Value of scholarly work on display at FHSU
While presentations of scholarly work and artistic performances occur year-round at Fort Hays State University, April 20 to 25 offers a special celebration -- the fifth annual FHSU Research and Creative Activities Week.
Presentations of faculty and student research provide an opportunity for learning more about what happens on campus. Community members are welcome to attend. The schedule is online at www.fhsu.edu/research.
The word research means a systematic investigation into a subject in order to discover or correct facts, theories and applications. Scholarly activities at FHSU are defined as original, innovative intellectual contributions in the form of research, practice, creative activity or performance. Types of scholarship include discovery, pedagogy, integration, engagement and application.
Research at FHSU enhances our community in multiple ways. First, faculty and staff members conduct research about subjects important for Kansas. They study our geography, fossil history, weather, health care needs and heritage. Service learning projects in more than seventeen departments every year bring students into the community to serve and then reflect on what they have learned.
Public historians recently created displays about the backgrounds of downtown buildings in Hays, thus helping to preserve the stories of Ellis County. The Docking Institute of Public Affairs, which has a long-standing commitment to western Kansas, helps with decisions about public policy. In geosciences, work in climatology aims to determine and explain the variability of temperature and precipitation in western Kansas.
Second, faculty members investigate urgent matters in today's world. For example, they study the most effective ways of helping disabled children, gather data about attitudes toward debt and credit, and analyze factors causing problems in the auto industry. Professors apply methods for helping people learn to speak and write in different languages. They publish articles about how mentors train psychotherapists and about the cost-benefit model for substance abuse treatment programs.
Third, faculty publishing and presenting their work give a favorable representation of FHSU and Kansas. This serious material appears in scholarly books, journals and Web sites around the world. The publications assist fellow scholars and students in learning the most current information and approaches.
Fourth, teaching new generations is an important way research affects our community. Students are citizens who think critically about the world and can take action. Nursing programs at FHSU lead the field in the advanced use of simulation to prepare future health care specialists.
The new Allied Health program in medical diagnostic imaging extends educational opportunity to working radiologic technologists through distance learning.
The Information Assurance curricula in Information Networking and Telecommunications offer national certifications that prepare undergraduate and graduate students to keep information secure, filling an important need. Teacher-scholars also prepare the next generation of teachers. They train new artists and explore both classic and innovative forms of the visual and performing arts.
The Psychology Department's Larned Research Consortium gives students practical experiences so they can apply the knowledge learned about research and human behavior in their courses to a real life setting. Students in English conduct community-based writing projects.
Involvement in research benefits students who learn about critical thinking and the effective conducting of major projects and experiments. Some results will be on display at the University-Wide Poster Session to be held Tuesday in the Memorial Union ballroom. More than 75 posters will present research findings. The public is welcome to attend, look at posters and speak with researchers.
Throughout Research and Creative Activities Week, faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students will be involved in presentations. Even more people will attend events to learn and to ask questions.
These are a few opportunities:
Faculty and students in Psychology will discuss their research with psychiatric patients at Larned State Hospital and their analyses of intercultural interactions at FHSU. A Social Work professor will analyze emergency responses to events of mass trauma.
A professor in Health and Human Performance will discuss the motivational implications of team-focused wellness participation. The grants facilitator is describing ways to seek funding for research and creative activities. Faculty will hold a roundtable about examples of all types of scholarship.
Superior student achievement gets highlighted. Four senior thesis defenses in Philosophy will be held in the Gallery of the Hays Public Library. A graduate student in biological sciences will present a thesis on the snowy plover at Great Salt Lake. New creative writing and award-winning student research papers will be read at the "Writing Tigers" event. Also scheduled are senior capstone talks in political science and a ceramics display in the Department of Art.
Please visit www.fhsu.edu/research to get the exact dates, times and locations. The faculty and staff of FHSU welcome the public to participate in this research celebration. We thank you for your support.
Amy Cummins, Hays, is an assistant professor of English at Fort Hays State University.