Browse Items (17 total)
- Collection: Senior Showcase 2018
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'Democratizing Science': Robert M. LaFollette's Vision for Education by DeLou Wilson
Robert “Fightin’ Bob” La Follette Sr. spent the majority of his life as a Progressive Republican who attempted to reform the United States and remove monied interests from politics. While he was able to pass a great deal of legislation with…
Banana for Scale: Quantifying Reddit's Impact on Political Campaigns by Lauren Hince and Rose Hogmire
Reddit, popularly known as the front-page of the internet, is an emerging platform for political campaigns. Consistently updating with fresh ideas, Reddit’s interface is dynamic with its content being exclusively user-generated. Within the website…
Bro Country: Creating a New Image of Country Music
Over the years country music has changed a lot through the development of new sounds, shifting ideas, and new audiences, leading to many new subgenres within the larger musical genre. "Bro-country" is one of these alleged new subgenres, and it has…
Evolution of the Portrayal of Trauma in Children's Literature by Mackenzie Skumatz
The Secret Garden, written by Frances Hodgson Burnett in 1911 and A Monster Calls, written by Patrick Ness in 2011, both feature child protagonists who deal with similar traumas, including neglect and the death of a parent. However, the way the…
Framing in the Media: How Labeling Affects Perception by Alexa Beck and Mollie Carlson
The media is often framed to purposefully influence their consumers’ perception and opinion, and in some cases empathy can be swayed by the frame and label presented. In the present study, the effects of framing and labeling on empathy were examined…
Gendered Madness in Early Modern Drama by Eve Green
Madness is a prevalent theme in Early Modern Drama, yet the Oxford English Dictionary’s (OED) definitions of madness in use during this time suggest that these portrayals of madness may be misunderstood by modern audiences without sufficient…
How Adam Smith Forgot About Women by Rose Hogmire
In an initial read of Adam Smith’s landmark work Wealth of Nations for the young economics student, concepts known from our daily observations of economics are ingrained into our culture thanks to his contributions: self-interest motivates the…
Predatory Bacteria: Investigating the Role of Lipopolysaccharides and opmA Mutations on Predation by Isaac Masters
In recent years, there have been studies that evaluate the potential use of predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus to control the multidrug-resistant (MDR), Gram-negative pathogens associated with human infections. This study was focused on…
Processing Spiritual Experiences Today: The Validity of Spiritual Gifts by Justine Jacobsen
Whether or not the Holy Spirit is active in spiritual gifts today, or even the degree that He is active, is essential in reviving the notion and understanding of God's presence. If the Holy Spirit is moving in spiritual gifts of contemporary culture,…
The Cause and Effects of Population Growth by Rebecca Rate
Thomas Malthus was one of the first scholars to write about the issues of population growth. He feared that humans would surpass Earth's carrying capacity which would lead to disease, suffering, and ultimately death. He believed that higher wages…
The Constituents Will Eat it Up: How Food Affected Political Identity in the 2016 Presidential Election by Lauren Hince
From taco bowls to eating pizza with a fork, food has remained a topic of conversation surrounding political campaigns. The 2016 presidential election cycle was no exception. Faced with two candidates who defied the presidential mold, both campaigns…
The Dirty Old Man Complex: Finding Charles Bukowski's Place in the Literary Canon by Abbey Flower
The goal of my project was to highlight a relatively unknown poet, Charles Bukowski, and bring him in conversation with the literary canon. While Bukowski himself had no intention or desire of becoming part of literary history, his groundbreaking…
The Effect of Assigned Gender Roles on Evaluations of the Self and Others by Sierra Elsbury
One theory that has sought to understand gender identity development is Bem’s gender schema theory (Bem, 1981). The present study sought to build off of Bem’s theory and evaluate the effect of manipulating gender perceptions on evaluations of the…
The Evolution of the Republican Party from 1854-Present: What Changed and What Stayed the Same by Benjamin J. Wozniczka
The Republican Party, also known as the Grand Old Party (GOP), has evolved substantially since the party's formation in 1854. Its ideological structure has been adjusted several times over the course of history which can be broken down into four…
The Identification of Novel Cell Death Inducers by Jacob Baus
Cell death caused by cardiac infarction events commonly result in the development of heart disease. The identification and classification of genes in these cell death pathways improves medical professionals understanding of these mechanisms and helps…