STRATA
STRATA, the STudent Research, Academic, and Talent Archive, is a collection of selected Fort Lewis College student work, including undergraduate research, senior seminar papers, published works, conference presentations, and other creative and artistic projects. Search by name, subject, title, or academic department.
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- Correlation Between Sprint Form and T-Test Speed
- Speed and agility are two main components of athletics and almost every sport. This study's purpose was to determine the correlation between sprint form training and time of completion for the agility T-test. Twenty-five collegiate women's soccer and volleyball players were tested using the T-test at the beginning of off-season training. Fifteen players volunteered to participate in a three day per week sprint mechanic training program. All players were tested again after five weeks. Both the test and control groups improved (Control: -0.4745 sec & Test: -0.913sec). There was no significance found through the statistical analysis between the two groups. Therefore, sprint mechanics are not shown to improve an athlete's performance on the agility T-test.
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- Cosmic Driver
- Short story by Fleet Griffin, published in the Fall 2013-Winter 2014 issue of Images.
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- Creating Nucleosomes In Vitro: Large-Scale Expression of Histone H3
- To explore molecular interactions of histones in a nucleosome, an intact nucleosome must be recreated in vitro. To do so each histone—H1, H2, H3 and H4—must be overexpressed and purified, refolded and then bound to a piece of DNA in a test tube. This experiment focused on the large-scale expression of histone H3 in E. coli followed by separation of the H3 histone away from other proteins. A plasmid encoding a Xenopus (frog) H3 gene was transformed into competent BDP cells followed by induction with IPTG. Cells were then lysed and proteins were separated from other cellular material by inclusion body prep. Remaining proteins were separated by cation exchange and molecular weight filtration. Gel data (using molecular weight markers) suggests that H3 was over-expressed; however, after cation and size separation, the final gel shows little protein present in any sample including the initial pellet. These results indicate possible degradation due to the presence of proteases.
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- Cultivate my garden?: Central Philosophy in Voltaire's Candide
- An examination of philosophy through the lens of Voltaire's Candide.
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- Culture, Conflict and Compromise: The Gray Wolf and the Grizzly Bear in the Western United States
- Gray wolves and grizzly bears have been the subject of intense debate ever since they received protection under the Endangered Species Act. However, human sentiments regarding top predators have been evolving for as long as the West has been inhabited. By looking at Native American and European beliefs about wolves and grizzlies, we can better understand what led to their decline and what needs to be done in order to preserve them. Human-predator conflicts are the leading cause for disdain towards top predators, and by overcoming the conflicts with the most practical strategies, recovery efforts will be more successful. Perspectives towards wolves and grizzlies have changed greatly over the last 150 years and recovery efforts will continue to progress as human perceptions of animals evolve.
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- Cynthia Velasquez
- Artwork by Graeme Johnston from Fall 2013 - Winter 2014 issue of Images
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- Dam Release and Monsoon Controlled Recharge and Drawdown of Riparian Aquifers, Dolores River, Colorado
- The Dolores River in Southwestern Colorado is a mountain stream which starts high in the San Juan Mountains and has a snowmelt dominated annual spring runoff. The semi-arid environment downstream of McPhee Reservoir has a low annual precipitation, ranging 18-40 cm and a high inter-annual variation. The impoundment of McPhee Dam along the Dolores River has greatly affected the duration and magnitude of peak discharge events, which, in turn, has had impacts on the riparian vegetation and groundwater levels downstream of McPhee Dam. Few published studies have quantified groundwater dynamics in riparian aquifers and dam controlled streams, and this study is aimed at furthering knowledge in this field. Three study sites along the Dolores River, one upstream of McPhee and two downstream, were analyzed in this study using a transect of three piezometers at each study site. Piezometers were installed 2-4 m below the surface in silt to cobble dominated substrate, and were observed from May to October 2010. All observed piezometer levels downstream of McPhee Reservoir resembled the dam release hydrograph. Peak flows during early summer dam releases showed a temporal offset between wells at each site, with the wells closest to the river fluctuating most closely with river fluctuations; temporal offset varied by the well location and was dependent on the material of the pointbar. The duration and magnitude of high flow events were the key factors in effective recharge of the riparian aquifers. Longer duration dam releases created higher groundwater levels and more gradual drawdown times than shorter duration precipitation events of equal magnitude. In addition to these large scale recharge events, daily water level variations of 2-5 cm were observed in each well within a 24-hour period. These well variations are thought to be related to significant diurnal air temperature fluctuations and associated evapotranspiration. The measurements obtained from this study provide important information regarding the effects of dam management on groundwater levels in riparian aquifers. This information will become increasingly critical with anticipated climate change in the region.
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- Dancing in the Foothills
- Poem by Theresa O'Hare from Fall 2012 - Winter 2013 issue of Images.
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- Day and Night
- Poem by Richard Jackson from Fall 2008 - Winter 2009 issue of Images
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- Death & Punishment: Enter Compassion, But Toward Whom?
- Presentation from the 7th Annual Natural & Behavioral Sciences Undergraduate Research Symposium, Fort Lewis College.
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- Death and Reactions to Acts of Intolerance
- This research examines the effects of terror management theory (TMT) and individual reactions to scenarios of acts of intolerance in the form of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) hate crimes, occurring nationally vs. foreign. The mortality salience hypothesis within TMT suggests that when an individual is confronted with thoughts of their own death their need to either invest in or defend their own worldview will increase. Previous research has focused on how differing political worldviews affect how mortality salience is handled and it has been concluded that those with a more conservative worldview will be more likely to defend their worldview more vigorously in the form of hostility or aggression when confronted with mortality salience. Upholding a liberal worldview has been shown to be much less predictable in terms of defense of one's worldview. With the assumption that liberals hold a worldview which emphasizes the core value of tolerance, I sought to investigate how liberals would react to instances of intolerance in their own culture versus worldwide with the expectation that those with a liberal ideology would react most strongly to such instances, especially when the cause is within one's own nation. Each participant was either primed with mortality salience (MS) or a control, followed by a short delay, before proceeding to rate their reactions to 12 scenarios of hate crimes according to how distressing the act was, the severity of the act, and the recommended severity of punishment to the perpetrator. Results will be discussed and directions for future research are offered.
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- Death and Soccer: How Terror Management Affects Player Perceptions of Aggression
- The purpose of this study was to determine how death anxiety (MS) affects physical and verbal aggression toward an opposing team or referees during a recreational soccer match. Results indicated a trend towards inaccurate self-reported aggression, such that participants in the MS group were less accurate when reporting aggressive behavior than the dental pain control group: Participants in the MS group reported being less aggressive than was actually observed by the rater. Gender patterns in aggression (actual vs. self-report) are also discussed.