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The personable young man studying biology and allied health at Cochise College stood at the podium and asked the audience, “Have you ever stopped to think about what might be growing on ... (insert ominous-warning, horror-movie-music here) ... The Sponges Among Us?”
Lee Stringer, the personable young man of the hour, had thought about it long and hard. He presented the findings of his independent project Thursday morning to the annual Spring Honors Colloquium at Cochise College.
“I wanted to select and differentiate the microorganisms present on kitchen sponges,” he said. “I gave 20 of my classmates a 3M Scotch Brite Heavy Duty kitchen sponge and asked them to put it through a week of normal use — just don’t use disinfectants or use it on the floor.”
 Cochise College honors student Alanna Thompson gives a presentation about the fetal blood flow model she created for her honors project during Thursday's honors colloquium in the campus' Horace Steele Room. Thompson constructed the biology-based project from Sculpey Clay and acrylic paint. (Mark Levy-Herald/Review) |
The students, faculty, staff and visitors assembled in the campus library conference room all knew without a doubt they were not going to like the results of Stringer’s study.
But all were pleased to share in the day of academic discovery, discourse and display that is the intellectually random pleasure of Honors Colloquium — the annual showcase of independent projects by the college’s best and brightest.
“I wear a lot of hats,” said colloquium coordinator Mary Coyle who served as the day’s emcee, “but this is definitely one of my favorites.”
The Honors Program at Cochise College requires that students have completed 12 credits in courses from the general education curriculum leading to a degree at the school and have at least a 3.5 grade point average.
They must be enrolled in a transfer degree program with no restriction on their major area of study.
Independent projects are not required, but many students choose to undertake them and a faculty member must agree to serve as mentor.
“We’ve had colloquium presentations in everything from art to history to computers,” said Coyle.
And so it was on Thursday that the audiences who came and went from the conference room in Sierra Vista were treated to a smorgasbord of subject matter in 15-minute increments.
The morning started off with Alanna Thompson’s project — a three-dimensional, color-coded construction of a fetal blood flow model.
“This combines two of my longtime passions,” she said, “art and biology. I had no sculpting experience and I had to practice with different materials.”
Thompson explained that two-dimensional renderings of the blood flow system between the human fetus and its mother are difficult to grasp, and that although she had already taken a class in anatomy and physiology, it was necessary to dig deeper and research further to create the fully accurate model.
“It also had to be sturdy and lightweight for portability,” she added.
Her mentor, science instructor Becky Richardson, was thrilled at the end result. “I’ve been teaching anatomy and physiology for 23 years, and I’ve seen a number of models from professional sources over that time frame,” she said. “Alanna’s is every bit as professionally done as any I have seen. I’m looking forward to using it in my classroom next year.”
Thompson plans to attend the University of Arizona and hopes to pursue an interdisciplinary course of study that would combine art, biology and psychology.
Liz Lockwood, instructor in American Sign Language mentored a group of students who produced a 20-minute DVD entitled “AS Alice — an American Sign Language Production.” It is the story of Alice in Wonderland told in ASL and had already been presented at the Western Regional Honors Council in Anaheim, Calif.
“If you could have seen the glow from (the) students upon leaving that presentation room,” Lockwood told a colleague, “you would have seen the college motto in action.”
The Cochise College motto is, “Creating Opportunities, Changing Lives.”
The students who played their DVD on Thursday for the “hometown” audience were Shelly Gordon, Gracia Wolfe, Staci Smith, Margaret Smith, Courtney Taylor and Keren Ginsburg.
Among the other opportunities for cerebral entertainment on Thursday were the performance of a scene from Shakespeare’s “Richard III” by Jonathan Holmes, the reading by Crystal Crow of poems by W.B. Yeats to the accompaniment of a sound-effects (non-musical) recording she produced, and a presentation of her research paper, “Lies, B.S. and Truthiness: The Need for a Populace Skilled in Critical Thinking and Philosophical Reasoning,” from Anita Page.
Page’s mentor, Mike Jaworsky, described it as “a superb treatment of a difficult topic.”
The Honors Program at Cochise College also includes specific honors courses, seminars, and opportunities for leadership and service. It is administered by a 22-member faculty committee, chaired by Robert Atkinson.
Following the colloquium, a reception was held for all involved.
“I’ve mentored more than 30 projects over the years,” said Coyle, “and it’s some of the best time I’ve spent as a teacher. It’s that spirit of exploration and creativity.”
And as for those kitchen sponges, Stringer showed the results of their incubation at 37 degrees Celsius (temperature of the human body) after 28 hours — the microorganisms that had been isolated and identified.
“Here’s the salmonella,” he said. “E.coli, shigella — that’s my worst enemy ... it’s food poisoning and I had it for a week ... and saccharomyces, otherwise known as yeast.”
The young scientist informed the crowd that he was forced to stop the experiment at 28 hours because the various microorganisms were bubbling off the plate.
“The incubator was a mess,” he said.
He advised the grimacing and groaning audience to wash their hands a lot and since “they’re so cheap, you really can throw sponges away before they’re worn out.”
And sounding like the honors student he is, Stringer declared that the project had taught him “more than the subject matter. I learned trial-and-error, patience, and that I can get help from others.”
