Sunday, April 28, 2013

Honors Does Dallas

On Wednesday, April 24th, Dr. Benton, Dr. McMahon, Dr. Hada and 17 honors students banded together for an epic journey to Dallas to tour the The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art Museum and enjoy a tea and lecture with the Monks of the Drepung Loseling Monastery.

Morgan Johnson, Jeffrey Johnson, Trevir Sutton Michael Womack, Matthew Parham, Dr. McMahon, Jessica Potter, Kristen Howard, Kelsey Jackson, Jaime Worden, Melody Dunn, Heather Smith, Sarah Snow, Marissa Hinton, Erin awtery, Emily Davis, Ashley Huhman
Ashley Huhman and Erin Awtery
Jeffery Johnson, Matthew Parham, Michael Womack, Morgan Johnson, and Sarah Snow




Marissa Hinton, Melody Dunn, Kristen Howard, Jessica Potter

Jessica Potter, Jaime Worden, Heather Smith, and Trevor Sutton



Cerina Stiles, Sarah Snow, and Heather Smith






























Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Honors Banquet Spring 2013

On Tuesday, April 23rd Honors students, faculty, and families gathered to recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of:

  • graduating Honors seniors:  Ashley Cardwell, Nikki Dickerson, Lindsey Dugan, Justin Erwin, Blake Scott, Katlyn Shepherd, and Josh Smith;
  • winners of the 2012-2013 second-year Honors Classroom Leader Award: Kendall Dobbs and Cerina Stiles;
  • winners of the 2012-2013 first-year Honors Classroom Leader Award:  Emily Davis, Marissa Hinton,  and Rachel Nicholas; and
  • the 2013 Honors Teacher of the Year:  Dr. Jennifer McMahon.

Drs. Ghenciu (Mathematics), Crittell (Chemistry), and Fields (Biology).














Lindsey Dugan, Marissa Hinton, and Dr. McMahon
Bethany Ragle, Catherine Phipps, and Macy McDonald
Cerina Stiles, Dr. Mount (History), Kendall Dobbs, Tell Jordan, and Anna Talkington
Nik Razo and John Dale
Ali Siweckyj and Ashley Cardwell (and her lovin' fiancee, Daniel)
Justin Erwin, Laura Asaro, and Blake Scott
Dr. McMahon (English), Monica Storey, Cora-lee Snow, and Dr. Latimore (Sociology).
Josh Smith, Morgan Johnson, Michael Womack, and Matthew Parham
Macy McDonald, Jaime Worden, and Heather Smith
Dr. Anderson, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs
Dr. McMahon
Dr. Latimore

Honors Showcase Spring 2013

On Tuesday, April 23rd, Honors students who have completed a thesis, project, engagement honors, or Oklahoma Scholar-Leadership Enrichment Program class gathered in the Estep Center to present their research and work to faculty and students.

Presentations over Honors theses included:
  • Joshua Crittenden (Senior, Mathematics): “Random Number Generation: Linear Congruential Method”
  • Morgan Dickerson (Senior, Chemistry and Biology): “The Effects of Carbohydrate Concentrations on Heat Shock Protein Expression in Daphnia Magna”
  • Lindsey Dugan (Senior, English): “Souls and Supers:: A Novella with a Critical Introduction”
  • Josh Smith (Senior, Chemistry):“A Study of Varied Dopant Levels in BIMEVOX Compounds by Microwave Synthesis”
Presentations over Department Honors Projects included:
  • Justin Erwin (Senior, Chemistry): “Synthesis of a Tetracyclic Sesquiterpene Derivative”
  • Janne Klassen (Senior, English and Mathematics): “Stockholm and Sartre: An Existential Explanation of Stockholm Syndrome”
Presentations over Engagement Honors included:

  • Blake Scott (Senior, Biology-Molecular Biology): “There and Back Again: from REUs to Graduate School”
  • Karen Meyers (Senior, Pre-Veterinary), Trevor Sutton (Senior, Accounting), and Alayna Corneilius (Senior, Psychology): January OSLEP at OU: Comparative Religion
Back Row: Joshua Crittenden, Justin Erwin, Joshua Smith, Trevor Sutton
Front Row: Janne Klassen, Lindsey Dugan, Blake Scott, Nikki Dickerson, Karen Myers, Alayna Corneilius

Nikki Dickerson
Joshua Crittenden
Josh Smith


Lindsey Dugan
Justin Erwin

Janne Klassen


Karen Meyers, Trevor Sutton, and Alayna Corneilius

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Sunday, March 24, 2013

We Have a SummerRead Winner

The SummerRead ballots have been counted, and the results are in:

Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us by Duncan J. Watts. 2011.

31%

 


Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow. 2012. 

50%
 
 

The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall. 2012. 

19%

Look for copies of Subliminal in the ECU bookstore in mid-April.

In the fall of 2013, 1/8th of each student's grade in both Enduring Questions One: Perspectives from the Western Humanities and Enduring Questions Three: Perspectives from the Sciences will be based on this summer reading assignment.

Questions about the text will be posted online by June. We'll e-mail you when the questions have been posted.  You can also check back here in June.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

We Got Next


At Monday's All-HSA meeting, the following Honors students were elected to leadership positions:
Top row, from left to right:  Michael Womack (Secretary) and Trevor Sutton (Mentoring Branch leader);
Second row: Kendall Dobbs (Vice-President), Erin Awtrey (Academic Branch leader),Nik Razo (Treasurer)
Third row:  Heather Smith (Historian) and Chelsi Norris (Community Branch)
Front row: Macy McDonald (Research Branch), Rachel Nicholas (Cultural Branch), John Dale (President).
Congrats to all!

Monday, March 11, 2013

The Obvious Subliminal Animal

What does Macy know that nobody else does?
At the all-HSA meeting held March 11th in the North Lounge, Honors students who attended the meeting took a survey that will help us identify ways that we can maximize our program's effectiveness. Students enrolling in EQ 3 for the Fall 2013 semester were also invited to help choose the text for the 2013 SummerRead, which EQ1 and EQ 3 students will read next year.

The three candidates on the SummerRead ballot are all non-fiction texts published within the last three years. These particular texts were recommended by the EQ faculty because they bridge the humanities/sciences gap in some way and are available for under $20. So what'll it be? Stay tuned for the results.


Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us by Duncan J. Watts. 2011.
A sociologist with a degree in theoretical and applied mechanics from Cornell, author Duncan J. Watts “shows how common sense reasoning and history conspire to mislead us into believing that we understand more about the world of human behavior than we do; and in turn, why attempts to predict, manage, or manipulate social and economic systems so often go awry” (amazon.com) Everything is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us offers a scientific challenge to the non-scientific common-sense approach that many bring to academic study.


 

 



Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow. 2012. 
Caltech theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow’s Subliminal draws on neurological research to argue that “the way we experience the world--our perception, behavior, memory, and social judgment--is largely driven by the mind's subliminal processes and not by the conscious ones, as we have long believed” (amazon.com). Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior offers a scientific challenge to the belief that we know why we believe things.

 
 

 The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall. 2012. 
An American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution, Gotschall writes books “at the intersection of science and art” (amazon.com). Drawing on research in neuroscience, psychology, and evolutionary biology, The Storytelling Animal argues that “storytelling has evolved, like other behaviors, to ensure human survival” (amazon.com). Offering an account of“storytelling” (aka “literature”) in the context of evolution (a major theme in EQ3), The Storytelling Animal offers the clearest bridge between the humanities/sciences of all the candidates.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Look Out, Hollywood!

Check out Honors students Josh Smith and Marissa Hinton, joined by teammate Josiah Biles, as they engage in serious Mind Games with representatives from Northern Oklahoma College. The final score in this one is 450-70. If you want to know who won, you've got to check out the video. The winner advances to the next round (and more scholarship money opportunities).