Sample Abstracts

Megan Holtrop
Mentor(s): Dr. Susan Hoppough, Saint Mary’s
Heath Care and Dr. Susan Dunn
Department of Nursing

The Outcome of a Culturally Specific Intervention for Vietnamese Women

Breast cancer is a common form of cancer among Vietnamese women and there are significant barriers to breast cancer screening. This pilot study is part of a larger research project entitled, “The Effects of a Culturally Specific Intervention for Breast Health”. The purpose of this project was to survey health care providers regarding their perceptions of barriers to the use of a culturally specific educational intervention. Five health care providers from West Michigan viewed the video “Women’s Health and Family Happiness: Screening for Breast Cancer” and then responded to a survey tool developed for this project. The results and conclusions of the project are pending.

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Laura Kay Stritzke
Mentor: Professor Hamon-Porter
Department of Modern and Classical Languages

Immigration in France

Immigration is one of the premier issues facing French society in the 21st century. The integration of recent immigrants into French society is proving more difficult to achieve. Consequently, many French citizens regard immigration
as a threat to their national identity. This research will show how immigration is a result of a century of colonization by the French. It will also delve into the recent conflicts in French cities and highlight the responsibility the French government must take for its failure to address the integration of this
population. This research will also look into possible solutions and options that could insure future peace and stability to the country.

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Kerri Driesenga and Christopher Bowen
Mentor(s): Tod Gugino and Dr. Kathy Winnett-Murray
Departments of Chemistry and Biology

Hope College Summer Science Camps, 2006: The Effect of Multiple Variables on Perceptions of Student Learning in an Extracurricular Environment

The 2006 Hope College Summer Science Camps were used as the site for a study which determined how students’ perception of learning is influenced by their summer camp experience. Students and their parents or guardians were
surveyed before and after the week-long camps. The different variables analyzed were location (camp, home, and school), gender, grade level, student perception of learning and parent perception of learning. It was found that location does influence how much students feel they learn about science. Students felt they learned more about science by attending camp than at home or school. There were also significant differences between parent and student perceptions of how the student learns science best. It was concluded that the gaps in perceived learning do not seem to be gender or grade level associated,
but rather may stem from lack of communication between home and school, and between parents and their children.

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Sara Thelen, Christine Corbin, and Krista Mehari
Mentor: Dr. Sonja Trent-Brown
Department of Psychology

Effect of Listener Characteristics on Speaker Identification

It seems that some people have an easier time than others in identifying the gender and/or race of a speaker in situations in which the speaker is unseen, such as on the phone or radio. This study investigates whether listener characteristics have an effect on accurately identifying the speaker’s gender and race. It was hypothesized that there would be a listener advantage, with listeners more accurately identifying speakers from their same race and gender than listeners from different races or genders. It was also hypothesized that there would be no significant main effect for listener gender, so that males and females would perform equally well in identifying the race and gender of the speakers. The third hypothesis was that there would be a significant main effect of listener race, such that African American listeners would be more accurate overall than Caucasian American listeners in identifying the race of the speakers.