Best in show
Eunkyung Shin, a student from Gyeongsang National University in South Korea, looks out over a crowd of students in the Bond Life Sciences Center, where she showcased a poster of her work on the third floor. Photo by Shane Epping.
Thursday afternoon, the Bond Life Sciences Center was alive with activity. Undergraduate students, most from MU but some from as far away as South Korea, were displaying the results of their work at the Undergraduate Research Poster Forum. Large displays showed research questions, methods and results; all the work was based at Mizzou.
“I looked at the posters and was like, ‘Wow! What undergrads are doing is simply phenomenal,’” says Joel Maruniak, undergraduate research coordinator at MU. “The undergrads are showing the fruits of their labor, and to think that they accomplished all this in just eight weeks is really impressive.”
The 98 posters filled the building’s lobby and lined the walls of the second and third floors of the atrium. They represented every summer research program at the university and covered nearly every type of science.
“It’s really neat because everybody here has discovered something in their field of interest,” says MU junior Ashley Reinsch, a geological-sciences/photojournalism double major. “I was looking around at all the posters and realized that; I just think that’s really cool.”
Ashley Reinsch, a geology and photojournalism major at MU, answers questions from Steven Steffen (left) and Jacob Jennings about the viscosity of magma fluid. Photo by Shane Epping.
The students presenting have done more that just work in the labs for the past eight weeks, though. In the LSUROP (Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program), for example, seminars were held Tuesday and Thursday evenings, and occasional brown-bag lunchtime lectures and other activities enhanced the educational aspect of the research.
“We’re trying to get them to the research experience, to think like scientists and figure out whether they want to do research in their careers,” says Maruniak. “We also want to expose them to many different sciences so they can pick the part they like.”
The effects of the forum are long-reaching. Former students tell those running it how much their experiences have aided them with current presentations, regardless of profession.
“This is what makes MU unique among state universities,” Maruniak says. “We’ve had a 20-year involvement in engaging undergrads in cutting-edge research and labs at MU. It’s what we do best.”
