An Aptitude For Discovery

The PUB brimmed with student researchers and posters describing their innovative investigations as a part of Eastern’s annual Research and Creative Works Symposium.

The two-day event, one of the university’s largest academic showcases, began on Tuesday, May 6, with the presentation of creative works in the EWU Art building. The event concluded on Wednesday, May 7, after students presented posters encapsulating their months-long research projects. 

Subjects ranged across the sciences, humanities and social sciences, each reflecting the students’ own interests and academic experiences. Psychology major Ashley DeRosier, for example, took a deep dive into Eastern’s past as she explored why red and white were chosen as EWU’s school colors. 

After a search through Eastern’s yearbooks and archives dating back to 1917,  DeRosier discovered that the answer to her question likely died in the Cheney Normal School fire of 1912, which destroyed many of Eastern’s earliest records, she says. 

Despite this obstacle, DeRosier’s research was not derailed. She shifted her focus to interpretations of the school colors, finding that red and white were associated with loyalty, faith and pride. 

“We’re now crafting a survey for the EWU community,” says DeRosier. “We’re exploring the meaning students, faculty and alumni attribute to the colors of red and white, providing insight into both perceived origins and present-day significance.”

Across the PUB, near a refreshment table fueling their fellow Eags, Keisha Hill and Mac Reece presented their research on student perceptions of artificial intelligence (A.I.)

“The goal of our research was to find out how students are using A.I., and how they feel about A.I. use,” says Hill. 

In the quest for answers, they conducted a month-long survey earlier this year which yielded more than three-hundred responses. “Over 80% of students agreed that it was okay to use A.I. for proofreading and brainstorming,” says Hill. “But 78% of students say that A.I. use is unacceptable for quizzes and tests, while 71% believe it violates academic integrity to use A.I. to generate text.”

This past March, Hill and Reece, along with their partner Isabella Anderson, presented their findings at the Society for Applied Anthropology conference in Portland. Now, they hope to have their research published in an academic paper, Hill says. 

Logan Herman, a senior geosciences major, presented research based on his internship with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). His work involved preparing rare earth metals for age determination. 

Sulfide carbonatites from the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine in eastern California were sent to EWU, in collaboration with the USGS, in order to break down these samples. 

“We first crush the rocks down to a certain grain size,” says Herman. “Then we use a sieve shaker to separate the material, and the Frantz magnetic separator is used to separate out minerals by their magnetic susceptibility.”

Finally, he says, they are placed underneath a microscope where bastnasite and monazite are picked out with tweezers. Those samples are then sent back to geologists in California for age dating. 

This process is important for geologists to better understand these rare metals, says Herman, as they are instrumental in the production of everyday items like smart phones. 

“I love this research so much and love that I get to share it with other people,” says Herman. “Especially other geoscience majors who may be interested in this position with the USGS in the future.”

For a full list of poster presentations, visit here for session one and here for session two.