On April 27th many Clark students participated in the 26th annual Academic Spree Day program. Academic Spree Day is a chance for students to present their research and creative work to the wider Clark community. Students have the opportunity to showcase posters detailing their research and speak to professors, fellow students and others about their findings. We caught up with a few Clark collegiettes that presented their work at Academic Spree Day and asked them what their research was about and what their biggest takeaway from the process was. Read on to hear what they had to say!
Sami Dokus, ‘16
“My research was on the effect that different stages of the stickleback reproductive cycle have on their antipredatory behavior. So the quick version of what I did was I took female stickleback that were either ovulated (filled with eggs) or early in there clutch production and I simulated a predator attack by swinging Styrofoam shaped like a bird (we called him Harold) into the center of the testing tank.”
“[Academic Spree Day] was really helpful for my personal understanding of the project because I had to be able to explain what our poster was saying to people who aren’t always interested in biological studies. It allowed me to look at my project from new perspectives.”
Sami (right) with her research partner, Kelly (left)
Nora Turok, ‘17
“My poster was about the influence that parents have on literacy development in children from low SES (socioeconomic status) communities.”
“My biggest take away was how enthusiastic people were about their research, while doing it can seem like a chore and annoying, it is something else to be in a room with everyone who has worked just as hard [as you have] and to see everyone proud of what they found in their research.”
Nora poses with her poster
Alex Easton, ‘16
“My poster that I did with four other people examined parental influences on literacy development among English language learners of low SES. We did this by administering various literacy tests to 13 ELL (English language learning) children at Woodland and Claremont Academy as well as [through] a questionnaire asking about background information that was given to their parents to fill out. We compared the parents’ questionnaire responses to the literacy test results of the children and our results showed that there is a significant positive correlation between the parents’ ability to read and write in English and the children’s reading comprehension scores.”
“Going through this process I have learned that conducting research is a learning experience. No matter what the situation, things are never going to be perfect or go as planned, but the key is to learn from the imperfections and strive to improve the process for the next time. Although it was difficult at times, it was also very rewarding. Conducting research is something I suggest everyone should do no matter what subject they are interested in.”
Alex poses with her poster