R. Moore

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a widespread, degenerative affliction with no current therapeutic interventions. The long-­‐term degradation caused by TBI results from secondary injury cascades that are initiated by primary injury. An early and important step in the damage process is reactive astrogliosis in astrocytes. Astrocytes communicate through gap junctions, which are composed of two connexon hemichannels from the two communicating cells and these connexons themselves are composed of six connexin protein subunits. Connexin 43 (Cx43) is a particularly important connexin to gap junctional communication and could act either to preserve the astrocytes from oxidative stress, or to propagate the …

Secret-Keeper, Cassandra Zimmerman

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Playing with the neighbor’s boy Sam wasn’t always Eliza’s favorite pastime. Each Saturday they’d sit in front of his house, searching for caterpillars between the slick, green blades and dried husks of weeds. The sun watched them as intently as they did the grass, or perhaps it was looking for caterpillars too. The real fun, however, didn’t start until Sam brought out the toys: a combat jeep, as small and shiny as a beetle; a plastic shooter that was always slick with bubble soap; fistfuls of dinosaurs, some forever frozen in a hungry roar, others in a panicked stare; and, …

Confronting Internalized Transphobia My Own And Society's, Kaci Sullivan

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

This series emphatically insists on spectrums in a binary world. While I consciously know there isn’t anything wrong with being transgender—that there’s absolutely no shame in it, this knowledge hasn’t protected me from internalizing all the transphobic messages integrated into every aspect of our "progressive" society. Glittering glass slivers, they dig in deep, prepared to stay a lifetime. So I decided to sit with myself. Naked. In front of a mirror and canvas. I would paint my body until it became one grounded, plein-air-inspired stroke after another. Until I accepted that it’s a perfectly valid body. This journey isn’t mine …

Honors Program Induction: Fitting Into A Community That Is Born To Stand-Out, Jennifer Drew

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Watching, waiting, wondering—I knew that in this moment I would either sink or swim in my desire to find my place in this university. I was standing on the sidewalk looking at the open green field; however, this field was not empty. All I had to do was step out onto that grass, but my fear of the unknown held me captive. I really felt like the little freshman I was. Since I had been in college, I had searched for that “home away from home” feeling. I longed to find this feeling, but after searching in the academy . …

Educating The Outsiders: The Importance Of Social Support In The Success Of Latino Undocumented Students, Emily Adkins

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

It takes a village to raise a child. This traditional proverb points to the importance of community and cooperation in ensuring children’s needs are met and exposing them to a wide variety of resources that could provide assistance if necessary. This concept of community support is widely heralded, and for many students in the United States, this saying is vital. Their villages are complete with parents, teachers, and administrators that support them and believe in their potential for success. But who forms the support system for children who are on America’s social fringes? For students who seem to be outsiders, …

Symptoms Of The Virus By Dr. Henry Esquire Iii Md Chronological Order, Emily Haase

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

1. Severe hunger, often voicing their distress.

2. Chronic moodiness, confusion, sullenness.

3. Irritability, otherwise emotionally unstable. Paranoia.

4. Homicidal tendencies – full takeover of the disease. Handle with caution.

I was pondering whether scratching five (zombification?) or perhaps a two-and-a-half (insomnia, only affecting a portion of those affected?) into the dirt was necessary before Travis made my decision. He didn’t mean to do it, of course, but he stomped across the list anyway, destroying it. He didn’t even stop to say sorry, so he must not even have noticed.

Evolutionary Explanation For Invasive Abilities Of Centaurea Stoebe (Spotted Knapweed) In Introduced Areas Invasion And Its Effects On Biodiversity In Native Areas, Erin Koren

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Exotic species are those which have been dispersed, either by chance or human action, to an environment outside of their native range. Only a small portion of these exotics are able to become well established in the invaded population and even expand beyond it. The ones that can are termed invasive species (Muller-Scharer, Schaffner & Steinger, 2004; Bais et al., 2003). Broz et al. (2007) estimates that 25,000 species of invasive plants are in the U.S. invading 700,000 hectares of United States wildlife habitat per year and tallies the economic burden of invasive plant species to be around $35 billion …

Jargons And Pidgins And Creoles, Oh My!, Emily Gray

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Linguistics, as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “the science of studying language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and historical linguistics” (OED.com). Within this field, the study of pidgin and creole languages is the source of much controversy and disagreement. Due to their divergence from typical linguistic features and development patterns, pidgins and creoles have long been ignored by the linguistics community. Considered by many to be “inferior, haphazard, broken” versions of “older, more established languages,” these so-called “bastard tongues” were written off as unworthy of study (Todd 1). Only recently have these forms of language garnered …