JACKSON, Tenn. — May 1, 2013 — About 200 students presented their research findings April 30 as part of 51社区鈥檚 10th annual Scholarship Symposium.
鈥淚n a lot of universities, the scholarship that we focus on is faculty scholarship,鈥� said Hunter Baker, Union鈥檚 dean of instruction who oversees the program. 鈥淗ere, for the last 10 years, we鈥檝e been putting an emphasis on undergraduate scholarship.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very important to have faculty doing research,鈥� Baker continued. 鈥淚 think it makes them better teachers. But there鈥檚 been an increasing realization that we need to pass those skills on to students 鈥� that really part of giving them the most value for their tuition dollar is to actually engage them in the work of research.鈥�
Samantha Howard, a senior from Hernando, Miss., worked with Sally Henrie, professor of chemistry, to produce a lab manual that is based on 鈥済reen鈥� chemistry, meaning chemistry that is safer. Many schools are concerned about health hazards and disposal costs that come with typical laboratory experiments.
鈥淓verything we use can be poured down the drain,鈥� Howard said. 鈥淚t was just trial and error in the lab 鈥� mixing stuff up, testing stuff, seeing if it works. We finally came up with a few experiments that worked and met all the criteria for the lab manual.鈥�
Andrew Tan, a sophomore from Ipoh, Malaysia, worked with 11 other students to design a coal-powered rocket mass heater for use in public schools in a North African nation where Union鈥檚 engineering department has helped on other projects.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e using wood as the fuel, but (the country) is undergoing a vast deforestation, and the government is banning using wood as fuel,鈥� Tan said. 鈥淪o they provide cheap coal to schools, and we have to redesign this rocket mass heater to burn coal instead of wood.鈥�
Most schools in the North African country currently use coal-powered heaters that are inefficient and unsafe, because burning the coal fills the room with poisonous smoke. Teachers open windows to vent the smoke, allowing heat to escape.
A Union team that traveled to the country in 2012 helped install a rocket mass heater that burns wood efficiently, and the objective for this project was to continue modifying the design to improve the heater鈥檚 performance.
Other students participated in the symposium from a variety of academic disciplines, including art, biology, business, computer science, digital media studies, English, nursing, pharmacy, physics, social work and theology and missions. Some students produced posters that they displayed in the Carl Grant Events Center, while others made brief presentations in classrooms all across campus.
A description of each of the presentations is available at .