Learning doesn’t stop for the year following May commencement. Some University of Wisconsin Oshkosh students take summer session courses while others team up with faculty mentors and exchange the classroom for labs, studios or the outdoors to pursue research and creative scholarly projects.

Here is a rundown of activities underway this summer, including four projects funded with Undergraduate Collaborative Research Grants:

• Megan Flood, a senior music education major from Green Bay, will team with Anna Hersey, associate voice professor, to study the close parallels of Schubert’s Winterreise and Yeston’s December Songs and prepare Yeston’s work for public performance.
• Ashlyn O’Brien, a junior art education major from Appleton, will explore the multi-step process of making custom glazes with Craig Clifford, an associate art professor.
• Joe Sharp, a senior electrical engineering technology major from Ripon, will work with Ahmed Nasi, an associate professor of electrical engineering technology, to investigate the use of millimeter wave (mmWave) imaging to detect a target object in an indoor environment.
• Elsa Zank, a senior music major from Sun Prairie, and Hersey will examine the character of Despina from W. A. Mozart’s 1790 opera, Così fan tutte, from both creative (performance) and scholarly perspectives

The following Graduate Collaborative Research Grant projects also are underway:

• Margaret Ivers, a Reeseville native pursuing a master’s in professional counseling, and Elizabeth Alderton, literacy and language professor, will study how to better provide support for the perceived mental health needs of nontraditional post-baccalaureate students.
• Taylor Kelley ’20, a Janesville native pursuing a master’s in biology, and Jessica Lucas, a plant cell and molecular biologist, will consider how kinesin (motor) proteins regulate stomatal pores.
• Ben Saltigerald ’17, an Appleton native pursuing a master’s in psychology, and social psychologist Anca Miron will examine the effectiveness of male ally goals and helping strategies on Twitter.
• Yessra Sankari, an Oshkosh native pursuing a master’s in public administration, and Samantha Larson, assistant public administration professor, will evaluate refugee integration in the Oshkosh area.
• Sarah Woody, a Sacramento, California native pursuing a master’s in biology, and Misty McPhee, an associate professor of environmental studies, will look at heavy metal concentrations in sediment, plant and muskrat tissue at Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge.

Ten additional student/faculty research projects are funded by Reignite Small Grants:

• Allison Chen, a senior geology major from Oshkosh, and Benjamin Hallett, assistant geology professor, will develop a pressure and temperature history of the Watersmeet Terrane of northern Wisconsin by studying records and collecting data.
• Kimberly Fredericks ’20, a Neenah native pursuing a master’s in biology, will work with Eric Matson, associate biology professor, to identify and characterize plastic degrading microbes from the UW Oshkosh biodigester.
• Eric Giese, a senior anthropology major from West Bend, and Colin Long, geography professor, will take a comprehensive look at the glacial collapse and floral advance over time at Long Lake near Dundee.
• Giese also will team with anthropology lecturer Brett Hoffman, of the Fox Cities campus, to reexamine stone tool artifact collections in light of new evidence from research at the Debra L. Friedkin site in Texas.
• Quill Graham, a senior history major from Appleton, and Michelle Kuhl, associate history professor, will develop a methodological framework for writing animal/human relationships in history.
• Emma Hathorne, a senior art education major from Oshkosh, will work with Clifford to develop a technique for creating more uniform ceramic mugs.
• Jordyn Hussey, a senior art education major from Combined Locks, with mentorship from assistant art professor Trina Smith, will create a series of oil paintings that consider the negative consequences of environmental change.
• Hailey Johnson, a senior chemistry major from Appleton, and biochemistry lecturer John Chan are on the hunt for anti-parasitic drugs that can treat schistosomiasis, a tropical disease caused by blood-dwelling parasitic worms that infect more than 200 million people worldwide.
• Mackenzie Seymour, a senior biology and biomedical science major from Loves Park, Illinois, will work with Jessica Lucas, a plant cell and molecular biologist, to perform pilot studies in plant physiology to identify proteins involved in environmental stress.
• Sarah Vandersee, a sophomore fine arts major from Oshkosh, under the mentorship of art professor Andrew Redington, will create three to four small contemporary landscape tapestries as she explores the parameters of the tabletop loom.

Students and faculty involved with four sustainability projects as part of a collaboration between the Office of Student Research and Creative Activity and the Sustainability Institute for Regional Transformations include:

• Trinaty Caldwell, a junior philosophy major from Keshena, and Eve Hawpetoss, a sophomore philosophy major from Green Bay, will team with Stephen Kercher, history professor, on a history of Menominee land, Oshkosh and Chief Oshkosh.
• Ely Hartl, a junior environmental studies major from Kaukauna, and Megan Polster, a senior sociology major from Phillips, will  work on a campus tree map with Mamadou Coulibaly, geography professor.
• Jayvardhan Singh, an Oshkosh native pursuing a master’s in business administration, will promote using reusables and reducing single-use plastics with Melissa Bublitz, associate marketing professor; and Bradley Spanbauer, campus sustainability coordinator.
• Joshua Vue, a junior biology major from Oshkosh, will work with mentors Spanbauer and Brian Langolf, biogas systems director, on compostable products.

Learn more:

• Office of Student Scholarly and Creative Activities