Undergraduate Researchers Show Their Work at UNCG Expo
Posted on June 18, 2024
At the close of every spring semester at UNC Greensboro, students get the chance to share the outcomes of their scholarly activity at the undergraduate and graduate research and creativity expos. They display their results on posters in UNCG’s Cone Ballroom, through performances and art exhibitions, or in oral presentations.
Rising fourth-year classical studies major Ethan Divon blended his favorite hobbies – mythology and video games – into his research. With mentorship from Dr. Aisha Dad in classical studies, Divon is studying the ways that Greek and Roman mythology gets worked into games, part of what is known in academia as “classical reception.”
“I can spend 30 minutes talking to Aisha about the ‘Hades 2’ game’s technical tests. And we not only talk about how it’s a cool game, but how it’s receiving this literature.”
He hopes his findings will help make video games an effective teaching tool for educators. “Seeing how those classical ideas have been imagined and reimagined, accurately or inaccurately, is super fascinating and can tell you a lot about a culture.”
Divon, who is part of the Ashby Residential College with the Lloyd International Honors College (LIHC), had taken his research to several conferences, most recently the Southern Regional Honors Conference. He says he felt his poster in UNCG’s Undergraduate Expo last year was not as good as it could be, not helped by his field revolving around long epics comprised of text. For his oral presentation this year, he made sure he had appealing images in his slides. He was excited to learn that he took first place for the humanities category.
“Conveying research through speech allows you a little bit more flexibility than a paper,” he says. “When talking, I try to keep my presentation a little bit lighter, a little more casual.”
While his prior experience in band, theatre, and choir prepared him to speak in front of a crowd, Divon says it was somewhat stressful to speak in front of peers and professors, so he practiced in front of friends. “It’s a strategy I use for my papers as well. Before I write, I usually try and talk to a friend in a conspiracy theory-style rant. It helps me get all my thoughts in order.”
Ethan’s advice to future participants
“Don’t stress too much. Everyone has an implicit understanding that you’re a student, and you’re learning. It’s okay to make mistakes. I’ve given this presentation at six or seven different conferences. The first was not that great. But by the seventh time, it was good. Letting yourself experience how to present is really important.”
Class Notes
Abby Hughes ’24 and Tyler Rae Durkee ’24 share a love of music but play different musical instruments. That became the basis of their research to help music teachers teach students how to play instruments they themselves are not used to playing. Working with Dr. Rebecca MacLeod, professor of music education, they won first place in the Expo’s performing arts category for a presentation specifically about how colleges can prepare educators to teach string instruments.
In 2023, they spoke at the National Conference for the American String Teachers Association (ASTA). They had to shorten that presentation to fit the time limit at UNCG’s Expo.
“It was tough, taking what we already condensed down into 45 minutes, then condensing that further to 12 minutes,” says Hughes. “And at the ASTA conference, we were talking to other music teachers and string players. For URSCO, our audience did not necessarily have that background. So, we met to figure out how to make sure it made sense and was still appealing to them.”
With MacLeod as their mentor, Hughes says they brought three unique perspectives to craft effective tools for music educators. “Rebecca helped us brainstorm ideas and asked us questions that challenged us to go even further with our research.”
The Expo was during their last semester before graduating with degrees in music education. Hughes and Durkee were also completing student teaching. Hughes said their friendship and a shared love of the research topic helped them get ready. “Almost every week, we would meet so that we would get more comfortable with what we were saying,” she says. “It got to the point that we could easily go back and forth, taking turns speaking. We figured out a rhythm.”
Having shared their presentation at a national conference, Hughes was happy for the chance to bring it home to UNCG.
“We were excited to find out that we won, and that people liked our presentation,” says Hughes. “One of our goals is spreading awareness of the string teacher shortage and giving an option to all music education students. To have that message spread further was really cool for both of us.”
Abby’s advice to future participants
“Find something that you are genuinely interested in. For both of us, by the time we were prepping for the Expo, it didn’t feel like work because we were so invested and so interested in it. That was meaningful to us because we did feel nervous before the Expo. But it was a different kind of nervousness; more of an excited nervousness about sharing what we’d been working on for so long. Find something that you’re genuinely interested in figure out how to share with other people.”
Mind the Gaps
Rising third-year student Kendal Walker majors in mathematics and statistics, but her research on the post-pandemic data of STEM participation was deemed the best presentation for the category for business, education, social and behavioral sciences.
The Honors College student studied undergraduate students’ participation in STEM classes. Her data initially showed few disparities between racial and gender groups, but only when all STEM-related fields were averaged together. She delved deeper and identified the fields where gaps were apparent: physics, engineering, and computer science.
At the Expo, Walker took great care in making her poster an attention grabber. She picked one angle of her multi-faceted research that would stand out in a room full of posters. “It makes me feel like a salesperson,” she says. “I can grab people walking by, if they even glance at my poster for a second. I like to pull them in.”
While not in the oral presentation lineup, Walker still had to be comfortable with speaking. “Some people come look at the poster, read it, and then ask questions. I like that format better than an oral presentation. You can make it more interactive.”
Walker sets a high standard for herself as an undergraduate, saying, “The project I’m doing is something that I could be doing for my career. I treat it as I would treat my job.”
She’s grateful for the help of all her department faculty, particularly her mentor, Economics Professor Dora Gicheva. “She always had time to give me feedback at any stage of this process,” says Walker. “She was available for once-a-week meetings. And I could email her and receive feedback within a day or two.”
More support came from Dr. Julie Edmunds, the director of the Early College Research Center at the SERVE Center, a UNCG initiative to promote positive outcomes in education that was working with the same post-pandemic data. Edmunds met regularly with Walker and gave advice on presenting her own findings.
Finally, Walker appreciated the chance to step back from her own research and see the other UNCG students and faculty presentations at the Expo. She says, “I got to talk to other professors and make connections with professors that I might not normally talk to.”
Kendal’s advice to future participants
“Put your all into your project. Don’t worry about the competition factor. Everything that you do for an expo is something that you can potentially put on your LinkedIn. It’s something that gives you experience, to be able to present to a bunch of people. Don’t cut any corners. Treat it like you’re trying to do your best work, and it will really pay off.”
UNCG congratulates all winners of the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Expo, listed here:
Business, Education, Social and Behavioral Sciences 1st Place Kendal Walker, Mathematics & Statistics STEM Enrollment Gaps by Race/Ethnicity and Gender before and after the COVID Pandemic: Evidence from North Carolina Public Colleges and Universities
2nd Place (tied) Nathan Dang, Public Health Education Chronic Health Disparities in the U.S. Hmong Population: A National Profile with Implications for a Community-Driven Needs Assessment in NC
Kimberly Cang, Biology; and Tiffany Tan, Psychology Conversations About Discrimination Among Asian American Parents and Adolescents
Humanities 1st Place Ethan Divon, Classical Studies Expanding Classics: Comparative World Mythology and its Reception in Gaming
2nd Place Sofie Muska, English Scions of the Solar Sea
3rd Place Matthew Henderson, Anthropology Zooarchaeological Considerations at Crusader-Period Caesarea Maritima
(STEM) Mathematics, Life and Physical Sciences 1st Place Sarah Hudson, Biology Exposure to Microplastics and Nanoplastics (MNPLs) Triggered Inflammatory Response in Human Aortic Endothelial Cells (HAEC)
2nd Place Sarah Korb, Biochemistry Enantioselective Effects of Co-Catalysts on Tetrahydropyran Protected Alcohols
3rd Place Yeancarlos Jalouf-Zogbi, Biology; and Grant Koher, Chemistry & Biochemistry Māmaki Ethanol Extracts Inhibit TNF-Α-Induced Endothelial Proinflammatory Gene Expression in Human Aortic Endothelial Cells
Performing Arts 1st Place Tyler Rae Durkee, Music Education; and Abigail Hughes, Music Education Everybody Can Play Strings: Including Non-String Primaries in Your Program
Visual Arts Exhibition 1st Place Annabelle Kizer, Art The Children of Nightmare
2nd Place Sophie Shahan, Theatre Exploring History and Theatrical Mobility
3rd Place Sarah Smith, Art; and Amiah Jones, Art Murals and Large-Scale Painting: Bridging Creative Research and Community Development
Story by Janet Imrick, University Communications Photography by Sean Norona, University Communications
