Advocacy Through Art

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

In this service learning experience I worked along side the students at the Eel River Community School in Fortuna. Here, I led students in creating murals throughout their facility. When I began most had admitted to never having engaged in some sort of arts and crafts activity. I observed how impactful artistic expression is to the youth and helps aid in stages of development. Having an interdisciplinary education I was able to consider a variety of lenses that play into the importance of creative outlets in the youth. Knowing this, I focused my attention to point out that at risk youth do not receive these crucial oppurtunities and how that perpetuates inequality issues from a young age.

Amphibians and The Yurok Tribe's Wetland Restoration

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

My poster is about the Yurok tribe's wetland restorations with a focus on amphibian diversity with regard to the ongoing amphibian extinction.

An Addiction to Capitalism: A Climate Story

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

My research recognizes, evaluates, and dissects the intersections of Political Theory and Communication to offer a rhetorical criticism of mainstream environmentalism. Through a careful analysis of case studies, political processes, and interdisciplinary theory, I illustrate and criticize how environmentalism as a justice movement has been co-opted by capitalism through its commodification and farcical regulation. In these regards, I conclude by acknowledging and appreciating the discursive efforts of Armory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, Paul Hawken for their work in Natural Capitalism, as well as the political progress of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez and her proposed Green New Deal.

An Inside Look At Your Local Community School

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

This report summarizes the experience working with Humboldt County Office of Education at the Eureka Community School. The goal of this project is to enhance visibility of the education system at court schools and improve upon each individual’s learning experience. This was accomplished through in-depth interviews with staff faculty at the Eureka Community School alongside 30+ volunteer hours as an aid in the classroom.

Analysis of Protein Nanodisc Assembly Methods

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Nanodics which are nanolipoprotein particles (NLPs) can be assembled in order to solubilize and study membrane proteins in a water soluble discoidal particle.. Here, NLPs were assembled using two techniques: dialysis & biobead adsorption. These methods differ in the removal of a detergent called cholate. The Biobead method is much faster, but is relatively untested, whereas the dialysis method is in current use, but is fairly time consuming. By demonstrating the effectiveness of both techniques for nanodisc assembly, solubilization of membrane proteins can be optimized. This will ultimately be helpful in studying ASR, a retinal containing membrane protein for Anabaena (Now Nostoc) PCC 7120.

Analyzing Landslide Susceptibility in Monterey County, California Using MaxEnt

College of Natural Resources & Sciences

Landslides are a destructive geological process that can destroy infrastructure, homes, and cause human fatalities. Over recent years there have been many damaging landslides along the California coast. Analyzing areas of high landslide risk potential can allow for preventative measures before the economic hardship of a massive repair or worst case scenario loss of life. This study aims to address the need of accurate predictive maps of landslide vulnerability in the Monterey County, CA. Weight of evidence based on prior landslides and selected triggering factors will be modeled within the MaxEnt software package to create landslide susceptibility maps.

Angels Camp and The Rhetorical Power of Jumping Bullfrogs

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

My hometown of Angels Camp is a bit bullfrog crazy because the town has various statues, paintings, and plaques of bullfrogs all over the town. There is even an annual fair where people from all over the world compete to see how far their bullfrog can jump. My project would explore the use of the bullfrog as an important rhetorical artifact in Angels Camp as the reason the town has prospered very well. This will be done by taking a look at the history between the town and the bullfrog from the creation of the town, approving the bullfrog as a rhetorical artifact in 1928, and its continuous success today.

Application of the Predicted Repetitions-to-Failure Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale for the NFL 225-lb Bench Press Test

College of Professional Studies

A rating of perceived exertion (RPE) scale is a numerical representation of an individual’s perceptual response to training and is a viable method of measuring exertion during training (Borg 1982). Recently, versions of previously used RPE scales have been developed and are being used specifically for measuring repetitions-in-reserve (RIR), or repetitions-to-failure (RTF) in resistance exercise. The purpose of this study was to assess how accurately division II NCAA football players could predict repetitions-to-failure during the bench press exercise using an absolute load of 225-lbs by comparing predicted repetitions-to-failure (RTF) with actual repetitions-to-failure.

Arcata CA Yoga Culture Ethnographic Analysis: Themes of Communalism and Individualism

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

A 16 week ethnographic study of Arcata Yoga Culture was performed in Fall of 2018. To present findings, the poster overviews of the application of one of numerous lens of analysis used in the final ethnography to examine research results. A dualist lens, contrasting the concepts of communalism and individualism was selected for its tangible interpretation of yoga culture specific to Arcata by looking at how people of the community interact and conceptualize yoga. This lens was used in the ethnography to provide a base for the application of additional lens that could potentially giving insight into the role and interpretation of yoga in the general West and its acculturation process.

Art 100 Revamp!

College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Art 100 (Global Perspectives in Art) has been fully online for several years. For Spring 2019, Professor Julie Alderson converted the class to a blended format - retaining significant online components, but also introducing weekly face to face elements. In converting the class, she enlisted three advanced Art Education students - Liz Gordon, Alexa Pante and Maya Strauss, to freshen up the How To videos associated with the class. This presentation will present these videos which were designed to help students complete art projects for the course.