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UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON’S Fifth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium A Celebration of Undergraduates in Research Fostering a Community of Student Scholars in the Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences, Technology, and Humanities UNI UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON’S Seventh Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium A Celebration of Undergraduates in Research 14 May 2004 MARY GATES HALL 12:00 – 5:00 PM PROCEEDINGS Sponsors: The UW Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Office of Research , Office of Undergraduate Education and the Undergraduate Research Program The Seventh Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium is organized by the Undergraduate Research Program (URP), which facilitates research experiences for undergraduates in all academic disciplines. URP staff assist students in planning for an undergraduate research experience, identifying faculty mentors, projects, and departmental resources, defining research goals, presenting and publishing research findings, obtaining academic credit, and seeking funding for their research. Students interested in becoming involved in research may contact the URP office in Mary Gates Hall Room 310 for an appointment or send email to [email protected]. URP maintains a listing of currently available research projects and other resources for students and faculty at: www.washington.edu/research/urp. Janice DeCosmo, Director Nichole Fazio, Assistant Director Terry Schenold, Graduate Student Assistant Amanda Burrows, Student Assistant Lisabeth Cron, Student Assistant The Undergraduate Research Program is a program of the UW’s Office of Undergraduate Education. UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON’S SEVENTH ANNUAL UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM PROCEEDINGS _______________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS POSTER SESSIONS 4 PRESENTATION SESSIONS 75 1A. CHALLENGING FAMILIAR CONTEXTS IN LEARNING 76 1B. CELLULAR MECHANISMS OF DVELOPMENT AND DISEASE 77 1C. CULTURE AND GLOBALIZATION 79 1D. ENVIRONMENTAL AND BIOCHEMICAL ASPECTS OF ECOLOGY 81 1E. INDIVIDUAL AND SOCIETY ISSUES IN PARENT AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT 83 1F. INNOVATIVE STRUCTURES, SYSTEMS, SOLUTIONS 85 1G. IN VIVO, IN VITRO, IN SILICO: EXPLORATIONS IN BIOLOGY AND BIOCHEMISTRY 87 1H. LIVING SYSTEMS 88 1I. MOVEMENT, MEDIA, AND THE ART OF RUG WEAVING 90 1J. PEOPLE, PLACE, AND CULTURE: DISCOURSES OF SOCIAL JUSTICE 92 1K. REDUCED GRAVITY 94 1L. TRANSLATIONAL BIOENGINEERING 95 2A. ADVANCED MATERIALS AND SYSTEMS 97 2B. BIOLOGICAL AND GEOLOGICAL FREATURES OF ECOSYSTEMS 99 2C. COMPUTING ALGORITHMS FOR DATA AND SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS 101 2D. GENES, IMMUNITY, AND METHODS OF STUDY 102 2E. HUMAN EXPRESSION AND BEHAVIOR 104 2F. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY, ECONOMICS, AND ETHICS 106 2G. MAKING SENSE OF HISTORY 108 2H. PHYLOGENETICS, BEHAVIOR, AND ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY 110 2I. SHAPING OUTCOMES: POLITICS AND ECONOMICS 112 2J. THE ENVIRONMENT AS POLICY, PLANS, AND SOCIAL PRACTICES 114 2K. THE GENETIC AND BIOCHEMICAL BASIS OF HUMAN DISEASE 115 2L. USE OF MODEL SYSTEMS IN BIOLOGY 117 INDEX 121 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 127 PLEASE NOTE Abstracts are listed alphabetically by the presenter’s last name, unless otherwise noted. ANNOUNCING NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH! Research Fellowships for Advanced Undergraduates Sponsored by the Washington Research Foundation and UW Undergraduate Research Program These new $5000 fellowships support undergraduates who have shown promise as dedicated and creative researchers to continue their work in a science or engineering field throughout the academic year 2004- 05. Students who plan to graduate no earlier than June, 2005 and who have completed at least three quarters of research are encouraged to apply. Applications are due June 4, 2004. For more information visit the Undergraduate Research Program website: www.washington.edu/research/urp/rfau.html. Travel Awards for Undergraduates to Present Research Sponsored by the UW Office of Research, Undergraduate Research Program and the Mary Gates Endowment for Students These new awards help make it possible for undergraduates to extend their research experience by contributing to important discussions of current research at professional conferences. Students who have had a paper or poster accepted to a conference may apply for funding for travel expenses and registration fees. Applications are accepted on a continuing basis. For more information visit the Undergraduate Research Program website: www.washington.edu/research/urp/urta.html. POSTER SESSIONS PLEASE NOTE Abstracts are listed alphabetically by the presenter’s last name, unless otherwise noted. STUDENTS HONOR THEIR MENTORS “This research project would not have been possible without the help of Professor Mark Holmes, who tirelessly worked to clarify the murky and illuminate the indecipherable. Also, Prof. Chuck Nittrouer has been very kind in lending both his expertise and equipment to this study.” - Maureen Davies, Senior, Earth and Space Sciences Mentor: Mark Holmes, Oceanography “Professor Batya Friedman saw potential in me that no one else, including me, saw. Before being invited by Prof. Friedman to do research in her lab, I was unsure of my specific interests in my major. Now, in my third quarter with her, she has encouraged and challenged my thoughts and ideas. I truly appreciate the opportunity she has given me to expand my knowledge in such a creative way.” - Robin Sodeman, Senior, Informatics Mentor: Batya Friedman, Information School “I would like to thank Professor Nikhil Singh for providing immense help with my research project by pushing me to go further than I first thought I could go.” - Doug Jensen, Senior, History Mentor: Nikhil Singh, History ! My Multiple Life: Personal Information that NIH3T3 cells in Wnt3a conditioned medium have an Management Across Different Computer increased influence on the proliferation and migration Environments versus parental (control) media and Wnt5a conditioned Adonis Acuario, Senior, Informatics, Psychology media. These results have been proven to be statistically Mentor: Melody Ivory-Ndiaye, Information School significant using the t-test for a paired two sample. I am currently investigating the mechanism into how Wnt Current research involving the use of personal information signaling causes an increase in fibroblast proliferation and management tools has focused on studying people’s migration. organizational patterns in a very general sense. One important aspect that needs to be addressed is the diversity Powerful Writers Impact Study: Beacon Hill of people’s lives. Current research does not take under Elementary consideration the different situations and environments in Jonathan Aldanese, Senior, Sociology which people’s organizational patterns may be different. Zesbaugh Scholar How one arranges documents in one environment may be Mentor: Gary Troia, Special Education dissimilar from how it is arranged in another. Thus, the goal of this research is to investigate how people manage From August of 2003, I have worked with Professor Gary electronic information across different working Troia in investigating writing workshop instruction at environments. Through interviews and observations, the Beacon Hill Elementary. Our main mission in the project organizational patterns of people’s electronic documents, is to find out how children learn to write best. To do this, email and internet bookmarks on two different computer we observe teachers while they teach language arts and settings will be examined individually and then compared. collect and score children’s writing samples. Teachers also Such research can have an effect on the development of participate in semi-annual focus groups that tell us how future information management tools. The results can be they view writing instruction and what they feel are factors used to develop better tools that support stability in the that affect their students’ writing achievement. The results management of personal information across both the of this study will help us decide what most influences information forms and the environments that make up our children’s writing and what are the best ways to teach lives. writing. The research is in collaboration with a community- based non-profit program called Powerful Writers, which The Effect of Wnt 3a and Wnt 5a on the Proliferation helps teachers implement quality-writing instruction by and Migration of Mouse Fibroblasts providing ongoing professional development, grade- Bobby Ahmadi, Senior, Biology appropriate instructional materials, opportunities to interact Mentor: Anne Hocking, Plastic Surgery with visiting authors, and celebratory events for students to share their writing. Using writing traits such as Our lab’s focus is on the role of Wnt genes in wound organization, sentence fluency, and word choice, we are healing. The Wnt gene family encodes a number of secreted evaluating the writing samples of six target students (3 low glycoproteins that are involved in the cell-cell signaling achievers, 3 high achievers) collected by teachers in of many basic developmental pathways. Two important portfolios. The portfolios contain two essays and two stories processes that occur in wound healing are cell proliferation the students have written during the course of the school and migration. The goal of my project is to determine year. My personal role in working with the study has whether specific Wnt genes affect the proliferation and included being a contributor to scoring writing samples, migration of fibroblast cells, a cell type found in the skin. entering data we have gathered,