Undergraduate Research Symposium Day

The 2024-2025 Gordon College Undergraduate Research Symposium will be held on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 from 1:30-4 p.m. in Ken Olsen Science Center. Students from every discipline at Gordon are encouraged to submit their work from class projects, independent research or collaborative research with faculty. Abstracts from previous years are listed below.

URS 2023-24

The 2023-24 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Wednesday, May 1, 2024. It showcased 32 research projects from the divisions of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and education. Over 100 undergraduate students participated.

2023-24 URS Program (PDF)

URS 2021-22

The 2021-22 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Wednesday, May 4, 2022. It showcased 26 research projects from the divisions of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and education. Over 100 undergraduate students participated.

2021-22 URS Program (PDF)

URS 2020-21

The 2020-21 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held virtually on Zoom, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. It showcased 27 research projects from the divisions of natural sciences, social sciences, humanities and education. Over 100 undergraduate students participated.

Download: 2020-21 URS Program

URS 2018–19

The 2018–19 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Wednesday, May 1, 2019. It showcased 54 posters from the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities and over 150 students participated.

"This is a very social event that fosters intellectual curiosity and critical thinking, with lots of conversation and engagement on an interdisciplinary level." — Kaye Cook

2018-19 URS Program (PDF)

URS 2017-18

The 2017-18 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Wednesday, May 3, 2018 in the Ken Olsen Science Center. Students and faculty enjoyed the interaction and learning experience from this interdisciplinary event. The symposium featured 35 research projects from majors in the Division of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science and 27 research projects from majors in Social Sciences, Behavioral Science and Education.

Click below to see the full program.

2017-18 URS Program (PDF)

URS 2016-17

The 2016-17 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Tuesday, May 2, 2017 in the Ken Olsen Science Center. It was a huge success, featuring 73 research projects from majors in both the Division of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science and in the Division of Social Sciences.

Click below to see the full program.

URS 2016-17 Program (PDF)

URS 2014

The 2014 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on Wednesday, May 7, 2014 in the Ken Olsen Science Center. It was a huge success, featuring 45 tri-fold posters and 36 bulletin board displays displaying research across most of the majors in both the Division of Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and Computer Science and in the Division of Social Sciences. In addition, work from the Princemere Journal was displayed.

Click below to see the full program.

URS-2014 Program (DOCX)

URS 2012

The 2012 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS) was held on May 9, 2012 in the Ken Olsen Science Center.

Once again, our students presented their research to the Gordon community. There were over 80 posters with over 100 student authors. New this year was technical talks and the addition of ePosters up on the large digital displays. It was a good day highlighting the variety and depth of student research. Awards were given to students in the Biological, Physical, and Social Sciences categories.

Click below to see the full program.

Also check out Gordon's blog for additional information.

URS-2012 Program (PDF)

2012 Biological Sciences Winners

Poster Winner:

Bat Habitat Use during the Pre-Hibernation and Migratory Period
in Essex County, Massachusetts
by Thomas Horsley, Mike Muthersbaugh, Rafaell Rozendo under direction of Professor Greg Keller

Poster Winner:

MLSA of clpX, recG, and uvR Genes Reveals Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto Homogeneity in Chicago Area Ticks
by Luke Versland¹, HaYoung Nam¹, Tyler Carlson², Jakob Ondrey², Matt Schau²under direction of Professor Justin Topp¹
¹Gordon College, ²North Park University

Bat Habitat Poster (JPG)

2012 Physical Sciences Winners

Poster Winner:

Nd: YAG-based LIBS for Elemental Analysis
by Danielle Duggins under direction of Professor David Lee

Poster Winner:

Noncontact Determination of Surface Tension by Means of Focused Acoustics
by Zachary Capalbo under direction of Professor David Lee

Nd-YAG LIBS Poster (PDF)

2012 Social Sciences Winners

Poster Winner:

Counting by Color: Event-Related Brain Potentials in Grapheme-Color Synesthetes
by Jocelyn Rioux under direction of Professor Bryan Auday

Poster Winner:

The Gift of Veracity: Trait Emotional Intelligence and the Ability to Perceive Facial Authenticity
by Derek Schoffstall, Alyssa Barkley, and Kimberly Sandiford under direction of Professor Suzanne Phillips

Counting by Color Poster (PDF)

2011 Undergraduate Research Symposium

The 2011 Undergraduate Research Symposium was held on May 11, 2011 in the Ken Olsen Science Center

Once again our students presented their research to the Gordon community. There were over 60 posters with 99 student authors. It was a good day highlighting the variety and depth of student research. Awards were given to students in the Biological, Physical, and Social Sciences categories. See more on the winners below.

Also check out Gordon's blog and Facebook page for additional photos.

2011 Biological Sciences Winners

First Place:
Landscape composition effects on small mammal richness and abundance in northern Massachusetts
by Eric Lindemann and Jonathan Harris under direction of Professor Greg Keller.

Runner-up:
Development of a PCR protocol to screen Ixodes scapularis for the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease
by Kimberly McCabe and Daniel Adam under direction of Professor Craig Story.

2011 Biological Sciences Winning Poster (PDF)

2011 Physical Sciences Winners

First Place:
Structural Determination of a Synthetic Polymer by Gaussian Computational Modeling Software and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
by Kristen Entwistle under direction of Professor Dwight Tshudy (Gordon College) and Professor Terrence Collins (Carnegie Mellon University).

Runner-up:
Conversion of Secondary Aliphatic Amine Moiety to Ketone by FeIII—TAML System
by Andrew Worth (Gordon College) and Longzhu Shen (Carnegie Mellon University) under direction of Professor Dwight Tshudy (Gordon College) and Professor Terrence Collins (Carnegie Mellon University).

2011 Physical Sciences Winning Poster (PDF)

2011 Social Science Winners

First Place:
Do Christian College Undergraduates and Alumni Hold onto their Faith: or Do They View God as a Divine Butler and Cosmic Therapist?
by Laurieann Smith, Lauren Stone, and Matt VanHamersveld under direction of Professor Kaye Cook.

Runner-up:
The Quest for Cool
by Carly Geiman, Juliana Chase, and Sam Lahr under direction of Professor Jonathan Gerber.

2011 Social Sciences Winning Poster (PDF)

2010 Undergraduate Research Symposium

There were 70 posters with over 110 student authors represented in the Competitive and General sessions. Many students are involved in research efforts both big and small. Students from Biology, Chemistry, Kinesiology, Mathematics, Philosophy, Physics, and Psychology all presented their work. Best poster awards were selected in the competitive poster section for the categories of Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, and Social Sciences.

See below for information about each of the winners.

2010 Biological Sciences Winners

First Place:
Molecular Analysis of Spotted Salamander Populations: Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism and Genetic Diversity’s Correlation to Breeding Success
by Ken Hallenbeck, Rachel Keller, Seth Gerard, and Kim Spaulding under direction of Professor Dorothy Boorse.

Runner-up:
The Effects of Ixodes dammini on vector-borne Lyme borreliosis prevalence in New England field sites.
by Marianne Domingues under direction of Professors Greg Keller and Craig Story.

2010 Biological Sciences Poster Winner (PDF)

2010 Physical Sciences Winners

First Place:
Phenolic Polymerization Using FeIII—TAML System
by Kristen Entwistle under direction of Professors Dwight Tshudy (Gordon College) and Terrence Collins (Carnegie Mellon University).

Runner-up:
Catalytic hydroamination with tantalum complexes of chiral amino alcohols
by Carolyn Heusser and Michelle Hansen under direction of Professor Adam Johnson (Harvey Mudd College). This poster was the result of an Research for Undergraduates (REU) experience

2010 Physical Sciences Poster Winner (PDF)

2010 Social Sciences Winners

First Place:
The Role of Awareness in Letter Identification for a Grapheme-color Synesthete
by Melody Felton, Ryan Cappa, Tim Crosby, Anna Ebersole, Izabela Wisniewska, and Daniela Feitosa under direction of Professor Bryan Auday.

Runner-up:
False Personality Attribution and the Perception of Personality Traits
by Jocelyn Rioux, and Kevin Capel under direction of Professor Deborah Teo.

2010 Social Sciences Poster Winner (PDF)

Disclaimer:

The material in these posters has been prepared by students and faculty at Gordon College and their collaborators. The contents, including images and impressions are protected under United States intellectual property and trademark laws. While you are free to view material from this website for informational purposes, reproduction or distribution of any element for any other purpose, without prior written consent from the authors is expressly prohibited.