The UT Martin Research Series resumes at 4 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 5, in the Paul Meek Library with an event featuring student research.
As part of the university’s larger global study program, the event will showcase research projects led by students during their overseas travel experience in the African nation of Kenya. Faculty members Dr. Keith Dooley, chair of the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, and Laura Plunk, lecturer of education, will serve as moderators for a panel of student researchers from several disciplines, exploring their undergraduate research experience and the impact of the trip on their academic and personal lives.
“As a prime example of a high-impact learning practices, this program has so many positives,” said Dooley. “It produces outputs of value to communities in Kenya and also opens our undergraduate students to the concepts of applied research, experimental design, cross-cultural collaboration and service learning.”
Now in its fifth year, the UTM in Kenya program initially received university support for student and faculty travel. Grant funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture facilitated a collaboration among UT Martin, Innov8Africa in Kenya, the Northwest Tennessee Local Food Network and teachers at Sharon School in Sharon.
The projects also have local impact.
“Our students conducted a small-scale comparative study of cognitive skills in the U.S. and Kenya,” said Plunk. “They measured the deductive reasoning skills of fourth-grade students at schools they visited in Kenya and then compared data collected from the same age group at the Sharon School here in Weakley County.”
The UT Martin Research Series program is open to the public, and a reception with light refreshments will follow. This presentation is co-sponsored by the Division of Academic Affairs and the Paul Meek Library.
The presentation will livestream at https://www.youtube.com/live/McpTBhdMmM8 with a recording at this same link following the program.
For more information, contact Dr. Erik Nordberg, dean of the Paul Meek Library, at 731-881-7070, or visit the library’s Runway page.
PHOTO: Veterinary science student Ben Therrell is shown cooking goat over an open fire with Maasai children and parents during the UTM in Kenya program in 2024. The UTM in Kenya program is an agricultural and educational exchange to help Kenyan and American students understand more about each other’s agricultural methods.
