CENTER VALLEY, Pa. – Penn State Lehigh Valley students presented their research to a panel of judges and the campus community during the annual Penn State Lehigh Valley Undergraduate Research Symposium on April 1. The judges awarded first- and second-place honors to the top projects in both the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), and Arts and Humanities categories. The winning projects were:

Arts, Humanities, Business, and Social and Behavioral Sciences

First

Childhood Obesity in Reading, Pennsylvania: Local and Comparative International Perspectives

Students: JB Durishin, Grace Leman, Samantha Lutz, Jenny Nawa, Aneliese Townsend (presenter)

Adviser: David Livert, associate professor of psychology

Second

Do College Students’ Attitudes Reflect and/or Help Level America’s Growing Divide? A Psychological Study of ‘Hope’ Among Public University Students

Student: MiguelAngel Tsiounis

Adviser: Jennifer Parker, associate professor of sociology

STEM

First

Direct and Indirect Effects of Pseudoephedrine on the Intrinsic Conduction System of the Embryonic Chicken Heart

Students: Fatima Afzal and Samely Gonzalez

Adviser: Jacqueline McLaughlin, associate professor of biology

Second

Anodizer for the Arts

Students: George Evangelou and Matthew Giamber

Adviser: Harold Scholz, instructor in engineering and physics

The next step for some of these winners as well as those in other participating projects is to present their work at the annual regional undergraduate research symposium, which is to be held at Penn State Worthington Scranton on April 17.