Students' interest lacking during annual scholars' day

While scholarship is alive and well at ASU, as demonstrated when more than 50 students presented their research Tuesday during ASU's 10th annual Undergraduate Scholars Day, not many people showed an interest.

Students were supposed to give presentations about their research to an audience. However, the audiences were often sparse, and in at least one instance, no one came to hear the presentations.

For example, the Student Union auditorium was used to present psychology research. Not including presenters, there was an audience of five to 10 people for the 12:30 p.m. session.

"It would be cool if more students would take an interest in research," said Elise Eubank, a senior psychology major from Little Rock.

Eubank presented her psychology study, "Judgments of Punishment: Name and Scenario Effects."

Eubank conducted a survey to determine whether a person's name is a factor in the public's judgment of criminals.

Based on published research, Eubank expected to find that a person's name does make a difference.

"I didn't find the effect I wanted," Eubank said. "[That's] good for humanity, but bad for research."

Brandy Riggan, a senior psychology major from Amory, Miss., also presented her research in psychology.

"[Students] need to be actively involved in research in their field," Riggan said.

She said the Undergraduate Scholars Day "is a nice, comfortable place to present research."

Riggan presented three studies: "Effects of Voluntary Maternal Nicotine Consumption on Litter Size, Average Pup Body Mass and Pup Viability" (with senior psychology major Shana Bailey), "Ethnic Identification of Names" and "What Makes Christopher Agreeable? Sound, Familiarity and Race as Factors in Judging Names."

The 12:30 p.m. chemistry session had no audience. The event's supervisor told students to display their work in the hallway and that they might get more of an audience that way.

With permission from the supervisor, students put up their posters on the only surface available - the wall.

A few minutes later, a woman huffily told them "they couldn't do that." The woman seemed angry and called the higher-ups on her cell phone.

The three chemistry presenters then had to remove their posters.

Amanda Harvey, a senior chemistry major from Nanaimo, British Columbia, presented her research that found microwaves can significantly speed up chemical reactions.

Michael Sullivan, a senior chemistry major from Paragould, presented his research on the detection of explosives.

Finally, Catherine Hancock, a senior chemistry major from Poplar Bluff, and Joshua Greene, who graduated as a chemistry major from Paragould in December, discovered how to separate the chemicals in Resveratrol.

Resveratrol is a compound extracted from grapes that is being used to combat cancer, viruses and obesity.

"We'd like the public to recognize the chemistry research taking place at ASU," Hancock said.