By DERRICK GALINDO, Senior Reporter
NWOSU’s nineteenth annual Ranger Research Day begins Friday, and students will showcase their papers, posters or other presentations of their findings.
Due to meals being seved in the Student Centere Ballroom the location of Ranger Research Day has changed.
Previously being held in the ballroom the morning session of the event will be held in 2nd floor library annex and the afternoon portion will be held in the Industrial Education building Room 129.
Ranger Research Day is when Northwestern’s student body and faculty members of many disciplines gather to share their results after spending time researching a topic.
From 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., posters will be set up in, and research papers will be presented starting at 1:30 p.m.
Of the 60 participants who signed up, 36 projects will be featured.
“These are our largest numbers since 2017,” said Dr. Shawn Holliday, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and member of the Ranger Research Day committee.
Holliday worked with Ranger Research Day since 2010. He said that when he started working for research day, there was a lot of participation.
However, a lot of participation dwindled due to COVID-19.
“During COVID, we still did, and a couple years afterwards, research day, but it was online,” he said. “One year we might have had seven participants, and that’s been slowly building.
“I’m just happy to see that we now have faculty members in the sciences sponsoring again when they kind of dropped off. My American Studies students, we have eight presentations where in the past we didn’t have too many – if any. We have a faculty member in Business who is presenting … and it’s kind of refreshing because we haven’t had a faculty representative present for several years.”
Holliday said the importance of NWOSU’s research day comes from NWOSU being a teaching institution.
“We learn a lot through the research we do. We learn new things and we pass that on to the students. You can be a pure teacher, of course a lot of our faculty are lifelong learners, because you’re taking on a certain research topic or task. It might take you down unexpected avenues and you’ll learn things you might not have ever considered.”
Jaden Brunnemer, looking back on her experience making her research day project, said that a lot of the project’s work was a positive experience.
“It was really cool to kind of lean on somebody else as well and build that rapport,” Brunnemer said, “because a lot of our classes are online or we meet once a week. It was really nice to get together with another student that has different ideas and of different background than you, and work collaboratively to come up with such an impactful piece and leave a statement.”
Brunnemer, along with partners Alyssa Overpeck and Paige Swatek, are presenting a poster “The Heart of the Problem, An Art Piece.”
She is getting her masters in Heritage Tourism and Conservation and Dr. Steven Mackey is sponsoring her for research day.
M’Cheila Rader, who worked on her paper titled “Frank Norris’s Numbing Pain: What Dental Anesthesia Depicts About Human Desire” over the fall semester, said that while she was nervous about speaking in front of others, she had plenty of time to prepare.
“The paper was initially assigned at the beginning of September,” she said, “and there was also the incentive, of course, where if I did present at Ranger Research Day, then I wouldn’t have to take my final. That was a good incentive for me to want to participate.
“I feel really well prepared, so something that would initially make me a little nervous, I feel like I’ve had enough time and enough mentorship from Dr. Holliday to feel really well prepared for the event.”