Students present scholarly research at Minnesota State Capitol

Fifteen students from the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph, and Saint John’s University, Collegeville, and their faculty advisors will present results of their scholarly research at the fourth annual Private College Scholars at the Capitol event Feb. 14 at the Minnesota State Capitol, St. Paul.

The event celebrates the research and creative scholarship of students from Minnesota’s private colleges. Many of the posters describe faculty/student collaborative studies of issues of importance to state planners and policy makers.

The posters will be on display to the public from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Capitol Rotunda.

The students and faculty advisors representing CSB/SJU are:

• “The Link: Not Just a Bus: 50 Years of Cooperation Between CSB and SJU,” presented by Andrew Braith (sophomore, St. Cloud, Minn.; history and chemistry double major), Audrey Gabe (sophomore, Plymouth, Minn.; history major), Andrew Gaydos (sophomore, Ottawa, Ill.; history major), Leah Juster (sophomore, Maple Grove, Minn.; history and Spanish double major), Brett Pequin (sophomore, Wood Lake, Minn.; history major) and Nicole Bach (sophomore, Henderson, Minn.; history and theology double major). The exhibit, representing the front windshield of a Link Bus, illustrates the historical development of coordination between CSB and SJU. The group’s faculty advisor is Annette Atkins, professor of history.
• “The Long Run Growth of the Minnesota Economy: How Did We Become Above Average?” presented by Jenni Busse (senior, Burnsville, Minn.; economics and accounting double major). Busse focused on incorporating human capital into a model of economic growth to determine the importance of human capital accumulation in Minnesota’s economic growth. The expanded model she chose allowed her to perform a cross-sectional analysis of state per capita income for each decade from 1950 to 1990. Her faculty advisor is Louis Johnston, associate professor of economics.
• “Information Retrieval System: InfoRet,” presented by Mike Evans (senior, Shoreview, Minn.; computer science major), Matthew Lietzke (junior, Andover, Minn.; mathematics and computer science double major), Doug Svendsen (senior, Woodbury, Minn.; computer science major) and Billy Jimenez (senior, Trinidad, Colo.; computer science major). InfoRet maintains information about media data such as articles, books, movies and songs and provides sophisticated access to them. It was developed as a requirement for the CSB/SJU Database Systems course as a semester-long project. The group’s faculty advisor is Imad Rahal, assistant professor of computer science.
• “Effectiveness of Different Washing Methods on the Eradication of Bacteria Normally Found on Spinach,” presented by Rachel Gerads (senior, Albany, Minn.; natural science major with a concentration in biology) and Ashanti Dean (senior, Nassau, Bahamas; biology major). Due to recent epidemics caused by the bacterium E. coli on spinach, the students tested the effectiveness of several methods of cleaning on eradicating the bacteria normally found on commercially-purchased spinach leaves. The group’s faculty advisor is Ellen Jensen, assistant professor of biology.
•   “Effect of Ethylation on Transcription Elongation in the Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae,” presented by Zach Shaheen (sophomore, Elk River, Minn.; biochemistry major). He investigated the effect of DNA damage on transcriptional elongation of RNA. “It was an opportunity to gain experience doing lab work, and genetics/DNA repair is a career I have been interested in,” Shaheen said. His advisor is Michael Reagan, associate professor of biology.
• “Ageing Effects on Heart Rate and Heart Arrhythmia in Drosophila melanogaster,” presented by Lindy Watanaskul (senior, St. Cloud, Minn.; biology major). The project explores the effects of ageing on heart rate and heart arrhythmia of adult fruit flies. “I thought it would be a great way to learn about independent research and to find out if I was interested in a future path in graduate studies,” she said. Her advisor is Charles Rodell, professor of biology.

The Minnesota Private College Council is a primary sponsor of the event, which is organized by a statewide committee of faculty which includes Marcus Webster, biology professor and director of the Undergraduate Research Program at CSB/SJU. Each college selects and sends its own students and posters to the event.