Future Flights

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

In hopes of increasing STEM students in colleges this project is geared towards high schoolers with the idea that since they are quite adept to todays technology they may be interested in drone technology, either flying, programing, or learning how drones help in the scientific community.

Garden Collaborative: Addressing Food Insecurity

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

My service learning project addresses the issue of food insecurity in Arcata. Through the benefits of community gardens, greater socio-economic development can be achieved. At Open Door Health and Wellness Garden, I am maintaining and managing the beds in the garden for spring harvest, for the people of Arcata, so they can have easier access to organically grown healthier foods. I am interested in support networks of community gardeners as resources to sustain locally grown organic food and the health benefits that community gardens offer.

Gardening for Change

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

In Spring Semester 2017, we dove into a service learning project with Pacific Union School. We are contributing to the garden coordinator’s vision for an interdisciplinary, garden-based learning program that incorporates aspects of social and environmental justice. We have worked to create a reciprocal learning environment, such as described by authors in the Environmental Studies curriculum. We believe this is one step toward addressing the inequalities, environmental degradation, and corruption inherent in the global industrial food system. These injustices span issues such as race, class, gender, health, and the environment, which we have been exposed to throughout our journey at HSU.

Gender Equity in Wildlife Publishing: A Census of 22 Years of Authorship in the Journal of Wildlife Management

Rebeca Becdach, Wildlife Graduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Various studies have documented gender inequity in scientific fields, including medicine, computational biology, the physical sciences, and ecology. A clear indicator of this bias can be seen in the disparity between men and women authorship of scientific papers. This study describes gender diversity in wildlife publishing across institutions, countries, and study species taxa in recent decades. We reviewed all research articles published in the Journal of Wildlife Management from 1999 to 2020 and collected author names and affiliations. We classified the gender of each author using Genderize.io, and calculated the men:women ratio of first and co-authors over time.

Gender, Colonialism, and the Epistemology of Mycology

Toni Sardelis, Biological Sciences Undergraduate Student

Other

This paper critically examines the exclusion of Indigenous women and early women scientists from the field of mycology. It highlights how their ecological, medicinal, and ceremonial knowledge was appropriated by men who received institutional credit, authorship, and economic gain. Case studies include María Sabina, Mary Elizabeth Banning, Mapuche women, and more, whose work has been essential yet erased. It also critiques how contemporary myco-capitalism and tourism commodify their knowledge and cultural practices without consent, often disrupting local economies and ecosystems. The paper calls for accountability in attribution, citation, representation, and benefit-sharing.

Gender, Sexuality and Crime in the Queer Life Course

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

In this study, we look at the offending of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) individuals over their life course. Growing research on criminal offenses finds LGB individuals offend more often than heterosexual individuals, due to different experiences within social institutions like family and school, but very little criminological research that includes transgender or gender non-conforming individuals as offenders. We aim to gather information about LGBTQ individuals’ experiences in social institutions, across the stages of their life course, to illuminate experiences that act as turning points in the queer life course toward and/or away from involvement in crime.

Genome Compartmentalization of Effector Genes in Phytophthora

Charlie Deible, Biological Sciences Undergraduate Student

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Plants and their pathogens are often described as being in an "evolutionary arms race" that allows them to continue their survival. Effector molecules, which are what pathogens use to combat plant defenses, are encoded by genes that have often been observed to be located in more dense parts of the genome, providing a potential mechanism to accumulate more mutations than other genes. In this project, I used several statistical models to quantify the compartmentalization of effector genes. Understanding the genomes of some of the world's most devastating pathogens can inform the development of mitigation strategies that target stable characters which will not evolve rapidly.

Germination and Survival in Knobcone Pine Seedlings in a Common Garden Experiment at Schatz Demonstration Tree Farm

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

This study examines knobcone pine (Pinus attenuata) germination success from stratification to transplanting into a common garden at the Schatz Demonstration Tree Farm. Seeds were sown in containers in the greenhouse after three week of cold stratification and transplanted to garden beds a month later. Of 840 seeds sown, 538 were germinated (64%). 256 seedlings were outplanted and 192 of these survived (75%±15). The seedlings grew to an average height of 7.5 cm ± 2 cm. Our findings are part of a larger study to understand the water requirements for the survival of tree germinants in a Mediterranean climate.

Getting Fit with Athletes

College of Professional Studies

The four of us volunteered for the HSUfit program. In this program we meet every Friday for three hours and try to work and be with the kids any way we can. We run adapted physical education activities with children with special needs. At the end of the day we record the progress the child made that week towards their goals. Through this project we essentially are describing what we do, why it's important, and how it's impacting these kids.

Giant Serpents Of Humboldt

Luis Penick Penick, Department of Geography, Environment & Spatial Analysis Undergraduate Student

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

My topic is a history of giant serpent folklore within Humboldt county and how and why it evolved. Covering how and why the folklore formed in the first place, and how and why has the folklore changed throughout time. This includes how it relates to other serpent folklore and why it is special and unique compared to different regions' folklore on serpents. To support my topic I am trying to briefly touch on why are serpents/snakes are so prevalent in folklore, what makes Humboldt a likely place for such a deep serpent mythos, what real life creatures sparked inspiration