The Honors Program is hosting the 18th annual Undergraduate Research Day next month.
Undergraduate Research Day will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 23 in the Honors Hall on the first floor of Gold Star Memorial Building. Though the event is hosted by the Honors Program, it’s open to any and all undergraduate students at the university.
“The day is an opportunity for students all across the university in various disciplines to demonstrate and present and highlight the work that they’ve performed over the past calendar year,” said Dr. Erik Heine, professor of music/assistant director of the Honors Program. “Any original work that was created in 2017 is eligible for submission.”
Students can submit academic and artistic works. The three areas of submission are posters, presentations or performances. Depending on the type of submissions received, they will be broken down into further categories, Heine said.
Faculty and staff members will act as judges during the event, and cash prizes will be awarded to the winner of each category.
“This year will be my fourth time to present at OCU Undergraduate Research Day,” said Laura Jardine, biology senior. “Most of my submissions were independent ecological research projects I’ve either done at OCU or through summer jobs.”
Jardine said she will present work concerning the state of permafrost.
“I’ve presented on bird habitats, primate behavior, fire ecology, and bee physiology,” she said. “This year I’m going to be sharing my work on fires and permafrost thaw in the Arctic.”
The poster portion of the event will last from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the presentations will last from 1-4 p.m. and the performance portion will overlap from noon to 2 p.m.
“The idea is that you don’t have to be static, you don’t have to be in one place for an entire session, you can move through and observe various things,” Heine said. “We want it to be a little more interactive.”
A submission form was distributed last Thursday via email. Students may fill out the form and return their submissions to Heine in person or they can email them at eheine@okcu.edu. Submissions close Friday.
“If there are students that are considering submitting, I would strongly encourage them to submit,” Heine said. “If you’re on the fence and thinking, ‘well maybe I should, maybe I shouldn’t,’ go ahead and submit.”
Jardine said she recognizes the benefit of events like this.
“It’s a low-stakes opportunity for students to present research,” she said. “I got to present at OCU before starting to attend bigger conferences, and the experience really helped prepare me for presenting in situations that are more intense.”
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