Every two weeks, Highlander Highlights shares with readers some of the extraordinary research and accomplishments happening on and off campus through the tireless work and curiosity of our students and faculty.
We Are Radford winner for November
The new We Are Radford employee recognition program is a monthly honor recognizing someone whose daily interactions with students and colleagues represent the best of the Radford University experience. The winner for October was Eric Aviles, an audio-video event technician in Information Technology.
“Eric has run audio and video (AV) for a number of departmental, university and community-wide events on campus. He is exceptional at his job,” the nominator wrote. “I have witnessed his patience while troubleshooting technical issues for impatient people. Even though he’s a ‘man behind the scenes,’ he is always a friendly face, whether he’s running the AV for an event or showing up to help with a classroom technical issue.”
Employees who have served at least one year at Radford are eligible to be recognized for upholding the university’s core values.
Radford researchers selected for research communication advocacy program
Only one school in Virginia had students and faculty selected this year for the Council for Undergraduate Research Scholars Transforming Through Research (STR) Advocacy program.
Can you name it?
It’s Radford University, of course.
The competitive CUR STR advocacy program is a “professional development opportunity for undergraduate researchers and their faculty mentors to learn how to communicate effectively with stakeholders, such as politicians, funding agencies and lawmakers,” said Assistant Professor of Physics Sandy Liss.
Liss was chosen for the program along with a team made up of her students Jovanny Machuca Tiznado, Quentin Shivnen and Eniko Szabab. Also chosen were the research team of Professor of Biology and Associate Director of the Honors College Jason Davis and students Annie Riffee, Mark Daniel and Grace Parton.
Radford’s teams were selected “from a competitive applicant pool,” Liss said, “based on our individual narratives on the impact research has had on us, as well as our collective team goals for participating.”
Following monthly online training from now until February 2025, the teams will travel to Washington, D.C., for a March 2-3 presentation of their research to congressional representatives. They will also advocate for the importance of undergraduate research experiences and funding.
Liss’s group is working on individual research related to physics and astronomy, while Davis’s team is studying how “organisms develop to cope with different levels of stress and disturbance across a range of different habitats,” he said. “We explore a range of coping mechanisms and evolutionary patterns, from stress physiology to health and growth rates.”
“Communicating scientific results to a wide variety of audiences is a vital component of the research process,” Liss said.
At Radford, these student researchers have had numerous opportunities to present their work at local, regional, national and international conferences. They’ve also shared their work with K-12 students and the general public through science outreach events.
“Our goal with participating in the CUR STR program is to learn how to craft our message specifically for policymakers and the media,” Liss explained. “Conveying the importance of fundamental research to those who make funding and policy decisions will allow us to increase the impact of our programs. Attending the advocacy-focused training sessions and visit to Capitol Hill represents an exciting and unique opportunity for all four of us to expand our knowledge and grow our skills.”
The opportunity is “super exciting,” Davis added, “that we’ll not only get some expert training on these topics, we’ll also have the chance to showcase our work and have conversations with national leaders and showcase the growth opportunities for both our work and our university.”
The CUR STR program will be a meaningful experience for Machuca Tiznado because it will teach him how to effectively “show how vital undergraduate research can impact a student's life and educational goals,” said the senior physics major from Martinsville, Virginia. “Through the program, he is “able to advocate and prepare future researchers to present the impact of their research. I never thought I would have an opportunity like this until coming to Radford.”
Radford music educators are reaching young learners with catchy tunes
The uber-talented Jennifer McDonel and David Rivers have been at it again, writing, singing and producing a brand-new set of music for young learners.
The dynamic duo, both of whom are associate professors in Radford’s Department of Music, co-wrote 22 “science and engineering concept-related songs,” McDonel said, along with activity suggestions for Zero-To-Three, a national nonprofit agency that seeks to bridge gaps in early learning by providing open-source materials for parents, Head Start and other childcare professionals.
The new songs accompany the 22 mathematics-related songs the two produced in 2022 for Zero-To-Three’s Problem Solvers curriculum.
A grant from the General Motors Foundation provided support for the project.
McDonel and Rivers wrote the songs over the course of five months, from January to May this year, and then traveled to Nashville to record background tracks.
“Dave relayed the intended style of each song and instruments that should be added to each background to set up each song as unique,” McDonel explained. “Then he spent hours and hours listening to each and editing for finesse – the best end product!”
In July and August, Rivers recorded McDonel’s vocals and produced the final version of each song, which Zero-To-Three published as a collection on its website in late October.
Songs and literature were included with the science activities to enrich and extend the curriculum as other avenues for children to interact with the content. “Music is one way children can connect with vocabulary and concepts through active learning, moving to the songs as they listen. If the songs are repeated enough, the children may also start to remember and sing repeated musical hooks or motifs in the songs.”