Warm-Up Workshop: Warm-Up Workshop: Getting Your Amateur Group to Sound Professional in Seconds

Warm-ups are the oft-neglected yet essential component to an excellent choral rehearsal, and many of us come into the rehearsal room well-prepared to teach repertoire but ill-prepared to lead warm-ups that will set the tone for success. Beyond supplying attendees with examples of different warm-ups, this workshop will offer a pedagogical approach and practical advice about how to lead effective and relevant choral warm-ups for groups of any age

Biochemical and Microbiological Studies on the Functions of a Mycobacterial ABC-F Protein

http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1060/thumbnail.jp

Buried in the Sands of Time: The Armenian Genocide and the Turkish State of Denial

Cody Fuelling is in his fourth year at IPFW, pursuing majors in History and Political Science, an Honors Certificate, a Certificate in International Studies, and a Minor in Psychology. He has been a research assistant for two professors in the Department of History and currently works as a teaching assistant in the Department of Political Science. He presented at the 7th and 8th Annual History Conferences, has received two scholarships from the Honors Program, and works as an Assistant Book Review Editor for Enterprise and Society

Faculty Perception of Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

Educational advances over the years has enabled students with disabilities to access educational opportunities in higher educational institutions, creating a diversification of the student population in higher education. This has necessitated faculty to increase their knowledge about providing appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities, as well as devise new pedagogical methods that cater to the different learning needs of students in their classrooms. This study was conducted to investigate faculty willingness to utilize inclusive instructional accommodations for students with disabilities in their classrooms, through an anonymous survey that was distributed to full time and part time faculty from a Midwestern University. Quantitative analysis of the data through SPSS showed that 79.1% of the participants reported a willingness to provide instructional accommodations in their classrooms. Qualitative analysis of the data reported that participants expressed a need for improved knowledge and training on how to provide certain instructional accommodations, citing increased collaboration and enhanced communication with the office of services for students with disabilities as avenues that would aid in fulfilling the gaps. This type of research study adds to the previous and increasing literature in the field, which focuses on how pedagogical methods can be enriched to cater for the currently diversified learning needs of the students at high institutions of learning. Key Words: Students with disabilities, higher education, instructional accommodation, faculty perception, faculty knowledgehttp://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1027/thumbnail.jp

Virtual Object Perception

Mental rotation is the ability to use a mental representation to rotate a two or three-dimensional object in the human mind while also recognizing that it is the same from any perspective. Previous studies have shown gender differences in mental rotation, with men performing mental rotations more quickly and accurately than women. Another study has shown that rotation practice using a joystick to rotate a figure on a computer screen benefits subsequent mental rotation. The purpose of our research was to examine whether mental rotation could be trained, specifically by using an iPad app we developed. In the current study, introductory psychology students were given a mental rotation pretest in which they viewed two geometric figures side by side and were asked if they were the same figures in different rotations, or two completely different figures. In the control group, participants completed additional trials identical to those in the pretest. In the experimental group, participants were asked to rotate a figure presented on the iPad with their finger until it matched the same orientation as the figure shown on the computer. The figure on the iPad started at different orientations than the figure on the computer (i.e., rotated 30 degrees along the x-axis, 90 degrees along the Y-axis). Finally, participants in both groups completed a posttest similar to the pretest, but including both familiar and unfamiliar figures. We found that males were more accurate at rotating the figures in the pretest and posttest, replicating findings from previous studies. However, the iPad training did not improve mental rotation in the posttest in either females or males. Based on these findings, we conclude that our app does not engage people in thinking about mental representations of the figures and rotating them in their head. In a future project, we plan to examine whether mental rotation can be improved by training participants to attend to the specific axes around which the object is rotating. We believe this method will be more effective in engaging participants in the mental rotation of a three dimensional object.http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1006/thumbnail.jp

Factors Affecting the Population Dynamics of Thrips Vectors of Soybean Vein Necrosis Virus in Indiana

http://opus.ipfw.edu/stu_symp2017/1055/thumbnail.jp