April Lockwood
a.r.l@aggiemail.usu.edu
Special Education and Math Education
April Lockwood has had a diverse set of experiences during her undergraduate career at Utah State. She began as a first-year student working on a research project focused on tutoring for elementary school students. As she approaches graduation, she has also completed research in math education, won an URCO Grant, presented at a professional conference, and student taught.
Working with Dr. Brynja Kohler of the math department, Lockwood attended the conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education in North Carolina and presented solo "Using Textbook Projects to Encourage Inquiry-Based and Collaborative Learning in Multivariable Calculus — A Teaching Experiment." She was one of only two undergraduates at the conference and the only undergraduate to deliver a presentation. Lockwood said, "I learned a lot from the presentations at the conference, but I learned more from presenting."
Earlier in her undergraduate studies, she worked with Dr. Tim Slocum and doctoral student Trey Vasquez on a reading tutoring project with students from Kearns, Utah. Lockwood received funding through the Office of Research URCO Grant Program to complete a study on the effectiveness of online tutoring on the reading skills of fourth grade students in inner city Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She worked with four students in the fourth grade, considered low achieving, who had not passed the Pennsylvania State Reading Assessment. All students made significant gains despite behavior problems. The study was presented at the ABA conference in Chicago. She also presented at the Effective Teaching Practices Conference in Logan.
Aubree Nielsen Van Tienderen
aubree.nielsen@aggiemail.usu.edu
Elementary Education
Graduation: December 2009
[Employed in SLC teaching]
 |
|
Named Undergraduate Researcher of the Year for the College of Education and Human Services in 2010, Aubree Nielsen Van Tienderen takes with her to her classroom teaching job post-graduation a wealth of experience in doing research, particularly aimed at helping gifted students who may actually be at risk. The culmination of the Advanced Readers at Risk project is a journal article for which Aubree felt she "really got her hands dirty" on the work of reviewing previously published research, analyzing, and encapsulating. She presented in numerous venues the results of her research done under the mentorship of Dr. Scott Hunsaker, Professor of Elementary Education. At the annual Research on Capitol Hill event, Aubree discussed her research with the President of the Utah Education Association. She also presented at UCUR as well as the conference for the National Association for Gifted Children. Her poster at Student Showcase won first place in the Social Sciences category. She also served as a member of the University's Undergraduate Research Advisory Board. |
Chance Christensen
Chance.christensen@aggiemail.usu.edu
HPER (pre-med)
As a first-year student with a goal of enrolling in medical school, Chance Christensen found HPER a good match for his objectives and aspirations. He is working with Dr. Dennis Dolny and Eadric Bressel in the HPER department. A first term project saw him working with another student in Biology on cranial bone movement.
Dustin Nash
dustynash@gmail.com
Exercise Science
Undergraduate researcher Dusty Nash works with Dr. Eadric Bressel of HPER on a Bike Seat Pressure project. Results have been presented in a poster at Student Showcase and again at the conference for the American Society of Biomechanics. A publication involved with this project is also in the works. Nash received an URCO grant to perform a research project on Validation of tracking vibration motion. The data collection has been completed and an initial abstract submitted to a journal as well as the ASB conference.
Nash credits his research mentor, Dr. Bressel for giving him excellent opportunities and providing him with ample resources to develop projects. Likewise, his mentor feels that Dusty has made significant contributions to the research. "Dustin's research at the biomechanics laboratory this year has focused on characterizing whole body vibration and quantifying pelvis angles during bicycling. Regarding the vibration research, Dustin has been instrumental in the data collection and analysis phases for two projects; one that validated a motion capture technique and one that examined how vibration frequency influenced acceleration of the human body."
Nash has also taken on the role of advising other undergraduate researchers just entering the project. He plans to continue to a Master's degree at Utah State.
Jenna Hall
j.hall@aggiemail.usu.edu
Research with Dr. Donal Sinex, who holds joint appointments in Psychology and Biology, prepared Jenna Hall well to enter optometry school following graduation from USU. In their research, they investigate how well people can understand what is being said with varying levels of background noise. With this research, the goal is to find ways to improve hearing aids. Hall began as the first test subject. As a result, they were able to work out all of the bugs in the system and get everything running for future subjects. It is just the beginning of this experiment and the hope is that over the next few years new information will be gained that will help the future of hearing aids.
Hall notes, "My mentor is fabulous. I've enjoyed working with him and learning from him. He has been supportive throughout my undergraduate studies and encouraging as I have prepared for optometry school. I'm especially grateful for the letters of recommendation he has written for me."
Katherine Pike
katy.pike@aggiemail.usu.edu
Major: Speech-Language Pathology
 |
|
Katy Pike works with Dr. Sandi Gillam on a project using Nonword Repetition tasks to determine language impairment and the difficulties of assessing language impairment in those who are not able to communicate verbally. She has become proficient at using the SPSS statistical software and have been involved in the paper writing process to prepare information for publication. At her research poster presentation at the State Capitol, she enjoyed talking to parents who have nonverbal children and explaining to them how this research could make a difference in their child's life.
Katy Pike also works with Dr. Julie Wolter on her Honors thesis, which answers two central questions: 1. Is performance on a static morphological awareness task administered at third grade related to children's literacy achievement in third grade? 2. Is performance on a dynamic assessment of morphological awareness related to children's literacy achievement in third grade? During the summer of 2010 with the assistance of the Honors Research Fund, Pike went to Ecuador with her Assistive Technology class to work with a special needs orphanage. Her plans include an internship with a speech pathologist at Primary Children's Medical Center. |
Lauren Smith
Lauren.Smith@aggiemail.usu.edu
Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education
Lauren Smith is very interested in the ground-breaking research done at USU on cochlear impacts through the Sounds Beginning Project. She has created lesson materials for the teachers in the preschool for daily activities, field trips, and the summer camp. She has worked with the graduate students in the department to administer a summer day camp for a week for children with cochlear implants from all over the western United States. While the children are in camp, their parents attend seminars about the programs available for these children. I compiled research articles for a couple projects that Dr. Houston is intending to start later this year. Smith has also developed excellent research schools by doing reviews of literture, particularly in Telehealth and its affect on speech therapy; and Family Reactions on Deafness, in particularly the father's role. She is learning survey methodology through a project to assess educators' knowledge of early intervention techniques available for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Stephanie Croasdell
S.Croasdell@aggiemail.usu.edu
Major: Psychology (minor: Biology)
With a goal of being a genetics counselor, Stephanie Croasdell found a good fit with research that married psychology and biology. She began her undergraduate career in Dr. Tim Gilbertson;s lab looking at obesity through studies that used rats and looked at a particular fatty acid gene; she also worked with diabetic mice. With the mentorship of Dr. JoAnn Tschanz, Croasdell transitioned to the Dementia Progression Study, working on almost every phase of the study: visiting the participants, entering data, and analyzing results. Croasdell found that she really enjoys epidemiology—and that she prefers working with people to lab mice.
Tasha Falslev
tasha.falslev@usu.edu
Family, Consumer, and Human Development
Falslev says that she is "completely in love with my research and I could not be more ecstatic about my mentor. It is almost like Christmas morning every time I meet with Dr. Austin because she always has something new for me; a new conference, the latest piece of technology, or a new travel opportunity." The focus of their research project is on daycare providers. They trained child care providers in the Early Screening Profiles assessment. Falslev works with each provider in their child care programs and says she has learned so much about provider-child and provider-parent interactions in child care settings. From Dr. Kathy Piercy, Falslev has learned qualitative research methods, particularly important for interviewing participants. She has presented her work at professional conferences, where Professor Austin has also helped her network. At the beginning of her undergraduate research career, Falslev worked with Dr. Tom Lee on a marital satisfaction study. But it has not been all research for Falslev. She was a YouthLinc participant to Thailand, which made her a natural for being a Peer Mentor for Global Village in USU Residence Life; it also built on her experience as a Peer Mentor for Honors House.
Brett Steadman
brettsteadman@gmail.com
Psychology
 |
|
Brett Steadman works with Professor Scott Bates on a project analyzing study groups. He reviewed literature about styles of learning and studying in groups and also created a practical "How to study in groups" guide. They will also survey Psych 1010 students about their study habits in the group setting. In addition to research skills, Steadman has gained expertise in reading and writing APA style articles. "Professor Bates really helped me to better understand APA style writing and helped me improve my own writing by reviewing several of my papers." Steadman is also pursuing Honors projects and participating in the REACH Peer program, where he devotes about 6 hours a week to working with clinicians and their patients and planning outreach activities. |
