All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Medical History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
Cooperation is a complex behavior in which individuals act in ways that benefit others, usually at a cost to themselves. Cooperation occurs within a variety of contexts, including sharing social information, caring for offspring, or acquiring resources. Individuals can vary in their cooperative tendency and differ in this personality trait. Why individuals vary in this behavior may be due to early developmental experiences or interactions with others throughout life. In this talk, I discuss how early development influences individual variation in social behavior across different species and the benefits of cooperation. From Siberian hamsters to brown-headed nuthatches and from thatch ants to bottlenose dolphins and humans, I discuss how individual differences in cooperation can occur and why cooperation is so important for so many species.
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Jessica A. Cusick is an assistant professor and associate chair in the Department of Biology at Utah Valley University. Dr. Cusick studies the developmental processes that affect individual variation in social behavior—specifically aggression and cooperation—and how individual variation in behavior shapes the evolution of population-level dynamics. Using an integrative approach that combines experimental research in the field and laboratory, Dr. Cusick investigates the factors that cause individual variation in cooperation and aggression in a variety of organisms, including marine mammals, fish, birds, rodents, and invertebrates. In addition, Dr. Cusick investigates how students learn biology, considering factors that influence students’ acceptance of scientific evidence for biological topics.
We are all familiar with the concept of time and how we measure time today with seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years. But why are there 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week and 28, 29, 30, or 31 days in a month? I'll present some of the origins of these concepts, including their astronomical origins, and how we have moved to highly technical ways to define them today.
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Maureen Hintz has always wanted to be a scientist, and physics was the best fit. While studying at Brigham Young University, she was introduced to astronomy and teaching. After finishing her education, she because a full-time parent and adjunct faculty. Five years ago, she became a faculty lecturer in the Department of Physics at Utah Valley University, where she pioneers use of the planetarium in general education astronomy classes. When she is not working, she enjoys reading, day hiking in the Utah mountains, and trying to grow food to eat.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Hispanic Heritage. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
Join us on a journey of thousands of years of discovery and mathematical innovation as we outline the development of our understanding of the motion of bodies in space. From ancient monuments like Stonehenge, to Newton’s development of calculus, and on to modern physical and mathematical developments, we’ll explore it all! (Although mathematics will be discussed, no prerequisite mathematical knowledge will be required.)
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Skyler Simmons received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Brigham Young University in 2015. His research area is dynamical systems, with a particular emphasis in celestial mechanics. Aside from his interest in mathematics, he also enjoys playing the piano, computer programming, chess, and 3D printing.
Monumental art and comic books both rely on sequential visual representations to convey meaning. Specialized critical theories that allow scholars to analyze comics can also be applied to the study of other sequential art forms, including architectural ornamentation, public sculpture, tapestry cycles, stained glass programs, and more. In this presentation, I will introduce some of these analytical tools from comics studies and apply them to Roots of Knowledge. While this presentation considers the entire sequence of panels, particular attention will be given to the Celtic coins included in panel L-3.
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Jesse Hurlbut holds a Ph.D. from Indiana University in French Medieval Literature and Culture. He has taught French language, literature, and culture at the University of Kentucky, Brigham Young University, and the University of Utah. His research interests have included the literature and court culture of the fifteenth-century Dukes of Burgundy, French Medieval drama, allegory, and the culture and art of medieval manuscripts. His latest research considers the
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Accessibility. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
Leonardo da Vinci was a historically great artist, engineer, anatomist, architect, and scientist—he could do it all. He and other polymaths are found throughout the Roots of Knowledge images. But in the last centuries, these “experts on everything” have become less common. Modern prominent figures are becoming more specialized. At the same time, many fields—the sciences, in particular—are becoming more interdisciplinary. Instead of a singular Renaissance Man, today’s world gets changed by teams of individuals working together across specialties. How do these teams operate in this ever-evolving interdisciplinary world? How does one get involved? If we can’t become an expert in every subject, what should we learn? This talk explores how, even though we might not become da Vinci, we can create a community with the same world-changing impact.
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Dustin Shipp has been teaching physics at Utah Valley University since 2018. His expertise is in optical spectroscopy and applying physics tools to understand biological systems. He and his research students have explored cancer diagnoses, graphene quality control, microplastic classification, bacteria identification, food safety, and fossil composition. Dustin received his BS in Physics and Mathematics from Brigham Young University and Ph.D. in Optics from the University of Rochester. Prior to coming to UVU, he worked at the University of Nottingham researching novel medical devices. Dustin has also developed modest expertise in board games, baseball statistics, and Star Wars trivia. He also has a wife and three daughters, all of whom are even cooler than he is.
All are invited to attend this free themed tour of Roots of Knowledge. Faculty, students, and staff from across campus have prepared to present on topics they are experts in or have done recent research about. This month’s theme explores Native American History. Free popcorn for all and prizes for those who visit at least four stops along the tour. If you are interested in presenting at one of the stops in a themed tour please reach out.
