Students get creative at exhibition

Abby Peters wore dark clothing and makeup with Victorian-era influences for a week as part of an experiment.

The Muskegon freshman was doing a group research project on the goth subculture.

“We wanted to find out what was true about the goth subculture,” Peters said. “We started off by researching goth Web sites and assuming the goth look for a week.”

More than 700 students and 368 exhibits were displayed Wednesday at Finch Fieldhouse for the 15th annual Student Research and Creative Endeavors Exhibition.

Although Peters said she enjoyed herself, she said she was ready to go back to normal after a week.

“We got a lot of reactions and learned a lot about different stereotypes,” Peters said. “It was fun and the goth lifestyle is different from common beliefs.”

Sanford senior Joshua Allen took part in a three-person senior design project for engineering by building a small robotic vehicle that uses infrared sensors to make its way through a cardboard box.

“The first time I saw it make its way through the course was rewarding,” Allen said. “The entire thing took about eight months, but we enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun and work.”

Another research project involved studying when people feel the closest connection to God or a higher power.

“We asked 800 people to rank how important they think religious practices are and when they feel the closest presence to God based on location and other factors,” said Midland freshman Maryellen Tighe. “We found people feel a greatest presence to God at a funeral or after a near-death experience.”

Grand Haven senior Sarah Kieft watched many movies, TV shows and comics to research negative stereotypes about math.

“The media reflects various things about math such as math is boring, complex and useless,” Kieft said.

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