These three students are the first we have had in a summer session. They have had to accomplish the same amount of work in a shorter time period than those in the fall and spring semesters. The summer session is only 10 weeks long whereas the fall/spring semesters are 14 weeks. Intense, but productive!

Andrew Hadaway
Instructor: Chuck Baker
ENG 298 Research in English

My name is Andrew Hadaway, and I’ve had a deep interest in comics and graphic novels for several years now. My interest in these started around the same time that I started taking literature courses and began to analyze literature more closely. Since I was getting into both of these things at the same time, I began to apply literary analysis to the graphic novels I was reading and found that I was able to explore graphic novels in a completely different way than prose literature because of the way stories are told in graphic novels. As I delved more deeply, I did research into the history of graphic novels and found that it was deeply impacted by many important events of the past one hundred years, especially in the United States. I became very excited once Professor Baker approached me with the possibility of creating a new literature course based on graphic novels because this would give me a chance to explore the genre even deeper and to share the knowledge I’ve gained with other people.

 

Christina Thomas
Instructor: Dr. Renee Prenitzer
BIO 299 Research in the Biological Sciences

I am Christina Thomas and my goals for my creative inquiry class are to research and design an experiment about the effectiveness of herbals on bacteria as an antibiotic. I chose this topic because I wanted to learn about microbiology as well as antibiotics. I had Lyme disease when I was in high school. I had reactions to various antibiotics that are used to treat the disease. In order to get rid of the Lyme, my Naturopathic doctor but me on different herbals and supplements. Although I have seen results with herbals in my personal life, I want to know how they work and why they work. I also think herbals could offer an answer to the growing problem of antibiotic resistant bacteria. I am excited to see where this creative inquiry class takes me and I look forward to seeing how many of my own questions I answer.

End of the semester update

My Creative Inquiry class was interesting and informative. The experiments I performed were disc diffusion assays. The essential oils used were thieves (blend of oils), patchouli, peppermint, lavender and eucalyptus. Thieves oil had the best results every time. Patchouli oil seemed to have no effect on gram-negative bacteria. My data showed that all of the essential oils had some effect on bacteria but further research will be needed to determine how much of an effect they had. These are promising results and the oils could be useful as a disinfectant or antibiotic. However, further research would be needed.

 

Dawn Carvajal
Instructor: Pam Green
PSY 299 Research in Psychology

One needs more than a good GPA and GRE score to get into graduate school. Specifically, for me, as I plan on majoring in Psychology, having records and proof of research can give me an advantage. That’s why I jumped on the chance to participate in Greenville Technical College’s Creative Inquiry program.

I’ll keep my biography brief. As of right now, my goal is get an education required to be a professional licensed counselor. That vision may change as I continue through school, but I think I’m ready to face all that as it comes. My initial plan was to teach English in High School, but both student-teaching and my general Psychology class pointed me to a different path. Although my own personal struggles have abused and nibbled at my GPA a little more than I would’ve liked, I’m going to give it my all and get my Master’s!

I must admit that at first I was a bit nervous to enroll in PSY 299. After all, I only have this summer semester since I plan on transferring to a four-year school in the Fall. The summer semester is a bit short, so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to efficiently complete my research. However, after meeting with various faculty members, I happily decided to take the plunge. The experience so far has been awesome!

Over the past couple of weeks, I have delved into Sports Psychology centered around a phenomenon known as “target panic.” This issue is close to my heart, as I’ve struggled a bit with it myself. In fact, target panic absolutely demolished my performance as a collegiate athlete during my Freshman year. To quickly define, target panic is a form of performance anxiety in archers. Archery is a very precise sport that requires constant consistency, which any form of anxiety is not conducive to. One could compare it to the “yips” in golf, or “Steve Blass disease” in baseball. All three of these result in an athlete’s loss of ability, no matter how skilled they are. Both beginners and all-star players alike can be reduced to a fumbling, nervous wreck due to this condition.

Regarding archery, target panic can even cause one to stop shooting all together. Personally, I have only shot my bow once since the last competitive season I participated in ended. Some don’t return to the sport at all. Because this is a psychological condition that doesn’t form from faults of the athlete, I was inspired to find the source and treatment of target panic.

Even though I’ve just begun, my research has been both fun and intriguing. Due to my constant curiosity, I’ve found my review of psychological literature rewarding. I plan on writing a scholarly overview of said literature with the help of Pamela King, a psychology professor. I believe that with her help, I will be able to compile sources and analyze them. Additionally, I’ll be presenting my findings and possibly publish my journal. Thanks to both my research mentor and other faculty members, I’ve started on a project that I’ll never forget. Good luck to all of you in your summer courses, whether you’re a teacher or student, and cheers to an awesome semester!

End of semester update

My experience with the Creative Inquiry program and PSY-299 over the summer has been outstanding. Not only did I learn a lot about my topic, but I also learned how psychological research works. I feel prepared to do more projects like this one soon. Perhaps I can even get my literature review published!

The finished product of my research is a ten-page paper reviewing journals regarding target panic. I examined psychological methodologies used to treat performance anxiety in other sports. This was because there were no available journals specifically addressing target panic. Furthermore, I closed my literature review with suggestions for studies that focused on archery. Even though the treatments I found would most likely be applicable, archery is a sport of its own. Different variables encompassed within the sport need to be taken into consideration. This was probably the most exciting part of my literature review to write. I hope that my research can make an impact on sports and psychology, inspiring new studies to help archers with target panic.

Overall, I’m glad that I chose to participate in this program. It was a unique opportunity, and gave me a taste of what independent research is like. While it was time consuming, it wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult. I believe any student who is passionate about a certain subject can excel in what Creative Inquiry offers. If one teams up with a great mentor and cultivates and good academic work ethic, the possibilities are endless.