Event spotlights student research projects

Inspired by subject matter they’ve studied over the course of the semester, students of Flathead Valley Community College presented their research projects last week for the seventh annual Conference on Student Research.

Given the freedom to explore any topic or combination of topics from a number of fields in the arts and sciences, students worked to study, gather information and develop a presentation that represented their findings, resulting in some inventive projects with titles like “The Biochemistry of Memory and Its Uses in Theatre.”

Tasked with exploring the full scope and implications of their chosen topics, students gave either poster or oral presentations in front of peers, the community and judges, with each presentation lasting up to 30 minutes.

Judges graded students on presentation style, choice of visuals, knowledge of the subject and other criteria.

Freshman engineering major Benjamin Fisher chose to use concepts taken from a “science on the stage” course he began in the fall to showcase the commonalities between literature, science and history in his presentation entitled “Man’s Perpetual Fascination with the Heavens and the Exploration Thereof.”

Fisher said he has grown up with a fascination of engineering and “big things that go fast.”

He plans to go on to study mechanical engineering at Montana State University and eventually get a master’s degree in aerospace engineering from Texas A&M in hopes of one day building rockets for NASA.

Using themes of the play “Life of Galileo” by Bertolt Brecht, which Fisher and his classmates explored in the class earlier this year, he explained how curiosity, conflict and error have remained constant throughout history as the driving forces behind some of the greatest inventions and discoveries.

He concluded by giving examples of some modern advancements made to historic ideas and using them as examples of why those three forces will continue to drive discovery in the future.

Other presentations featured topics in biology, chemistry, agriculture, humanities, ethics and theater.

“They want a very individualistic project,” Fisher said. “They want to see you. They want to see your taste forming, what you’re fascinated in.”

The purpose of the presentations, according to FVCC Library Director Susan Matter, one of the judges, was to give students the chance to develop their presentation skills and to give the public some insight into what is being discussed in different classes.

“You get a really interesting take on different topics,” Matter said. “I think some of [the purpose] is to explore that and to congratulate students for being able to mesh those two together and come up with a new unique perspective.”

Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.