Daniel Buckler (1st)
I have created a video which outlines the I.S. process over my entire college career. The film can be split into three sections. The first part shows the attempts people make from the beginning of their time at Wooster to come up with an I.S. topic, but, of course, most of these early ideas fall through. The second part shows myself as a senior trying to find ideas from faculty or other students. The last part very simply shows part of my actual research on reforestation in Palestine, visualized using Lego stop motion animation.
Callie McCune (2nd)
My independent study focuses on the evolution of the American kitchen from 1950-1980. Using cookbooks, food writing and popular magazines, I examine how cooking trends and foodstuff purchasing changed, reflecting cultural changes within American society. The transformation of food choices from chocolate pudding to chocolate mousse, or iceberg lettuce to arugula reveals American’s increasing use of food to define their identities and place within society.
Amy Cohen (3rd)
This Independent Study examines the relationship between male Jewish gangsters and working-class Jewish immigrants in Chicago and New York City from 1900 to 1933. Focusing on men like “Big Jack” Zelig, “Dopey Benny” Fein, Arnold Rothstein, “Nails” Morton, and “Bugsy” Siegel, this project investigates why many working-class or impoverished Jews considered these gangsters to be community role models. Because members of Jewish communities often felt they were excluded from participating and achieving in mainstream society, they commonly used other outsiders – criminals – as examples of success. In adopting these men as role models, urban Jewish immigrants created images of gangsters to reflect community values: performance of masculinity, success in business, and protection of the neighborhood. While this study centers on Jewish gangsters, it also allows for a broader understanding of the varying relationships between local criminals and marginalized urban communities in both historical and contemporary contexts.
Katrina Wojciechowski (student selection)
Caffeine is a popular ingested substance used by people all over the world. Recent studies have suggested that caffeine intake has the ability to decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by acting as a neuroprotective agent. The present study sought to determine firstly, if caffeine can positively impact the cognitive functioning and amyloid-beta (Aß) and beta-secretase1 (BACE1) levels in mice. Secondly we sought to determine if higher doses of caffeine have a greater impact than those used in past research. Caffeine (an adenosine receptor antagonist) was added to the drinking water of APPswe/PS1de9 mice from 4 to 7 months of age. The average daily caffeine intake per mouse in the high and low doses was 15mg/day and 1.5mg/day respectively. Mice were tested in multiple behavioral tasks that measured exploratory behavior (open field), spatial reference learning and memory (Morris water maze) and associative memory and memory retention (contextual fear conditioning). Across all behavioral tasks there were no significant differences between the groups and also between caffeinated mice and controls. At the conclusion of performance-based tasks, hippocampi were dissected out and analyzed for Aß levels and BACE1 levels. Although predicted patterns were seen between the Aß and BACE1 levels there were no significant differences found. This experiment indicates that caffeine did not have a significant impact on the transgenic mice in cognitive and histological examinations. It is suggested that mice should be tested at an older age to further confirm or deny caffeine’s neuroprotective ability.
[podcast format=”video” width=”600″]http://digitalis.voices-old.wooster.edu/files/2010/04/DigitalIS.mov[/podcast]
Entries
Marten Dollinger
My Independent Study was a devised piece for the Department of Theater and Dance entitled “Creating Authentic Fiction: An Examination of and Exercise in Mockumentary.” The Project portion is comprised of two short episodes of a mockumentary series call “Editors,” which is about a fictionalized version of the school newspaper. This entry is basically me talking about my experience, with a few scenes inter-cut throughout my explanation.
Johnathan Guy
Kathleen Kelly
The digital interpretation of my I.S. is displayed through a 3-D timeline. This timeline is constructed in many layers just like the layers of my I.S. Throughout the time line I provide a linear story about the process of I.S and my personal experiences and struggles. The audio behind the timeline consist of interviews collected during my study and provides the user with additional insights into the process of my study.
Nick Knodt
www.sprawltalk.com is a blog based website created to supplement my Senior Independent Study Studio Art Exhibition by informing viewers about the issues discussed throughout my work.
Daniel Norris
A very high-level introduction to my IS project.
Max Rafferty
This research proposes the BitTorrent-Enhanced Distributed Internet Caching (BEDIC) system, which extends the existing BitTorrent file sharing system. Our system is intended to access and distribute URL-accessible content such as HTML files using peer-to-peer methods. The experiments presented here show that BEDIC is able to match (and exceed for files larger than 5MB) the network performance of current client/server and peer-to-peer file access methods, while remaining fully scalable to usage and robust to changing network conditions, unlike any current URL-accessible file distribution system.
Kevin Reiswig
I have designed this website with the intention of publicizing a digital portfolio of the work I’ve created during three semesters of Independent Study (Junior and Senior). With The College of Wooster’s premier capstone project as the backbone of this website, I am confident that I’m presenting the world with a quality product. In the presentation of my work, I hope to reflect the standards of this institution. My time here, and in particular the time I’ve spent working on IS, has truly been monumental to my growth as a person and as an artist.
Harrison Wilson
My Digital I.S. submission, “Harrison Wilson’s I.S. Carrel” serves to supplement work already done in my I.S. Including brief videos of the cities used in studies, explanations of social capital in very plain English and more about me and why the I.S. topic was chosen, my Digital I.S. can serve as both informative for those who want more from my Independent Study, and as a place for people to become more interested in my study.