Students in ENVR 251 Ecosystem Management undertook a challenging project in their capstone course this spring: to update the 1970 River Management Plan for the Wild & Scenic Middle Fork of the Feather River. Considering the past, present, and future, the class explored management challenges like recreation and access, extractive uses, and natural and cultural elements like artifacts, private inholdings, water quality, biological resources, and wildfire. Economic impacts of watershed protection and the implications of climate change were integrated into the plan as well.

The heart of this applied project emerges in the Recommendations section of the plan. What should the future hold for the Middle Fork Feather River? Watch the presentation to see what the class came up with!

We would like to thank Darrel Jury, Leslie Edlund, Dick Laursen, Larry Ferderber, and Liz Ramsey for their assistance with the project.

Students in ENVR 480 Human Dimensions of Natural Resouces learned what it takes to design, promote, implement, evaluate and report the results from a public opinion survey. The survey was about the Wild & Scenic Middle Fork of the Feather River, a place that none of the students were very familiar with, making the project even more challenging. Working as a team, each week the class made progress on developing survey items about respondents' experiences in the Middle Fork, their attitudes about threats and future protections, and demographics. Designing the survey to make it user friendly and promoting it through social and traditional media were also part of the process. 

A total of 362 respondents participated in the survey, providing extremely useful input. A report is forthcoming, but to find out results in the meantime, watch the students' presentation!

Students in this class have researched topics such as women's representation in politics, sex/gender inequalities in the gender inequalities in the workforce, the intersection of gender and ageism, the relation between gender dysphoria and diagnoses of intellectual disabilities in children, historical constructions of homophobia and the intersection of race and sexuality, women in the video game subculture, and more. From these presentations, you will learn more about how gender expectations and practices have changed over time, and how inequality has often been the result of these social practices. We hope you enjoy these students' research.     

Students of international relations use international relations theories to analyze issues and events in the world. These students all took this class because of their interest in global issues, their curiosity to learn more about the world, and their desire to make the world a better place. Each of them has shown a commitment to peace and human rights, as well as a better understanding of war, the causes of war, power, and the role of various actors and institutions in international relations. These presentations cover topics from the role of Iceland, a small island state, in international relations, to the role of the United Nations in 21st century issues, to how to look at the crisis of climate change through various lenses and levels of analysis in international relations.    

Students in ENGL 101 spend their semester honing transferable college reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. For the bulk of this semester these students have been researching and drafting papers on subjects of their choosing. The work you see here is the penultimate assignment of the course, where students share their arguments and analysis related to their findings publicly for the first time in a 7-10 minute presentation.

Students in Speech class have been working all semester on different types of public speaking. They've practiced discrete skills for any speaking environment with the added challenge of presenting via Zoom, where lighting, camera angle, and background compound the regular challenges of successful delivery like body language, facial expression, inflection, and vocal variation. The presentation you see here brings together all of their training in a research-based persuasive speech.

BUS 116 is an exploration of contemporary behavioral science concepts as applied to human problems in business.  Students learn creative theories in management and motivation to maximize business production and personal growth.  The following student presentations are based on chosen concepts from the book “When – The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing” by Daniel H. Pink.

This course is the third in a three-semester sequence of medical-surgical nursing theory. The advanced course explores the complex pathophysiology and nursing process in conditions that affect multi-body systems. Emphasis will be on applying knowledge to real world applications utilizing critical thinking, as well as continuing to develop written and verbal communication skills.

Historical Geology is a course that teaches us about the history of our Earth. Students explore the transformations of geologic features and evolution of organisms over time and learn about the techniques that can be employed to help us understand the long distant past. Students in this class completed a research paper about a historical geologic event, and they had the option to share that research in the symposium for extra credit. One student decided to share. Enjoy! 

Biology 100 is a non-majors course to satisfy the Life Science with Lab general education requirement. Students participate in a semester-long research project. First, they choose a topic that interests them in biology and do some preliminary research. Next the students research their topic in-depth and organize the information into a formal outline. Finally, the students write a story integrating their research. These creative research stories always surprise me: some are delightful, some are awesome, some are very realistic and have a strong emotional impact and all of them show that the medium of the story engages the students to think more deeply about their research and its impact. Enjoy reading these - they will take you on short, fun and informative rides!

BIOL 104 is a majors-level biology course that focuses on the biology of animals. For this lab project, students spent time in several labs to observe and care for superworms. From their observations, students designed a small experiment to learn more about superworm behavior. The results of each experiment are presented here in scientific research posters.

BIOL 106 is a majors-level biology course that focuses on the biology of plants. For this project, students took  measurements and observations on the spring phenophases for a conifer, a bush and a woody tree. Their observations and results are presented here as scientific research posters.