Student research, projects shine on Student Scholars Day

For junior Jackson Hicks, his research is focused on intonation and gender within the customer service industry. Hicks said his own experience working in customer service sparked his curiosity into the subject. He said when he assisted customers he spoke with a higher pitch compared to his normal register. 

"Since this class is built around language and how it relates to gender, my research looks at if there is an association with this higher intonation, which is traditionally perceived as feminine, and this customer service voice because it's in the service role,” Hicks said.

Hicks said his research examines why customer service representatives are trained to use a higher intonation and why the general public is accustomed to that voice from service workers. 

“There's also the level of it involved in customer satisfaction,” Hicks said. “People seem more approachable when they're using that voice.”

Brown hopes the experience resonates with his students whether they pursue graduate studies or not. 

“Just having an audience outside of our class makes things a lot more meaningful for students to share their work,” Brown said. “It's more motivating. They feel like they're doing something real outside of schoolwork.

“I think because of all that, they'll look back at it and they'll remember the course as being more impactful.”

“I wanted to do something different, especially because the Honors College really focuses on broadening people's knowledge beyond their fields, and I never really did anything related to Palestine,” Ayesh said. “I saw this as a really great opportunity and I have an obsession with the embroidery that I do.”

Since she was 7 years old, Ayesh has studied and practiced the Palestinian art of embroidery called tatreez, which often adorns Palestinian dresses known as thobes. 

“Palestinian women for many centuries would stitch their lives on their thobes,” Ayesh said. “Each symbol has a specific meaning to their heritage, their culture, their story, their narrative and their personal lives.

“Each motif also goes back to a certain region. So you might have a motif that represents an olive branch because they're in farming, but an olive branch for one city could be different than an olive branch for another city.”

While Ayesh’s project won’t be worn, she hopes to donate the finished tapestry to Grand Valley for display. She said she began planning the design last summer and stitching in the fall semester. 

“I was surprised at how much work it is,” Ayesh said. “When I drafted it, I looked at archives and libraries to study each motif.

“It was very eye-opening to see the amount of details and the thought that women used to put into their dresses and in their life, basically.” 

“Hemlocks are actually a very vital water resource and an ecosystem resource because of how they grow in a stand with a bunch of them all in one area,” Geller said. “They're very vital to keeping the ecosystem around it very cold, which then affects any cold water streams where trout spawn.”

One method of detecting the adelgid’s presence involves collecting environmental DNA with a specially-designed, 3D-printed plastic disc. Researchers position four slides coated with petroleum jelly within the disc and place it at the base of an eastern hemlock. The slides capture any flora or fauna DNA within the vicinity. 

Given the towering height of hemlock trees, monitoring the adelgid's population growth poses a challenge though. The adelgid spins a cotton-like protective sack around a segment of a hemlock branch, allowing it to feed and reproduce in relative safety.

Geller said another data-gathering method requires shooting Velcro-lined racquetballs into the hemlock’s upper branches. Researchers sling the racquetballs into the tree’s canopy so the fibers of the adelgid’s protective sack stick to the Velcro.

Overall, Geller said the experience has made her a better student.

“ The reason I chose this major and the reason I'm in this lab is because I like going outside,” Geller said. “It's as simple as that.

“I like the lab work. I like how fulfilling it is, and I definitely could do research for the rest of my life, and I would be happy with it. Truthfully, I want to go into something like forestry or wetland management or anything where I'm more hands-on outside work.”

Klamer, a computer science major, has been assisting on an algorithm to factor the impact of local services across Grand Rapids. Klamer said the algorithm determines where neighborhood amenities like grocery stores, bus stops, hospitals and restaurants are lacking.

“It is interesting to see the correlations that different services will have and how different areas are affected by that,” Klamer said. 

Klamer said as he progressed with the project, the correlations among his classes began to emerge. 

“It connects everything because when you're in the courses, you learn a lot about many individual topics,” Klamer said. “Doing this research, I've connected so many of those courses together in ways that I haven't before.

“I have a math minor, and I'm doing some high-level math like linear algebra, and I didn’t think I'd ever be using it. And yet, here I am using it in a project in a very effective way.”