By
Brooke Wonders
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Students study whales, Ireland and Shakespeare
Forty grant-winning UA students presented their research to a crowd of about 200 in Bear Down Gym yesterday.
The Undergraduate Research Grant forum gave the students a chance to present their work on topics ranging from flamenco guitar to Shakespeare to conflict in Ireland.
The one similarity in all of the presentations was the enthusiasm of students for their topics.
"Learning how grant procedures work was a wonderful experience. I'd recommend it to anyone," said Colleen Phelan, a social sciences senior at the Arizona International College, who wrote her grant on the effect of violent conflict on a cultural language movement. "It's open to everyone, you don't have to be an honors student. The best thing is, other people value your opinion. You have something to say, and it's a good feeling."
Phelan interviewed leaders of significant political organizations in Ireland - including Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party - when she studied abroad there in 1998 and again last year.
She presented excerpts from her findings along with photographs of political murals and slogans she saw during her travels.
Katie Larson, an ecology and evolutionary biology senior, said she also loved her research.
Larson spent two weeks in Canada traveling around museums and also visited the Makah Indian reservation in Seattle, where she researched gray whales of the Pacific Northwest.
"It's where sociology and biology meet," she said. "I researched partly the biology of the gray whale - its feeding habits and migration patterns - but the other half of my research was cultural, studying the issue of the Makah Indians hunting the whales."
She, too, praised the Undergraduate Research Grant program.
"It allows you to ask your own question and attempt to answer it. I learned a lot about the dynamics of cultural issues, both as a scientist and as a person," Larson said. "You have to respect the cultural heritage of a group. But it's a tense issue. There were lots of off-the-wall conservation groups."
The program annually gives 40 students $1,000 to conduct their own research, said Lucia Barton, the program's coordinator.
"It's the only program of its kind on campus - undergraduates can devise their own research projects with help from a mentor."
Students may still apply for next year's grants. The deadline is March 7, and the research is usually conducted during the summer. Applications are available at the Honors College office in Slonaker House, and the program is open to students in all disciplines.
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