The public is invited to Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus on Tuesday to learn about efficient wind turbine blades, creative mental health care for the Asian community, how educators can support children recovering from trauma and more.

The Office of Student Research will feature 13 projects from 23 students, including some from Jackson County, and nine faculty members during its 13th annual exhibition from 2:30 to 4 p.m. at the Columbus Learning Center Student Commons, 4555 Central. Ave. The exhibition is free.

“We are so pleased to highlight the work of bright, motivated and creative undergraduate and graduate students along with supportive, innovative and impressive faculty,” said chancellor’s Professor Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick, who has been leading the exhibit since its inception.

Each student-faculty team received up to a $1,000 grant to fund their project. To earn the grant, students submitted detailed project proposals, passed a vetting process by a review committee and then completed their projects with direction and guidance from a faculty mentor.

“OSR projects have made important contributions to various and diverse communities and disciplines,” Goodspeed-Chadwick said.

She added OSR students benefit from working on long-term research projects and building close working relationships with their professors. The process helps prepare students for success in their continuing studies and professional endeavors. Each student is honored at IUPUC’s annual honors convocation.

Foe information, visit iupuc.edu/osr or contact Goodspeed-Chadwick at 812-348-7270 or [email protected].

This year’s projects:

Project: Trauma-Informed Learning Environments

Description: This project focuses on incorporating practices that support children recovering from trauma into their learning environment, based on interviews with educational professionals.

Student: Sarah Achenbach, Greenwood

Faculty mentor: Lawrence Ruich

A Farm-University-Library Partnership in Elementary Civic Science Teacher Education

Description: Students designed, implemented and analyzed the impact of community-engaged civic science outreach at a public library. They hosted an Earth Day storytime and used participant surveys and interviews to further elementary environmental-sustainability education.

Students: Sarah Achenbach, Greenwood; Chanel Martinez, Seymour; Lily Thompson, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Laura B. Liu

Entrepreneurial Benefits Through Use of Business Simulations

Description: Students developed distribution, marketing, sales and manufacturing plans along with a weekly business analysis to stakeholders using the Business Strategy Game on an international scale.

Students: Austin Baecke, Bargersville; Todd Coons, Columbus; Tatum Downing, Columbus; Carson Farmer, Crothersville; Jordan Kelley, Columbus; Bryan McGaha, Franklin; Andrea Rodriguez, Seymour; Tina Russell, North Vernon; Samuel Willis, Trafalgar

Faculty mentor: William Haeberle

Pre-service Teachers’ Decisions for Including LGBTQ+ Children’s Literature in Their Future K-6 Classrooms

Description: This study examined how dducation students’ demographics, place in the program, university, family background and their own elementary school location(s) may have influenced attitudes and behaviors toward incorporating LGBTQ+ children’s literature in a K-6 classroom.

Student: Sophie Barrett, North Vernon

Faculty mentor: A’ame Joslin

Creative Approaches in Counseling Asian Americans

Description: To improve outcomes when counseling Asian American clients, this study gathered information from mental health professionals working with Asian American clients using creative approaches that demonstrated positive results.

Student: Austin Finney, Nashville

Faculty mentor: Debolina Ghosh

Inside the Bell Jar

Description: Using current research in psychology and women’s, gender and sexuality studies, this project concentrated on analysis and discussion of trauma as it pertains to women in Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar.”

Student: Kaleigh Goode, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Julie Goodspeed-Chadwick

Hush Hush No More: Understanding Vaginismus from a Mental Health Counseling Perspective

Description: This project aims to understand the biopsychosocial components of vaginismus as well as counseling interventions and alternative medicines to relieve distress.

Students: Natalie Heidenreich and Dariagne Romero Lopez, both of Indianapolis

Faculty mentor: Debolina Ghosh

Learning from Our Stories, Aprendiendo de Nuestras Historias

Description: The student-researcher authored an autobiographical, bilingual children’s book and created a supporting lesson plan, which she presented to second grade students and helped them share their own stories with one another.

Student: Anakarina Hurtado, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Laura Liu

The Mediating Role of Rumination in the Relationship between Neuroticism and Death Anxiety

Description: Previous research concludes that severe death anxiety is associated with specific personality traits. This study investigates whether ruminative thinking explains the relationship between death-anxiety severity and neuroticism.

Student: Kylei Kinworthy, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Kimdy Le

Investigating Predictors of Academic Performance Amongst ESL Middle School Students

Description: Using survey results from 21 middle school ESL students, this research found that self-esteem and perceived social support positively impacted these students’ academic performance, while stress had a negative effect.

Student: Joseph Lampton, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Kimdy Le

The Effects of Parental Divorce on Emotional Development

Description: This study looks at whether parents’ marital status influences young adults’ emotion regulation and adjustment. It also studies the effect of sibling order.

Student: Natalia Alexandra Martinez, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Elizabeth daSilva

In the Shadows: Immigrant Stories

Description: This project aims to better understand how discrimination against national origin, language and citizenship status are perpetuated. It includes art and stories of immigrants who arrived to the region undocumented as well as survey data.

Student: Yamileth Martinez, Columbus

Faculty mentor: A’ame Joslin

Design and Development of Wind Turbine Blades Using Additive Manufacturing of Continuous Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite

Description: This project developed and tested wind turbine blades manufactured using continuous fiber-reinforced polymer composite. Lighter blades reduce the overall weight of the turbine and require less force to rotate.

Student: Paul Meyer, Columbus

Faculty mentor: Mohammed Noor-A-Alam