Honors Colloquiums 2011 - 2013
Honors Colloquiums are 1 credit projects Honors students can add to any regular WSCU course. The student develops the project in consulation with the faculty member teaching the course. The resulting project allows the Honors student deeper engagement with the regular course material and offers the student the opportunity to pursue a topic of special interest related to the course.
Human Trafficking
Gavin is currently taking POLS 487 Human Security, Risk and the State with Dr. Maria Struble. Gavin is reaseraching this timely issue with both empirical and theoretical evidence, familiarising himself with a topic of pressing concerns to Security scholars.
Gender and Eastern Belief Systems
Rachael Sandhagen-Turner seeks to explore the relationships of gender within the eastern faiths of Buddhism, Confucism, Hinduism and Taoism. This exploration is not only of academic interest but deep personal interest as well and is allowing Rachael to engage in the course material of her SOC321 Sociology of Religion course at a deeper level. This project is being supervised by Dr. Dan Cress.
Ornithology
Miles Peterson is expanding the course content of his BIOL 320 course to delve deeper into the subject of avian introduction in North America. Dr. Pat Magee is supervising this work.
Community Supported Agriculture
Jared James researched the market for locally produced agriculture, with a specific focus on the "community Supported Agriculture" movement. He applied the principles of microeconomics to gain a deeper understanding of the CSA market and to explore why CSA has come to be seen as an alternative to the dominant food production and distribution system in the United States. This project is connected to his ECON 202 course and was suppervised ny Dr. Scott Lazerus.
Media Symbiosis
Zachary Schaller examined if media really serves a public function deepening his engagement with his COTH 151 course material. Zachary examined the roles of media as watch dog and as agenda setter while considering therelationship between media and democracy. Coutney Fullmer worked with Zachary on this colloquium project.
Art and Humanism:
Jeffery Hunt analysed and compared the work of Renaissance artists, Michaelangelo and Raphael, as representing the characteristics of Italian Renaissance Humanism as part of his History 312 Renaissance and Reformation Era course. The project was supervised by Dr. James Stewart.
Chemotaxis
Kaytlin Hughes and Christian Griffith extended their toxicology labs to use new model animals. Kaytlin examined the impact of sodium floride (NaF) on the behavior, morphology and regenerative capacity of plenaria. Christian compared the morphological changes on tadpoles and planeria due to the application of methoxychlor, a common crop pesticide. These projects were supervised by Dr. Cassandra Osborne
Comparative Physiology
Kaytlin researched the field of comparative physiology to learn more about the reproductive systems of various organisms. This project was supervised by Dr. Rebecca Sears.
Income and Wealth Disparity
Max Lindsay examined the political debates surrounding the current economic crisis using Raghuram Rajam's book Faultlines and Robert Riech's work, Aftershock. Max used this project to connect his political theory course work with his Macroeconomics class. This project was supervised by Dr. David Plante.
Plant Defense
Dan Armstrong examined the relationship between plants and their surroundings in response to defense. His research focussed on plants' physical and checmical defenses against bacteria, fungi, insects, herbivores and climate change. Dr. Robin Bingham of Biology supervised this project.
