Extra Credit Blog: My Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium Experience

The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium was a great experience for me, and I really enjoyed looking at and listening to everyone’s creative ideas, thoughts, and work. The thing that I most enjoyed about it was that it covered a wide range of topics, not just art or artistic expression. While I do think art is important and should be celebrated, it was also interesting to hear people’s ideas about using science, research, and their creativity to overcome problems that they saw or questions that they had. This blog post will be a brief rundown of the things I most enjoyed about the Symposium.

For the first part of the Symposium, I looked at the artwork and poetry collections that were on display in the commons. I found the poetry collection to be very interesting, especially since I am in the creative writing class from which they were submitted. It was interesting to view and read the different collections and see how the poetry related to their particular theme. In class I had heard ideas spouted off about what other students wanted to do, so to be able to see them first hand on display was really neat. The artwork was also very impressive, and I enjoyed looking at all the various pieces on display. Most were of the human figure in some pose, and it was intriguing to look at all the different interpretations people came up with, whether it be more abstract or realistic looking. The other artwork seemed to be random, but was also very impressive, and I am always in awe of people who can use simple ink and paper to make images come alive.

The second part of the Symposium I participated in was the first round of oral presentations. The first presentation was talking about the evolution of sexism towards women in math and science. It was interesting to learn about the involvement of women in these fields, and yet disappointing to hear that many of their achievements were undervalued or overlooked simply because they were women. The study done on sexism towards female professors and staff of the UW- Manitowoc campus was relevant and I feel proved their points well. The second presentation was on homelessness in Manitowoc County. I found it eye opening, as this is a subject that is barley talked about among the community. Also, I feel that their solution of buying bus passes to facilitate the homeless people’s travel with only $100 demonstrated their resourcefulness and knowledge of the real problems facing these people. The poetry reading at the end was excellent and emotional. The use of visual aides was interesting and something I had never seen done before in a presentation of a literary piece. I felt it helped convey the emotion and feelings of the speaker and added depth to the words she was reading.

The last part I attended was the poster session. I found the projects interesting and thought they all looked professional and well thought out, with the information on them clearly laid out, and the use of visual aids such as charts or graphs was helpful in interpreting the data and information on them. I thought one of the impressive aspects was how some studies had been done over the course of multiple years, with student passing their accumulated information down to other so they could continue to study whatever that subject was. I also thought that the other studies were well conducted and that all the topics were interesting and thought provoking.

The Undergraduate Research & Creativity Symposium was a great experience and one that I found stimulating in a variety of ways. I felt that the different expressions and research that was presented was all interesting and that everything looked professional and well done. It was a successful afternoon, one in which I learned much. I feel that it was successful and the people who had work in it should be proud of themselves, as they helped contribute to a great day that reflected positively on the University.