MSU Denver Faculty Research Symposium

History

This presentation will focus on the research agenda of the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project and will highlight the MSU Denver sponsored study abroad program. The tight chronology of the site, along with the large number of weapons (e.g. arrowheads, spear points, daggers, sling bullets) and evidence of weapons manufacturing found to date, suggest that this site may be directly related to the conflicts among the diadochi for control of Cyprus after Alexander’s death.

Biology

I take a student-centered approach to study the genetics of zebrafish development. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is one of the more significant experimental systems to study the environmental and genetic factors influencing craniofacial development. In particular, my lab is focused on the relationship of two genes to zebrafish development – the stem-promoting factor, macc1, and the signal regulator, ndnf.

Elementary Education and Literacy, CTLD

Our research examines faculty perspectives on changing grading and assessment practices. This study explores institutional and cultural factors that influence faculty members in modifying their grading and assessment approaches, and how faculty members’ sociological understandings and personal beliefs contribute to their considerations of equity in grading and assessment practices.

Health Administration

Improving maternal healthcare in rural populations is especially complex due to the non-monolithic nature of barriers to access in rural communities. The presentation will display the importance of qualitative research on the issue of prenatal care access in rural CO communities.

Communication Studies

This talk explores the legacy of American white supremacy by analyzing concepts like Vocal Blackface and the Confederate gaze through Speechify. This work demonstrates how white bodies assume and consume Black voices on Speechify, reconstituting the Black body (and its voice) as a souvenir of white power.

English

Using the film “Seven Winters in Tehran”, I will discuss what I call the “Faculty Circle,” which is how our scholarship, teaching, and service can work together as a circle rather than just disconnected, non-linear activities.

Elementary Education and Literacy

This collaborative self-study examined the experiences of five faculty members at MSU Denver. We explored assessment and feedback mechanisms to center students’ learning, de-emphasize grading, and focus on equitable practices within our courses, and we found that small changes can be effective despite a possible need for a larger paradigm shift.

Nutrition

Blunting the blood glucose response to a carbohydrate load is important for those with and without diabetes to avoid adverse consequences. Adding nut butter to a high carbohydrate meal/snack appears to lower the blood glucose, and the added calories may be offset by the increased satiety nut butters provide.

Physics

Our research in nuclear science fosters collaboration across universities and national laboratories to explore new power cycle designs. Through simulations, irradiation experiments, and advanced characterization methods, we are identifying novel nuclear processes with significant impacts on cleaner energy production. X-ray diffraction and ion chromatography applications are also discussed.

Industrial Design

This presentation explores the integration of environmental psychology, cognitive ergonomics, and culturally responsive design in Industrial Design education. It highlights how these interdisciplinary approaches can enhance empathy, cultural sustainability, and well-being in design practice, preparing students to create inclusive, user-centered solutions for diverse global populations.

Industrial Design

Design trends usually have some underlying cultural, technological, economic, or other reason for their existence. Designs are becoming more standardized and monochromatic. This research examines the importance and function of color in design, architecture, food and other applications and begins a search for an answer to the question; where has color gone?

Journalism and Media Production (JMP)

This talk examines the role documentary film can play in correcting inaccurate histories. The presentation will share strategies and lessons learned while working with Lakota collaborators and the Smithsonian Museum on an interview and archive-based project that features descendants of Lakota performers in Buffalo Bill Cody Wild West shows.

Social Work

This presentation showcases effective social science methods from student researchers studying GLBQ+ intergenerational family relationships. Toledo discusses online recruitment strategies; Gillis emphasizes trans-inclusive interview techniques; and Vasquez highlights the importance of native language interviews. Together, these insights enhance methodologies for engaging diverse participants and capturing authentic experiences.

English

Drawing on crip theory, this presentation examines how memoirs written by older disabled people or their caregiving partners challenge the hegemonic view that older and disabled people are asexual. Rather than comparing disabled sex and sensuality to nondisabled sex and sensuality, disabled sex should be appreciated on its own terms.

Sociology and Anthropology 

In 2023, the nineteenth-century Central City, Colorado sex district became the location of an MSU Denver archaeological field school. While also engaging community members and doing deep documentary research into the area, researchers are attempting to use archaeological investigation and artifacts to determine the real lived experiences of the people living in the Pine Street sex district.

Physics

The VLASS is a radio survey made with the Karl Jansky Very Large Array. LoBALS are a subpopulation of QSOs (quasars). We are looking for radio brighnesses, variability, and morphology for an optically chosen sample within the survey.

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

This research study involves the utilization of advanced deep learning techniques to identify fallen trees in a coastal river floodplain.

World Languages

Discover how video essays can transform storytelling with “Creating a Mini-Eco-Archive: Ecological Regeneration in Latin America.” Explore new methods for documenting survival and adaptation in challenging environments, using multimedia to educate and inspire. Engage with this project to see how it enhances MSU Denver’s curriculum and promotes environmental awareness.

Secondary Education 

This proposal highlights the quantitative third year findings of a longitudinal study about secondary traumatic stress experienced by new teachers and what trauma-informed interventions might mitigate some secondary traumatic stress. The project also looks into what might have changed for new teachers from year 1 to year 3.

Journalism and Media Production

Early-stage research on the transformative impact of experiential service learning. Discover how real-world projects enhance skills, foster ethical excellence, and prepare future communicators. Don’t miss Jessica’s poster showcasing her service learning project!

Psychological Sciences, Biochemistry & Chemistry, & Biology

The results of this multi-departmental study provide a preliminary snapshot into the potential impact of transformative teaching in STEM courses. They are part of an ongoing exploration into the effects of transformative teaching use on other factors such as self-efficacy, math anxiety, mindset and sense of belonging.

Center for Teaching, Learning, and Design

This poster shares results from a simulation experiment by the CTLD Instructional Design team. Groups representing students, faculty, and designers attempted to detect AI use and give perspectives about submitting assignments and giving feedback with human-assisted AI. Implications for course design in this new Generative AI landscape will be shared.

Exercise and Sport Sciences 

This presentation explores job engagement and the glass ceiling for women in collegiate and professional sport. The researchers examine how perceived career barriers impact job engagement and provide insights into fostering inclusive environments that support women’s upward mobility and organizational success in the sport industry.

Elementary Education & Special Education

Infusing social justice into teacher preparation at an HSI, this research explores how Lesson Study fosters collaboration and innovation. By integrating Social Justice Standards across literacy, cultural linguistic diversity, and special education courses, teacher educators modeled changemaking, empowering future teachers to address systemic inequities and embrace their roles as transformative leaders.

Earth and Atmospheric Sciences

Students from MSU Denver conducted infiltration tests before and after the subsoiling process to determine whether subsoiling increased infiltration. Results of the study were inconclusive and additional testing may be warranted.

Theatre

3D garment simulation technology has taken center stage recently due to its ability to facilitate reproduction of fragile extant textiles in digital space. My current research proposes a virtual fashion show created by students at MSU Denver that showcases garments preserved in the clothing and textile collections at History Colorado.

Communication Studies 

Join the Community Engaged Learning Faculty Co-Fellows and MSU Denver faculty to learn more about ongoing research projects involving community partners. Gather ideas for your own projects that bring into alignment teaching, scholarly and creative activity, and service to community. Projects include environmental education in K-12 public schools, as well as waste diversion infographics with the ASCP.

Mathematics

The researchers implemented an innovative set of lessons in a mathematics class for preservice elementary teachers to teach ideas about place value and operations that puts students in the position of a learner of a new number system.

Business 

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of Generative AI (Gen-AI) on students learning in an undergraduate classroom. Specifically, this research aims to investigate students’ perceptions of Gen-AI as a tool for enhancing their learning, examine any changes in these perceptions after engaging with Gen-AI-based assignments, and assess whether the use of Gen-AI is correlated with an increase in student learning outcomes.

Cybersecurity

This presentation explores the critical role of digital evidence in investigating PPP Loan fraud, analyzing 110 Supreme Court cases from 2020. The findings highlight investigative methodologies and offer valuable insights for legal practitioners and policymakers to combat the complexities of white-collar and cybercrime.

Elementary Education

This talk will share emerging themes from a researcher-teacher co-design project with an elementary educator. The project focused on developing digital science notebook slides that incorporated multimodal and bilingual elements. We share critical design components that emerged as important and preliminary themes from debrief conversations with the teacher participant.

One World One Water Center

Two colleagues will discuss the educational and cultural experience of traveling throughout Mongolia this past summer to study the intersection of climate change and public health, what they’re doing with everything they learned, and how it is enhancing their work at MSU Denver.

Art

This paper will argue that the depiction of the Annunciation in the Breviary of Isabel the Catholic (British Library ADD MS 18851) communicates a three-part analogy including, Old Testament: New Testament: Fifteenth-Century Castile, that integrates contemporary politics into divine systems of promise and fulfillment.

Computer Sciences

Roadrunner Connect enhances campus engagement through a map-based mobile application that allows users to discover and participate in events while earning rewards for their involvement. This presentation outlines the technical and user-centered design approaches used in developing the app, which integrates event data from multiple sources, promotes campus interaction, and strengthens MSU Denver’s position as an anchor institution. The project is currently in progress, with a planned launch later this year. We will discuss the work accomplished so far and our vision for the platform’s future impact.