What Determines Field Use by Shorebirds?

Samantha Bacon, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

What determines field use by shorebirds? Assessing habitat characteristics of fields used as supratidal feeding habitat by shorebirds.

What do the Rising Far Right and Populist Movements Look Like?

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

I am working with a Political Science research fellowship to map the incipient far right and Alt-Right. Finding points of opposition, commonality, and differences between the various groups.

What Frames A Life?

Marti "McFly" Smith, Other Undergraduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

My dad Ricky Wayne Fischer died on September 8th, 2024, after a lifetime struggle with addiction. An estimated 28.9 million Americans had an Alcohol Use Disorder in 2024 (NIAAA, 2024). Families who have a parent with a Substance Abuse Disorder are “characterized by an environment of secrecy, loss, conflict, violence or abuse, emotional chaos, role reversal, and fear.” (Lander, 2013). To tackle the wicked problem of addiction, this paper focuses on the psychological, biological, sociological, economic disciplines, and my own primary source of having a parent with a Substance Abuse Disorder. Additionally explored, are the creative disciplines of photography and writing to honor his life.

What They Aren't Saying: Nonverbal Behaviors and Stereotypes

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Our group is exploring the link between vocalics and nonverbal communication by examining four different popular television characters and analyzing their individual character nonverbals. We selected popular characters and examined their vocalics (pitch, speech rate, etc) and nonverbals (gestures) in relation to audience and character perception. The characters selected are Ron from Parks and Rec, Jack from Will and Grace, Captain Holt from Brooklyn Nine Nine, and Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory. Often nonverbal behaviors, specifically speech illustrators, are used to accompany the characters respective idiosyncrasies in an amusing or humorous way that we examine in our project.

What We Think, We Are

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Self-talk is the inner dialogue we use to talk to ourselves. My research project addresses the significance that self-talk has on you both mentally and physically. I emphasize that we should be mindful of how we talk to ourselves because we are always doing it. I also explain the importance of positive self-talk and how to do it. My goal is that this research project motivates individuals to use self-talk in ways that let them live happier and more positive lives.

What were the Religious Belies of the Neolithic Irish?

Joseph Walsh, Anthropology Undergraduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Research on the studies and methods of understanding what the religious practices in Neolithic Age Ireland were.

When I Grow Up...

College of Professional Studies

Rural communities often have a limited number of trained and certified healthcare professionals to serve the local population. Additionally, retaining healthcare professionals becomes an added challenge once recruited into the area. The purpose of this project is to create an inclusive and empowering curriculum in partnership with Del Norte Health Career Pathways, to introduce elementary school students to healthcare careers with the goal of promoting the development of local professionals in underserved communities. Each lesson is designed to promote self-reflection and provide age appropriate life skill tools, including mindfulness activities and a reflective journal.

When the forest goes silent: Effects of human foot traffic on communication and diversity of passerine birds.

Ruby Andes, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This project looked at the effects of human foot traffic on the vocalization frequency of passerine birds throughout three popular trails in Arcata. Results suggest pets have a greater impact on bird vocalizations than humans and that there may be differences in predator presence between trails that birds are responding to.

Where Kitsch Meets Custom: Recent Native American Architecture in Northern California

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

A wave of new construction projects sponsored by Native American tribes is currently sweeping across Northern California. Federal recognition and Indian gaming have brought with them a flurry of development opportunities, particularly for casinos and tribal services buildings. An overview of such structures illustrates significant differences between the buildings tribes build for the general public, versus those that they construct for their own use. Such analysis helps demonstrate both the vision the general public has of Indian tribes, as well as the vision tribes have of themselves.

White-crowned sparrow song adjustments to anthropogenic noise

Lucca Faccini, Wildlife Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

An undergraduate Wildlife senior research project about understanding the relationship between white-crowned sparrow songs and anthropogenic noise.