Recently in Research and Projects Category

It was a wet, soggy trip to DC, but the students in AM ST 100H, ENGL 030, and HONOR 301H made the trip to our nation's capital to visit various places.  The focus of the HONOR 301H course was to document each of the entries in the Solar Decathlon 2009 competition. 

View the student projects in our Honors YouTube channel, or explore the mini-video documentaries in Google Earth!

In Fall 2009, students enrolled in HONOR 301H engaged in a multimedia project with two overarching goals: (1) to gain additional knowledge pertaining to primary education and what is being done to make education equal and accessible to all; and (2) to identify and grow your own innovative ideas pertaining to sustained change towards the UN Millennium goal for universal primary education. View the solutions designed by two of the teams!


Looking Abroad for Answers: Solutions for American Education Problems, by John Formento, Lauren Orner, Nina Zeoli

Improving Enthusiasm for Education in Youth Through Parental Involvement and Mentoring, by Mary-Therese Capaldi, Carl Doonan, Diane Paolo

Schreyer Scholar defends her thesis and presents her innovative and inspiring creations of her new jewelry line International Charm '09 (July 16, 2009).

View her video she created introducing the inspiration for her new line.



View a photo collection of images from the jewelry show.

Inspired by the book Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure, Penn State Brandywine honors scholars in GEOSC 021H (Earth & Life) in Spring 2009 individually contributed six words that define their view on the term "evolution."

Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) was used to create "word clouds" from the submitted text. In the images, greater prominence is given to words that appear more frequently from the six word collection. Click on the link and/or the image below to see a full screen view of the Wordle.

Wordle for Evolution (pre-semester) (LINK)

Wordle for Evolution (post-semester) (LINK)

Inspired by the book Not Quite What I was Planning: Six Word Memoirs from Writers Famous and Obscure, Penn State Brandywine honors faculty, students, and alumni individually contributed six words that define their view on the honors mission of "building a global awareness." See the individual contributions at: http://twitter.com/psubw6words/

Wordle (http://www.wordle.net/) was used to create "word clouds" from the submitted text. In the image below, greater prominence is given to words that appear more frequently from the six word collection. Click on the image to see a full screen view of the Wordle.

 

In Fall 2008, the HONOR 301H course (The Role of Knowledge in Society) focused on the theme of "innovation." To stay connected with the overarching honors theme of hunger and poverty that semester, the scholars were given a very creative assignment. The scholars were required to write a book for an audience of children 8-10 years old on hunger and/or poverty, but the scholars were challenged to present their story in an innovative way instead of the same old book format. To assist the scholars, a book binder was brought in to show the students several creative ways to present their stories. The photos below are from the book binding workshop.

It all began with an honors option project in Fall 2007.  Alyce DiLauro and Teron Meyers were enrolled in EARTH 150--Dinosaur Extinctions and Other Controversies.  The scholars completed an honors option project in the course.  At the suggestion of Dr. Guertin, they documented the dinosaur type specimens at the Smithsonian Institution through the creation of an enhanced podcast.  (see blog posting)

 

In Spring 2008, Alyce and Teron presented their podcast and a poster at the Eastern Colleges Conference of Sigma Xi (The Scientific Research Society). The scholars received comments and valuable feedback on the information and presentation of material in the podcast.

 

One would think that the project would certainly have been done-and-over with by this point--the honors option project ended in the fall, and a conference presentation was given in the spring. However, Teron and Alyce did not want to end there! Based upon the feedback they received at the conference, they decided to redo the project during the summer--not for academic credit, but to improve upon their original project. Little did they know that their summer journey would be filled with significant opportunities!

 

Dr. Guertin knows the dinosaur collections manager at the Smithsonian, Dr. Michael Brett-Surman. As Teron and Alyce wanted to take some additional photos and record some video of the dinosaurs, a trip was arranged for the students to receive a private tour of the dinosaur hall before it opened to the public in the morning, and then take a behind-the-scenes tour of the collections. To aid with collecting notes and data, scholar Jen Choi joined the group for the trip.

The story now takes many interesting turns.  For example, Teron and Alyce learned of Jen's artistic talents, and Jen is beginning to sketch some of the dinosaurs on display.  Teron and Alyce also learned that the dinosaur hall will soon be closing for at least five years for renovations.  With significant changes taking place in the dinosaur hall, the group decided to collect as much information as possible to officially document the mounts and displays with the hope of creating several short videos that can be viewed by others.

 

Teron and Alyce went back to work to redo their initial dinosaur type specimen podcast. It is now a video that can be viewed in YouTube, and is part of the K-12 educational content in Penn State's iTunes U channel! Stay tuned as these scholars continue to document the dinosaurs.

 

You can view their video at:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNHN37USL1E

 

On left:  Alyce, Jen, and Teron posing with a Triceratops skull outside in front of the Smithsonian.  On right:  Teron, Alyce, and Jen with Dr. Michael Brett-Surman in the type specimen room touching a type skull of a saber-toothed cat.

In 2007, Cooper Honors engineering scholars Douglas May and Matthew Liskowycz contacted the College of Engineering at the PSU-University Park campus to explore the possibility of participating in the Rube Goldberg Machine Contest.  Penn State Brandywine had never sent a team to the competition.  But the leadership of Doug and Matt brought together fellow freshmen and sophomores in the Engineering Club to create a team - and a machine that assembles a hamburger consisting of no less than one precooked meat patty, two vegetables, and two condiments, sandwiched between two bun halves.  Under the mentorship of Dr. Ivan Esparragoza, the team brought their machine to the Penn State competition and beat four other Penn State teams to place first.  The first-place finish has earned the team a spot in the national competition to be held at Purdue University on April 5th.  Best of luck, Brandywine engineers!

In connection with the 40th anniversary of the Penn State Brandywine campus, local artists are painting statues of our school symbol, the Nittany Lion. Under the supervision of Professor Connie Kirker, honors scholars and Alyce DiLauro and Teron Meyers interviewed some of the artists that are creating these one-of-a-kind masterpieces. For their ART H 112 honors option project, Alyce and Teron compiled a blog with images and information about each of the artists. The lion statues will be auctioned off at the 40th anniversary gala with proceeds going towards student scholarships.

View the blog here.

For their honors option project in EARTH 150H (Dinosaur Extinction and Other Controversies), Alyce DiLauro and Teron Meyers explored the classic specimens in the dinosaur collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

Why are some dinosaurs more unique than others in the Smithsonian's collection? Which dinosaurs are the 'classic specimens'? Tune in to the photo and audio tour put together by these scholars to find out!

Download the podcast here for iTunes and/or your iPod.

If you do not have an iPod, view online the same m4v file.