Featured image: Logan Hubberd explains his research on ‘Civic Engagement and Academic Success’ to SCARF judges. Photo credit: Erica Godbolt
Lyon students gained confidence in their presentation skills at the annual Student Creative Arts and Research Forum (SCARF) on March 15, with several winning prizes for their performance.
The event is organized each year by Lyon College’s Mortar Board chapter and the SCARF committee, with faculty, staff, and community members volunteering to serve as judges. All presenters receive Lyon College scarves and the opportunity to work alongside a faculty advisor to develop their research and presentation for the forum.
“SCARF is an incredible opportunity for our students to showcase the research, art, and projects they have been working on throughout the year,” said President Melissa Taverner. “It not only highlights academic achievements, but also provides opportunities for collaboration between students and faculty, similar to what they will experience in professional settings.”
This year’s winners were as follows:
Oral Presentation Winners:
- First Place Award – Jake Smith and Wyatt Treadway, “Simple Click Chemistry on Complex Rifamycin Core Leads to Novel Antimicrobials”
- Second Place Award – Ace (Erin) McIntier, “Art in the Sublime”
- Third Place Award – Rebekah Garcia, “Cutting Weight Sucks: Why do we do it?”
Poster/Demonstration Presentation Winners:
Artistic/Performance Category
- First Place Award – Aria Switzer, “Cycles”
- Second Place Award – Brittany Cook, “Mindfull”
Business Category
- First Place Award – Jevanni Hinkson, Zackary Curlee, Grant Patterson, “Batesville Caribbean Kitchen”
- Second Place Award (tied) – David Overpeck, Nathan Couch, and Kenny Couch, “Dry Sole”
- Second Place Award (tied) – Kate Whitenton, Mauro Garretano, and Tino Mtangadura, “Build Your Future”
Research Category
- First Place Award – Lola Beeser and Catalina Terlea, “Biological Significance of Comparable Amino- and Amidonaphthoquinones”
- Second Place Award – Nikkolette Perkins, Rachel Tyler, and Haven Harness, “Aminonaphthoquinones Show Activity against Lung Cancer Cell Lines”
Ryan Moxley’s poster presentation, “Increase in Localized Muscle Tissue Volume Under Blood Flow Restriction,” tested whether pneumonic cuffs, similar to the ones used to check blood pressure, change individuals’ muscle definition. Moxley found that the cuff does induce a 58% increase in muscle volume after exercise, increasing significantly the potential for faster muscle growth.
“I did this research for about six weeks in my comparative physiology class, and Dr. Maryline Jones encouraged me to present it at SCARF,” he said.
“Presenting research can be a little nerve-wracking, and this experience helped me gain confidence.”
Sarah Tallents said that her project, “Over-parenting: academic outcomes, and mental health in college students,” led to unexpected results. While there was a correlation between overparenting and higher rates of depression and anxiety, there was not a significant correlation between overparenting and academic outcomes.
“It was surprising because you would think there was more of an association,” Tallents said.
She got to present her research at a conference last May, which helped her shape her presentation for SCARF.
“Presenting at the conference and the questions from the audience definitely helped because we saw what did and didn’t work,” Tallents said. “I learned to be confident in what I know. I worked on this research for over a semester, so I know my topic well.”
Cassidy Garrett said SCARF was her first time presenting research. She and Ethan Turner had worked on their presentation, “Caffeine as a Marker of Pollution in Batesville Waterways,” with Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Irosha Nawarathne.
Garrett said that the presence of caffeine in waterways is a good indicator of human pollution, so their goal was to see if certain areas were more polluted than others. Unfortunately, an error with the machine used to test the caffeine concentration forced the group to restart and troubleshoot their research methods. After identifying the issue, the group has decided to start their project over and use the College’s high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine to test their water samples.
“It will add more steps and make the process more lengthy,” Garrett said, “but research comes with problems.”
“Dr. Irosha told us that if it were easy enough to do overnight, then it wouldn’t be research. It’s all part of growing as a researcher,” Garrett said, laughing.
The Order of the Tartans Chapter of Mortar Board would like to thank the faculty, staff, and volunteers who served on the SCARF Committee and as judges. This year’s SCARF Committee included Interim Provost Dr. Anthony K. Grafton, Dr. John Becker, Dr. Angela Buchanan, Professor Maggie Gayle, Dr. Maryline Jones, and Dr. Irosha Nawarathne.
This year’s judges were Dr. Alok Amatya, Dr. John Becker, Elaine Bieberly, Dr. Cliff Bieberly, Suzanne Blair, Fuller Bumper, Bill Campbell, Gene Crawford, Mathew Crider, Carly Dahl, Dr. Scott Fredricks, Professor Maggie Gayle, Dr. Barry Gehm, Pooja Ghai, Ryan Hill, Selwyn Jones, Danica Joplin, Dr. Raman Kutty, Patrick Lynch, Dr. Rob Miller, Dr. Cassia Oliveira, Bradley Rogers, Dr. Monica Rodriguez, Rev. Leslie Roper, Dr. Eric South, Dr. Peter Staples, Zac Stewart, Dr. Radek Szulga, David Taverner, Lyon President Dr. Melissa Taverner, Donald Taylor, Jordan Trant, and Dr. Tharanga Wijetunge.
Nawarathne, the faculty advisor for Mortar Board, said the event would not have been possible without the contributions of keynote speaker Jordan Trant, ’19; the excellent volunteer judges; the devoted members of the SCARF Committee; the committed members of the Order of the Tartans Chapter of the Mortar Board National Honor Society; the supportive Lyon administration; the dedicated members of the college’s marketing, dining services, printing, facilities, information technology, and maintenance departments; generous donors and the Advancement team; Jeffery Gayle, and all the attendees.
“We have support for SCARF at every level at Lyon,” Nawarathne said. “President Taverner was one of the first to email me to volunteer as a judge at SCARF, and her husband, David Taverner, was equally enthusiastic to volunteer.”
“The 2022 SCARF evening was an amazing experience because of each and every student scholar and faculty mentor who contributed to the diverse, high-quality, excellent presentation lineup,” she said.
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