SURE

SURE: Student Projects

Urban Real Estate Research Using GIS — Summer 2009
Zawadi Mageni, '11

Zawadi Mageni, '11, worked with Geography and Earth Science Prof. Julio Rivera to conduct urban real estate research using GIS.

"This project is based on earlier exploratory work — a class project I did when I took a Carthage Symposium that combined geographic information science (GIS) with business statistics," Mageni explained. "At the time, Dr. Rivera and I looked at how the size of homes has changed over the past century. We began to find that the data was more nuanced than we had thought. The general assumption of building bigger houses as a linear progression was only true to certain areas and particular eras."

In their project, they examined home sales in the metro Milwaukee area between 2000 and 2008, using data from the Multiple Listing Service. They analyzed trends on a year-by-year basis using statistical surfaces, examining changes over time and space.

"We hope to find out what attributes lead real estate properties increasing and holding value over time within the Milwaukee 7 region (Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Walworth and Washington counties)."

Chemistry Research Using NMR — Summer 2009
Katelyn Hartstern

Katelyn Hartstern, '10, worked with Chemistry Prof. Kevin Morris. "I am studying the spin-lattice and spin-spin relaxation times and correlation times for the protons on S/R-BNP when unbound and bound with several polymers, including SUV, SUL, SULV, SULL," she said. "Mostly, I am researching the effect of di-amino acid versus mono-amino acid polymers on the analyte. I hypothesize that the ‘pocket' formed by the di-aminoacid polymers will restrict the inner protons and thus decrease their motion. To complete this analysis, I am using the NMR to determine the above purpose."

Invasive Species Research Working Group — Summer 2009
Samantha Miller, '10

Samantha Miller, '10, worked with Profs. Tracy Gartner and Scott Hegrenes, directors of Carthage's Environmental Science Program and assistant professors of biology. Along with Marie Pichler, '11, they are part of the Carthage College Invasive Species Working Group.

"In a project funded by a grant from the John J. and Ruth F. Kloss Charitable Trust to Drs. Tracy Gartner and Scott Hegrenes, the Carthage College Invasive Species Working Group is beginning what will be a long-term invasive species monitoring program in Kenosha County," she said. "The primary goals of this project are to monitor aquatic and terrestrial invasive species found in riparian areas to assess the effectiveness of a variety of management techniques in these ecosystems, and to disseminate our findings with tips for prevention of invasives to the Kenosha community.

"During this first year of what will be a multi-year effort, the working group is selecting sites and gathering baseline data on abundance and distribution of focal species. In addition, we are developing flash cards for citizen identification of these organisms and protocols for minimizing their spread that can be shared at a variety of community events."

Biology Research on EDCs — Summer 2009
Scolastica Njoroge, '12

Scolastica Njoroge, '12, worked with Biology Prof. Danial Choffnes. They studied the effects of two endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) on the development of the sex organs of frogs.

"Human activities can impact the environment in various ways," Scolastica explained. "For example, human waste and synthetic chemicals from agricultural and industrial run-off have very low levels of chemicals, which act as endocrine disrupting chemicals. These EDCs can lead to the development of abnormal sex organs."

In her research, Scolastica focused on two EDCs: atrazine and estradiol. "Atrazine is a widely used herbicide and it is found in high concentrations in the environment. Estradiol is a sex hormone and it is found in high concentrations in human waste.

"I will expose the Xenopus laevis frog to environmentally-relevant levels of atrazine, estradiol and both compounds in combination. I will then analyze the sexual characteristics of these frogs to see the effects. Studies have shown that these EDCs can induce sexual deformities in male frogs including demasculinized testes (failing to produce sperm) and feminized testes (producing eggs instead of sperm). Other sexual abnormalities have been observed, but there no research has looked into the effects that can result from the combination of both atrazine and estradiol and this is my main focus.

"The hypothesis is that the combination of these two EDCs will have more severe effects than those of either chemical in isolation. The results will be used to advise people on the effects of these EDCs so that they can learn ways of controlling their presence in the environment, since these EDCs can affect human beings in the same way that they affect frogs and other amphibians."

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Student Research Projects

Download the following .pdfs to learn more about research conducted by Carthage students and their faculty mentors.

Physics & Astronomy

Chemistry

Biology

Neuroscience