STUDENT: Nikhita Gurukula

PROJECT ADVISOR: Sharon Toman

ABSTRACT

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig Van Beethoven are two incredibly influential musicians whose legacies will live on through new music created years from now. However, they had different upbringings and different experiences, making their music and legacies different. This project will go into depth, analyzing the upbringings of each musician and how this affected their music. To discuss the specifics of their music, I will choose a popular piece composed by each musician, and discuss the structure, undertones, and technicalities of each piece. Each piece will be broken down by movement and discussed chronologically. Mozart’s musical intricacy and focus on an unaltered, monotonous balance of aesthetics are shown in Symphony No. 41 in C major, K 551. Beethoven’s emotional purpose is shown in one of his most famous compositions, Symphony No.5 in C minor, Op.67. I will then conclude by discussing the legacies of Mozart and Beethoven.

STUDENT: Isabella Muncie

PROJECT ADVISOR: Kara Stone

ABSTRACT

In medieval times, poetry established a rigid set of gender roles for both males and females. These archaic ideals solidified the assumptions that men were wise in the sense that they possessed knowledge; while women were “good” if they performed in socially acceptable ways. Two poems of this time period, “How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter” and “How the Wise Man Taught His Son”, unmistakably embody the stereotypical aspects for both sexes. “How the Good Wife Taught Her Daughter” portrays the ideal woman as a submissive, obedient servant to her husband. Contrarily, “How the Wise Man Taught His Son” advises men to dominate women as they are “superior”. Any challenges to these firm roles were met with severe disdain from society, particularly towards women. In essence, these pieces of medieval literature paint a certain picture on how members of society should act. Remarkably, many of these stereotypes depicted in the poems are still prevalent in modern day. Fortunately, these Middle Age conventions are starting to dissipate.

STUDENT: Maria Veniamin

PROJECT ADVISOR: Kim Flanders

ABSTRACT

My research paper focuses on group communication through the means of social media, video calls, phone calls, written letters, and texting, and how they compare to face-to-face communication. I used Tuckman’s Theory of Group Development to help me understand how a group forms and the stages a group goes through to become a cohesive unite that can work effectively together. What I discovered through this research was that groups lost much of their personal connection to their fellow group members because of the loss of facial expressions, gestures, and proximity to others through the use of electronic forms of communication. I believe that this loss of communication over electronic means is the loss of the human touch. Groups are formed for college classes, for business projects, for planning events, and much more. Understanding what modes of communication work best for a group is important so that the group can communicate clearly and openly without any misunderstandings.

Second Place in Category #7 – Oral Presentations

Information Literacy Excellence Award Runner-Up

STUDENTS: Shea Tyler, Jamise Sealey

PROJECT ADVISOR: Jody Griffith

ABSTRACT

Students face a multitude of challenges as a result of transitioning into college-level English courses. These difficulties are amplified when a student does not have a proficient background in the English language. Therefore, a school environment that fosters support and growth is crucial to students’ development of the language. Through both qualitative research in the form of interviews and currently offered programs, and quantitative research of statistics, we were able to identify common problems that English Language Learner (ELL) students face, the programs and solutions offered at our campus, and potential areas of improvement. This project seeks to educate others about our findings and to provide guidance in regards to how we can improve our current system to best aid the ELL students on our campus and everywhere. The PSU Scranton Writing Center operates with a student-first philosophy that aims to help any and all students. With the range of perspectives that we have received, we have formed a solid baseline that appreciates how far we have come as a campus community, and how far we are able to go.

Information Literacy Award Runner-Up

STUDENT: Julia Fessenden

PROJECT ADVISOR: Kelley Wagers

ABSTRACT

Found family is a fascination in fan culture, in which fans of literature contribute to the understanding of characters by writing their own fan works and art. Found family is so prevalent due to readers’ identifying with the characters in the family groups and readers’ longing for something similar. In categorizing the different types of found family in All for the Game and The Raven Cycle, two popular Young Adult fiction series, we gain deeper insight into how these found families tick, and for what exactly readers are searching. “Substitutional” found families often supply needs unmet by biological families, especially a home or a purpose. “Supplemental” found families are often formed around extra needs, such as further purpose or emotional support. Furthermore, when looking back at literary criticism of Twilight and The Hunger Games, there is a marked lack of diversity in sexuality and composition of the found family that forms within them, whereas in these newer series, diversity is encouraged. Since the fields of sociological research and literary research both are fractured fields of study with a myriad of terms to refer to different types of found family, I propose that a new, unified language to help interdisciplinary study should be created. Furthermore, in more recent years, the traditional found family story in Young Adult fiction has been replaced by a more diverse and accepting family to meet these needs. In looking at these trends and compiling these terms, I propose a more unified field of study to start a dialogue between sociology and literature studies can start, especially in how these found families function. Beyond that, though, the new inclusivity in found family gives readers in an important developmental stage a wider range of role models and examples to draw from.

Information Literacy Award Runner-Up

STUDENT: Rachel Veniamin

PROJECT ADVISOR: Claire Mary Louise Bourne

ABSTRACT

How to translate stage action into print was a complicated question faced by Early Modern publishers of drama. When the Early Modern playwright Ben Jonson started using dashes to signal action in printed plays, other Early Modern publications followed suit. The Roaring Girl (1611) by Middleton and Dekker is one such play that uses dashes to signal action. To better understand the ways in which dashes are used to represent action, I conducted a taxonomy of The Roaring Girl’s dashes. I concluded that most of its dashes are used to signal small hand gestures/movements or a change in address. Smaller categories include dashes that signal a change in body position, a pause, or extended comical action. Furthermore, the dashes could often be interpreted as signaling multiple types of action at once. Based on my taxonomy, I also concluded that Early Modern readers would likely have had to be aware of current publishing and staging practices in order to interpret these dashes as physical action without aid. Ultimately, the dashes were revealed to be not only a signal for action, but an opportunity for readerly interpretation. Through the dashes, readers could become part of the collaborative process that made an Early Modern play.

First Place in Category #7 – Oral Presentations

Information Literacy Award

STUDENT: Micah Cameron

PROJECT ADVISOR: Ana Cooke

ABSTRACT

In the USA, the most vulnerable members of our population are often deprived of necessary resources by government programs that are underfunded and run by companies that lack the resources necessary to address serious issues. Individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities are no exception. Families who need help caring for loved ones and people who live in the community and need assistance with activities of daily living face ever-increasing barriers to accessing services.

Over the past decade, Pennsylvania has made it increasingly difficult for agencies that provide home and community-based services to individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities to operate. Not only are these agencies not reimbursed appropriately, but they must also contend with an exponential increase in regulatory burdens, which make hiring and retaining qualified staff extremely difficult.

This presentation will explore how reimbursement rate stagnation and overregulation have combined to create a perfect storm that has made it increasingly difficult for agencies to continue providing home and community-based services to individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. Fortunately, there are solutions to this problem, some of which have been implemented in other states. However, we must first recognize the severity of this problem and allocate an appropriate amount of funding to home and community-based services to ensure that some of the most vulnerable members of our population get the assistance they deserve.

Information Literacy Award Winner

STUDENT: Lauren Sciabbarrasi

PROJECT ADVISOR: James Hart

ABSTRACT
Many people know origami as the art of paper folding. It is taking a square sheet of printer paper, folding it time and time again, and ending with a crane. While this is one application of origami, the use of paper folding is more than just a fun hobby; it is a mathematical art form with real-world, innovative applications. Erik Demaine, the father of modern origami, and other “math artists,” are using origami to change the memory of a medium; creating a brand-new story.

Origami is all about reconfiguration. It is taking one thing and morphing it into something else. It is the product of an unlikely crossover between computational geometry and art. My research explores how computational geometry, and the laws of paper folding, equip scientists and mathematicians with new ways to innovate. Various real-world applications of the mathematical art form span the automobile, robotic, medical, and aerospace fields. Origami is even pushing the boundaries of mathematical possibility, with the newest phenomenon boggling the minds of various mathematicians, the hyperbolic paraboloid.