SWS

At the student works symposium I attended the paper presentations dealing with political sciences. I sat in on the lectures given by Paige Ammons: The Ethics of Earmarks, Stephanie Seaman: Governor Perry’s Decision to Mandate Gardasil Vaccination for Texas School Girls: Good Policy? Good Politics? or an Ethical Dilemma?, Drew Diamond: The Second Gulf War and Personal Framing of a Security Threat, Taylor Spalla: What Is the Ethical Decision to be Made with the Remaining Detainees at Guantanamo?. I have to be honest, I was completely confused half the time about what the presentations were about. Political science is not my specialty but I did enjoy learning about what issues the government has to dealing with. I do remember the debate about mandating the Gardisal Vaccination when it came out a couple of years ago. The presentation covered both of the approaches of why it should or should not be mandated. I enjoyed the lectures but think I could learn more by going to a science based lecture. I did stretch myself quite a bit by attending political science lectures. I think that the presenters did a nice job communicating their research and the visual aids were very impressive. They all seemed so calm and collected talking in front of an audience. I am already nervous about giving a presentation in a few years.

The poster presentations I saw were very impressive and informative. My favorite was The Rubens Tube by Will Hardy, Sean Smith and Pelham Keahey. Basically, the Rubens tube makes musical sound waves visible with fire. I was disappointed that the tube was not functionally properly because of the wind but Will showed me a video he had of the tube working. It was amazing to say the least. The tube is lit on fire and a song is played through the middle of the tube. As the sound waves pass through the tube, the fire jumps according to the frequency of the notes. Just like how a stereo system has bars to represent sound waves, the Rubens Tube displays the waves with fire (awesome). I also went to Matthew Dorris’ poster: Heavy Metal Toxins in Dillo Dirt. I thought his study was very interesting because it extracted different metals from the dillo dirt. Dillo dirt is a type of fertilizer that has been known to kill plants and live stock. Matthew worked to determine what the toxins are in dillo dirt.

I was impressed with all the hard work the students at SU have done. I can’t wait (but still nervous) about my future presentation.