Anthropology
Bob Brunswig and James Doerner received continued Bureau of Land Management grant funding for an ongoing project that has recorded and excavated dozens of prehistoric archaeological sites — including the earliest prehistoric Ute Indian site in the Rocky Mountain region — in the mountain valley of North Park. Since 1998, Brunswig and colleagues have identified more than 500 sacred and high-altitude hunting sites in surveys of 38,000 acres in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Art and Design
Lauren Lipinski Eisen is creating a series of paintings using layered imagery to depict the reconstruction of memory fragments.
Dietetics/Nutrition
Katie Kage is conducting a study on whether a nutrition program increases rates of ROTC cadets passing Army standards and improves Dietetic students’ nutrition counseling skills and self-confidence. The study’s results can provide other ROTC programs guidance on the benefits of establishing a partnership with a nutrition and dietetics program.
Geography/GIS
Jessica Salo organizes mapathons to help less-developed countries.
No experience is necessary for participants who add roads and buildings into OpenStreetMap
from laptops using images from sources such as the U.S. State Department. The maps
are used by organizations and individuals to better respond to crises in the areas.
Salo is also conducting a study to determine which satellite imagery detection methods
are most cost-effective and accurate in identifying growth of the invasive tamarisk
species in Western Colorado rivers.
Gerontology
Nancy J. Karlin and Joyce Weil collected data about aging in seven different countries and four continents. Findings of the six-year project reveal significant differences for activity level, expressions on health and happiness, and overall satisfaction with life between comparison groups.
Music
Melissa Malde is collecting, translating, recording and transcribing art songs in Hebrew written during the Yeshuv period just before Israel became a state. This project arose because several students, who had learned Hebrew for a bar or bat mitzvah, wanted to sing pieces in Hebrew at their senior recitals. She plans to make the songs available on a website.
Physics and Astronomy
Several faculty and undergraduate students are designing and building a muon detector that will be flown on a high-altitude balloon during next year’s solar eclipse. Muons, heavier versions of electrons, are a byproduct of the cosmic rays produced by supernovae and other high-energy events in space. The project is part of a larger effort being carried out by Colorado Space Grant and NASA.
