Symposium spotlights research by KU undergraduates

LAWRENCE -- A documentary of KU student and faculty reactions to the Sept. 11 tragedies and an assessment of school desegregation after Brown v. Topeka Board of Education are two of nearly 60 undergraduate research projects that will be presented at the fifth annual Undergraduate Research Symposium on March 2.

The symposium, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the Kansas Union, is sponsored by the KU Honors Program and KU's Undergraduate Research Awards program. Students will give 15-minute presentations or present posters explaining their work. Research subjects extend across the academic spectrum including political science, fine arts and biology. The public is invited to attend.

The symposium allows undergraduate researchers to present their work in an academic setting that showcases student research involvement. Participants must be involved in independent research and have a faculty sponsor.

A dinner banquet for the symposium participants will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Kansas Room of the Kansas Union. Sophomore Jesse Henkensiefken, a violoncello major from Berryton, will perform a self-arranged cello concerto during the dinner. Three faculty members will offer symposium reflections.

Among students presenting their research are Omaha junior Christopher Blunk, Topeka senior Ambriel Renn-Scanlan and Lawrence senior Karrigan Bork.

Blunk, a theatre and film major, will present research titled "Unity Through Diversity: The KU Campus Reacts to September 11th." His presentation, in documentary form, will explore the reactions of the KU campus and will include examples of charity, prejudice and anger at KU. Blunk's research was supported by Kirk Branch, assistant professor of English. Blunk's presentation and documentary screening will take place at 11 a.m. and noon in the Big 12 Room of the Kansas Union.

Renn-Scanlan, a history and English major, will present research titled "The Birthplace of Brown: Assessing the Success and Failure of School Desegregation in Topeka, Kansas." Her research explores the possibility that the Topeka School Board implemented policies that "indirectly subverted" the 1954 Supreme Court ruling and suggests that these actions reflected Topekans' and Americans' attitudes toward desegregation. Renn-Scanlan's research was supported by Jeffrey Moran, assistant professor of history, and her presentation will be at 9:30 a.m in the Big 12 Room.

Truman Scholarship winner Karrigan Bork, a biodiversity, ecology and evolutionary biology, chemistry and environmental studies major, will present research titled "Lunar Phobia in the Greater Fishing Bat, Noctilio leporinus." Bork studied fishing bats in Golfito, Costa Rica, over a lunar cycle. His research theorizes that species such as the fishing bat increase activity in darkness as a form of adaptation to avoid predation by visually oriented nighttime predators. Bork also explores the possibility that the correlation of activity and darkness may indicate predator adaptation that maximizes hunting success. Bork's research was supported by Robert Timm, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and associate curator of the KU Natural History Museum.

The Undergraduate Research Symposium reflects KU's commitment to undergraduate research. Initiative 2001, a KU strategic planning study, states that "all students need to understand the methods of research to better prepare them for the ever-changing demands of a technological and information-based society." Some symposium participants received funding from Undergraduate Research Awards, a program that awards research grants from $500 to more than $1,000 to almost 70 KU students each academic year.

Additional Undergraduate Research Symposium information is available online.