Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE)
At the annual Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) picnic, students and faculty relax and enjoy the scenic Tulpehocken Creek, located a short drive from campus.
The Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) encourages students to follow their curiosity to investigate and answer questions in the natural sciences, the social sciences, the humanities and the arts. The program features close collaboration between students and faculty mentors, weekly research presentations and interdisciplinary discussions, applied service to the community, and increased opportunities to publish research in academic journals and present research at national conferences.
All students are invited to submit an ACRE application. A committee reviews the proposals and recommends awards. Participants receive a stipend and free room and board during the summer or January interim.
“Participants gain insight into their discipline that transcends the typical college experience,” says David T. Osgood, Ph.D., ACRE director. “The intense exploration of a topic and acquisition of new skills increases their competitiveness for professional positions and graduate school.”
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Research helps Albright students and faculty look at issues from different perspectives.
Senior Thesis
The senior thesis, a year-long independent research project, offers students the opportunity to explore a topic in-depth and to create a body of work that can be presented at academic conferences and/or published in journals. Students work closely with an interdisciplinary faculty team, and usually conduct intensive research during the summer before their senior year. Seniors produce proposals and rough drafts, and make revisions suggested by their faculty adviser and a review committee. Students present thesis projects to the College community in oral or poster format in May. Many Albright students consider the senior thesis the richest learning experience of their college career.
“Students have the opportunity to work one-on-one with a faculty member, learning first-hand how to plan and execute an independent research or creative project, and to generate a mature thesis or creative product,” says Christian S. Hamann, Ph.D., Albright senior thesis coordinator. “The work is typically novel and publishable; many of our students present their work at national conferences.”
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David T. Osgood, Ph.D., ACRE director, grills burgers for students and faculty at the annual ACRE picnic.
Honors Program
The Honors Program challenges Albright’s most talented and motivated students. Students may be invited to join the program as freshmen, or can apply if they have earned a 3.5 grade point average in their first semester. In addition to innovative honors courses, honors students can participate in service projects and trips organized by the Honors Club, and are eligible to live in the Honors House at Mohn Hall. Students who complete all the requirements of the Honors Program graduate with College Honors.
All honors students are required to complete a senior thesis. Other Albright students can choose to conduct senior thesis, as part of the requirements to graduate with Departmental Distinction.
“The Honors Program provides high-achieving students with an intimate, supportive community of individuals who share a disciplined, academic focus,” says Julia F. Heberle, Ph.D., Albright Honors Program director. “Students also benefit from the small size of Honors classes, which average 10 to 15 students, compared to 25 to 35 students in regular classes, and by the atmosphere available in the Honors House at Mohn Hall."
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Thomas C. Brogan, Ph.D., professor of political science, mixes a salad for students at the annual ACRE picnic celebrating interdisciplinary research.
Class Projects
& Research Courses
Students interested in further exploring any topic they discover in class are encouraged to approach faculty to arrange a research experience. Many ACRE and senior thesis projects begin as class projects or Independent Study courses.
Albright also offers students several courses which focus on research or creative activity including: Research Design and Analysis in Psychology; Environmental Chemistry; Seminar in Law and Public Policy; Sociology Research Methods; Costume Design; and Senior Seminar in Theatre.
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Albright President Lex O. McMillan III, Ph.D., discusses student research with Julia F. Heberle, Ph.D., Albright Honors Program director, at the annual ACRE picnic.
Center for Experiential Learning and Research (CELAR)
The Center for Experiential Learning and Research (CELAR) houses all experiential learning programs including the Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE), the Honors Program, study abroad, internships and service-learning. CELAR offers students a computer lab, a resource library, a study room, study groups and comfortable space to meet with other students or faculty to work on research or relax.
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Chemistry
James DeBlasio ’07 consults with his guide in the lab, faculty mentor Christian S. Hamann, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
Exploring an Invisible Frontier: Using NMR Technology to Look Inside Molecules
To the untrained eye, the NMR spectrometer stored in a locked and air conditioned lab in Merner-Pfeiffer Hall of Science looks big and intimidating.
But to James DeBlasio ’07, a biochemistry concentrator who spent the summer exploring the inside of molecules using the NMR, this piece of equipment looks like a good friend. NMR stands for nuclear magnetic resonance. Basically, the NMR spectrometer helps scientists study the structure of molecules by observing the interaction of matter with electromagnetic radiation.
“The NMR operates by placing a compound in a strong magnetic field and observing it with radiofrequency (RF) radiation,” says DeBlasio, of Philadelphia. “The spin of the nuclei in the compound align with or against the magnetic field, which allows for the absorption of the RF energy.”
The summer research project first began as an interesting chemistry problem that Christian S. Hamann, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, wrote on the board during class. DeBlasio asked Hamann about it, and the conversation evolved into an Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) project titled “Analysis of Structure-Function Relationships in Activated Methylene Compounds.”
The project builds on previous work done by Sherri Young ’07 in collaboration with Hamann, DeBlasio says.
“I am very curious by nature,” says DeBlasio. “I really enjoy research, especially being able to figure things out and satisfy my curiosity. Dr. Hamann is one of the best teachers. He indulges me when I go off on my tangents. If I get off topic, he says ‘Try it.’ ”
Hamann, a passionate advocate of undergraduate research, says that exploring tangents is a crucial aspect of research. During DeBlasio’s investigations, he has entered into a groundbreaking area of hydrogen chemistry.
For his ACRE project, DeBlasio investigated a series of compounds containing a common structural unit, the activated methylene group, that causes the molecules to undergo chemical transformation at room temperature and without the addition of other reagents. This transformation is known as keto-enol tautomerization.
In his ACRE proposal, DeBlasio writes: “The effects of pH, temperature, and the introduction of a new functional group to the molecule will be tested using NMR, ultraviolet-visible and infrared spectroscopy. We are hoping that through these combined efforts we can determine a mechanistic pathway for this reaction, and provide an answer as to whether the keto-enol equilibrium is a one-step or a two-step reaction.”
“Basically, we are trying to suggest a totally new field of hydrogen chemistry,” says DeBlasio. “There has been research done with conflicting results. It is something that has been debated for 25 years. We have done an experiment that has never been done before. We made a big step forward by validating a nontraditional use of NMR to obtain quantitative information about the reaction equilibrium.”
Sometimes he programmed the NMR to collect data all night, DeBlasio says. And in between all the NMR runs and the data analysis, he read related journal articles.
“There is an extraordinary amount of published literature on any topic in chemistry,” he says. “There is so much to read!”
DeBlasio was also guided by Ian J. Rhile, Ph.D., assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
“This research is more collaborative than I expected,” says DeBlasio, who plans to study chemistry in graduate school and then continue working on research either as an academic or within industry. “Dr. Hamann and Dr. Rhile are both great. They are always here and they do their best to help students any way they can.”
Albright offers science students access to two NMR spectrometers, as well as other cutting-edge equipment including a transmission electron microscope, lasers, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry system, a capillary electrophoresis system, and two liquid chromatographs. Science faculty and students use the NMR for research, and it is also used by science majors in classes.
No instruments in the collection are reserved solely for research purposes. One goal of the Albright science programs is to expose students to state-of-the-art instruments in an authentic way. Science faculty are also looking forward to introducing non-science majors to the NMR in the future, Hamann says.
“The NMR is the single most powerful analytical tool available to chemists,” says Hamann. “Physicists discovered and invented it, but then moved on to other phenomena. Chemists picked it up and ran with it. In the mid 20th century, the NMR transformed organic chemistry because, for the first time, you could determine the molecular structure of organic compounds on a very small scale without destroying the molecule you were studying.”
Hamann says DeBlasio excelled at utilizing the NMR to answer his questions.
“The NMR computer does a lot of the work for us,” says Hamann. “We can control the parameters that control the analysis. Each NMR run is basically a different experiment. Jim quickly mastered the basics and then programmed the controls to optimize his data and to satisfy his curiosity about the molecules in his study. Jim has branched out from there – he will come into my office with a catalog open, saying, ‘Let’s get this compound! It will help clarify x, y and z about the system we’re working on.’ ”
“It is one of the greatest joys in being a professor,” says Hamann, “to see your students catch the research bug!”
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Philosophy
Elizabeth Leo ’07, center, chats with her research collaborator, Hilary Price, a student at the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, and fellow philosophy student Christopher Siers ’07 at the Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE) picnic in July.
Redefining the Meaning of Art, Literature and Creative Productivity
Why is art important? Why is literature important?
Elizabeth Leo ’07, an English major, explored these questions through an interdisciplinary research project that brought together her passions for literature, art and philosophy.
“My long-term goal is to create a broad aesthetics theory which will embrace art and literature as well as other creative products,” says Leo, who plans to study literature in graduate school. “It is my intention to explain why art, as well as literature, are important to our world on both an individual level–in terms of communication, authenticity, and experience–as well as on a larger scale–in terms of influencing and changing the world around us.”
Her project, titled “Aesthetics and Communication: Intention and Meaning in Creative Productivity,” involved two parts. First, Leo studied selected works of philosophers including Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alain Badiou, Maurice Blanchot and Emmanuel Levinas. During her reading and writing, she focused on aspects important to her emerging theory, particularly phenomenology and aesthetics.
“Essentially my interest in philosophy stems from my interest in literature and reading in general,” says Leo, who works part-time in the Gingrich Library at Albright. “Philosophy adds depth to literature. I like the way the two areas of study interact. After you get comfortable with philosophical concepts, you can employ them to express your own thoughts.”
During the second part of the project, she studied particular artists and then collaborated with Hilary Price, a student at the Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, to create and study several art experiments.
The experiments included 10 layered paintings, created by several artists. Each artist, including Leo and Price, worked on one canvas until they finished it to their satisfaction, and then passed it to another artist, who then attempted to re-finish the work. Leo studied the paintings at every stage of their creation. Leo and Price plan to spark discussion of the work by randomly exhibiting the pieces in public and private spaces.
The two-phase research project brought together the study of theory and the actual practice of art, Leo says. She received guidance during her research journey from faculty mentor Fouad Kalouche, Ph.D., assistant professor of philosophy.
“Dr. Kalouche is amazing,” says Leo, of Philadelphia. “He is encouraging and motivating. Any time I came across a new idea, he would send me in the direction of new texts I had yet to encounter. However, he always made it very clear that this was my project, and encouraged me to go with what I felt was important.”
Kalouche says Leo approached him with her research project, which she had developed working with faculty in the English department. They engaged in an independent study in philosophy to prepare for the Albright Creative Research Experience (ACRE).
“Elizabeth is a very serious student and a gifted writer,” says Kalouche. “She has a true love of reading and an acute intellectual curiosity. She is doing amazing work.”
During the project, Leo added a reading excursion into feminism and post-modern theorists, as well as the aesthetics of underground art scenes such as the emergence of graffiti and hip hop in New York City.
The ACRE program, which includes free room and board and a stipend during the summer, gave Leo the opportunity to focus on research rather than taking on another part-time job.
“I can't think of a more perfect way to spend a summer than being paid to do what I love to do!” says Leo.
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Theatre
Megan McGrath ’06 pleads with her confidant Claire, portrayed by Carissa Madeira ’09 during the performance of Boston Marriage by David Mamet.
Capstone Theatre Experience Brings Together Research and Performance
Megan McGrath ’06, who designed her Albright education to combine theatre, Spanish and political science, spent months reading plays until she found the perfect material to bring to life.
“My faculty mentor, Jeffrey Lentz, loaned me Boston Marriage by David Mamet,” recalls McGrath, of Reading, Pa. “I fell in love with his writing. It is very cutting edge. His wit is comparable to Oscar Wilde, and it has a political twist.”
McGrath researched the play and the turn-of-the-century time period, played the lead role, cast the other roles, served as assistant director, designed the set, chose the costumes, managed the props, created the program, advertised the on-campus performance and kept a journal about the experience.
“There was an electric feeling in the air that night,” says McGrath, a veteran of 15 Albright theatre productions. “It is a very funny piece, and we could tell right away the audience was enjoying it. We had to keep stopping to allow time for their laughter.”
“We always want to champion our students’ creativity,” says Lentz, artist in residence at Albright. “Megan’s in-depth research enhanced her ability to communicate with the audience. Meg’s performance utilized every aspect of her abilities. The performance was absolutely electrifying.”
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Psychology
Shamell T. Brandon ’06
What is the Value of a Face? Psychology Research Tests Theories
Psychology major Shamell T. Brandon ’06 knew that research on evolution states that individuals who are above average in attractiveness are well liked. Brandon was also aware of the mere exposure effect, which states that familiarity increases liking.
He designed psychology experiments to test these two theories, to determine whether attractiveness or familiarity plays a larger role in how well a face is liked. Brandon, of Gouldsboro, Pa., collaborated on the research with Provost Andrea E. Chapdelaine, Ph.D., psychology.
More than 100 Albright students participated in the experiments. First, a small group of students rated female faces for their attractiveness. Ratings were averaged and a selection of “above average” and “average” faces were chosen. Next, a larger group of students viewed faces on a projector screen and filled out a Liking Questionnaire for each face. Some faces were shown once, others were shown five times.
“Results showed that, regardless of their frequency of exposure, the faces that were above average in attractiveness were significantly liked more than faces that were average in attractiveness,” says Brandon. “The mere exposure effect was not observed.”
Brandon, now a graduate student in psychology at Wright State University School of Professional Psychology, plans to establish a practice that caters to the underprivileged. He says working with Chapdelaine was a great experience.
“She was very knowledgeable on my interests and most importantly, she was respectful of my input and ideas,” says Brandon.
“Working on research with a student like Shamell helps keep me focused and centered on what is most important,” says Chapdelaine.
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Education
Lisa Staub ’07 discovered she has a lot in common with her faculty research guide,
Susan Seidenstricker, Ed.D., assistant professor of education and chair of the Education Department.
Research Aims to Give Urban Teachers a Voice in Educational Reform
Lisa Staub ’07 and her faculty mentor, Susan Seidenstricker, Ed.D., discovered they both grew up in the rural area near Gettysburg, Pa. In addition to their common roots, they also share a genuine interest in the problems teachers face in urban schools.
They set out to understand urban classrooms. First, they conducted a 14-month study of the challenges of urban teaching. They eventually focused on the urban teacher, examining what previous studies suggest about teacher factors that affect student achievement.
Next, they created and piloted interview questions based upon their literature review. They interviewed teachers in one urban elementary school with the approval of the Reading School District.
After Staub and Seidenstricker transcribe the recorded interviews, categorize responses, and prepare a report of their findings, they will share their results with the faculty and administration of Reading School District, the education faculty of Albright College, and a larger group of teacher educators at a state conference.
“The most rewarding aspect of this research is to watch Lisa’s commitment to urban education grow,” says Seidenstricker. “We are building a case for listening to teachers. They understand their children and what they need.”
