Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Evaluating The Efficiency Of Soil Amendments To Mitigate The Leaching Of Copper Nanopesticides, Brianna Benner

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

As pesticides are necessary to meet current and future agricultural needs, nanopesticides have seen increased use resulting from their more targeted application at lower doses. Copper-based nanopesticides have demonstrated efficacy but there are also concerns about their potential toxicity to aquatic species. This unintended toxic exposure resulting from agricultural runoff containing these nanopesticides can be mitigated through the use of soil amendments. In this study, biochar and chitosan were investigated as soil amendments, as they can bind metals and nutrients; however, there are still open questions about how their effective they are in different soil types and in relation to …

Food Systems Mapping And Goals At Western Washington University, Dylan Braund

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In this project, I map food systems on the Western Washington University (WWU) campus with the intention of better understanding how different groups are working and collaborating to make food systems more accessible and sustainable on campus. By examining these connections, I also hope to reveal areas for potential future connections to form between groups engaging in similar work. In addition, I provide recommendations for new goals to be added to the existing WWU Sustainability Action Plan (SAP) related to food systems. As most of the goals currently listed in this plan relate directly to Dining Services, this research provides …

J.G.T., Joshua Dyeson

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

A 2D platformer video game focused around the player quickly switching between tools to help them jump, grapple, or teleport to progress and avoid obstacles, a la Doom Eternal, while uncovering the mystery of the strange facility they find themselves in.

From Threads To Treasures: The Resilient Journey Of The Western Worn Community Closet, Jessica Dietzman

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Picture this - You are walking into a room filled with made-from-scratch clothing racks, hangers donated from the College of Business and Economics (CBE) Career Closet, clothes, shoes, and accessories filling up the shelves and racks all donated by your fellow students, professors, and faculty. You notice artwork decorating the walls designed from art students, and you have total access to any of these articles of clothing for free! This room is called the Western Worn Community Closet and written here is the resilient story of how it came to be.

Hydrophobicity Of Factor Viii On Membrane Binding, Mady Jacobs

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Factor VIII (FVIII) plays a crucial role in our body’s ability to prevent blood loss. This function comes from its ability to bind membranes and enhance catalytic function of other proteins. Membrane binding of FVIII relies on hydrophobic residues located at the lower C2 domain in a region named the PS head group. This study looks at how the enhancement of the hydrophobicity of this site can impact the protein binding ability to membranes. Specifically mutating the residues leucine at residue 2251 in the PS head group to phenylalanine, the study uses BLI instrumentation to determine whether this mutation can …

Coastal And Marine Fish Ecology Lab Intern, Rhiannon Michelle Holmes

College of the Environment Internship Reports

gained first-hand experience with seeing undisturbed estuary at Heron Point in comparison to the emergent marsh at Qwuloolt, increasing my knowledge about the effect dikes have on estuarine ecology and teaching me about the restoration projects in the Snohomish estuary. I also learned how to use a YSI probe and record field measurements. I also was able to observe some isopods and other salmonoid food sources.

Administrative And Field Intern - Coastal Watershed Institute, Amelia Kalagher

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Due to CWI’s uniquely small and agile nature as an organization, interns represent a core part of the staff and are involved in a variety of projects. Long-term data collection for Salish Sea nearshore ecology is the overarching goal. Projects I have been involved in within that sphere include monthly seining to monitor fish use of the nearshore, forage fish spawn surveys along several Strait of Juan de Fuca beaches, and snorkel surveys of herring spawn events and salmon use of nearshore kelp forests.

Coastal And Marine Fish Ecology Lab, Sarah Granard

College of the Environment Internship Reports

This Spring I worked under Sean Grealish and Kathryn Sobocinski in the Coastal and Marine Fish Ecology Lab at Western Washington University collecting invertebrate samples in the Snohomish estuary. The goal of the study is to better understand how invertebrates vary throughout the estuary to aid future restoration projects providing food for salmon where it is scarce. Weekly invertebrate samples were collected from April to June using neuston nets at surface and benthic levels within the channel.

Mt St Helens Pond Phytoplankton Intern, Lillie Cole Tomlinson

College of the Environment Internship Reports

No abstract provided.

City Sprouts Farm Internship, Stella Marie Sterk

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Over the course of this internship, I gained not just a deep understanding of the practical skills of regenerative agriculture, the experience also completely transformed my relationship with the land. For the first time in my life, I fully saw and felt and appreciated what it means to honor and steward the land we inhabit, and the gifts that it continually provides us with. Feeling the healing, transformative, and community building power of participating in community farming for myself has made me even more certain of what I want in my future career. I want to study urban planning and …

Amsec Internship, Leo Curtis

College of the Environment Internship Reports

One of my goals was to learn how to operate instrumentation that I had never used before in the context of environmental research. I learned the basics of how to operate the ICP-MS, and more specifically, began to learn to operate the ICP in a single-cell setting. This included the development of several skills and trainings, which included the basic AMSEC lab safety training. In addition, I had multiple sessions with professor Montaño practicing serial dilutions in preparation for the ICP. I also attended a compressed gas training, through which I learned the proper usage and handling of Argon gas …

Logic Lessons, Elizabeth Skiffington

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This project shows the common core of the disciplines of philosophy and computer science, logic, in the form of an entry-level course both in website and document format. Most consider these two fields of study to be incredibly far apart and unrelated. This course shows that they come from the same origin, and understanding one can give someone the tools to understand the other. The course covers basic logic, the tools to start thinking about complex issues, and common intersections of the two fields.

[A link to the codebase is included in a supplementary file at the end of this …

Sustainable Lab Certification Project Report, Alyssa White, Megan Ellis

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This report describes the creation of the new Sustainable Lab Certification program at WWU. Scientific and research labs are known to produce a lot of carbon emissions, and Western's labs are no exception. The Sustainable Lab certification process is open to labs from any department on campus, and includes a self-reporting audit that covers four categories of sustainability. Once labs fill it out, they can receive their certification scoring of Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum. We applied for and won a grant to provide participating labs with more sustainable options of different instruments and lab supplies and were able to …

Assessing The Efficacy Of The Washington Ban On Phosphorus Fertilizer, Pilar Deniston

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Freshwater lakes are essential ecosystems, providing crucial services for humans, plants, and animals. However, eutrophication, a process driven by an excess of nutrients such as phosphorus, poses a significant threat to lake health and water quality. To mitigate excess phosphorus and eutrophication, many states, including Washington, have implemented bans on phosphorus-containing fertilizers. This study evaluates the efficacy of Washington State's 2013 phosphorus-containing fertilizer ban, focusing on 58 lakes in western Washington. This study organized, filtered, and analyzed data from multiple counties' monitoring programs to examine total phosphorus concentrations before and after the ban. Additionally, this study involved a land cover …

Searching For Optimal Protocols On The Xxz Model On The Square Lattice: An Introduction, Grace Ferrell

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This paper offers a brief introduction to optimal protocols for variational quantum algorithms on the XXZ model on the square lattice, aimed at introducing the subfield to undergraduate students interested in theoretical quantum computing, especially those involved in similar research projects. I’ve tried to minimize jargon to make it more accessible to student researchers, but it still requires some math background. By simulating the most efficient ways to reach the ground state, future researchers can find patterns that could shed light on how to run large simulations on quantum computers.

Synthesis Of Ddt-Related Pollutants Tris(4-Chlorophenyl) Methane (Tcpm) And Tris(4-Chlorophenyl)-Methanol (Tcpm-Oh) For Investigations Into Environmental Persistence, Chloe Anderson, Gregory O'Neil

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

This study focuses on the synthesis of radiolabeled tris(4-chlorophenyl) methane (TCPM) and tris(4-chlorophenyl)-methanol (TCPM-OH), compounds identified as environmental contaminants linked to DDT production. Given their persistence and bioaccumulation in marine and terrestrial ecosystems, understanding their environmental fate is critical. This research aims to provide a detailed methodology for the synthesis of carbon-14 labeled TCPM and TCPM-OH to facilitate further studies on their degradation and impact. TCPM-OH was synthesized via two distinct routes. The first method involved esterification of 4-chlorobenzoic acid followed by a double Grignard addition. The second method started with chlorobenzene, which was brominated using gold-catalyzed N-bromosuccinimide (NBS), followed …

Effects Of Experimental Freeze-Thaw And Wet-Dry Weathering Cycles On Fluvial Abrasion Rates, Finn Coffin

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

How do rocks break down as they work their way downstream? This study focuses on weathering and abrasion processes of volcanic mass wasting deposits in rivers of the Pacific Northwest. Implications include a more effective approach to modeling downstream fining as well as increased understanding of potential impacts of sediment pulses on flood risks. I combine methodologies from fluvial abrasion and rock weathering experiments to provide a foundation for further research into weathering mediated abrasion. I subject samples to 20 freeze-thaw (FT) and wet-dry (WD) cycles and compare each weathering process’ effects on fluvial abrasion rates. Both weathering processes weaken …

Msg And The Maillard Reaction: Exploring Food Additives And Browning Through Organic Chemistry, Jasper Kerns

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Food additives despite relevant applications in food have received unprecedented backlash over recent decades, this project aims to discourage some of this stigma using organic chemistry. As consumer knowledge begins to grow though with the accessibility of the internet, so does consumer misinformation; central to this is the molecule MSG (monosodium glutamate). This food additive, most common in Eastern Asian cuisine, has been a hot topic for decades receiving stigma that it is generally not deserving of. While much information about this molecule is murky at best, it has a potential application in chemistry that many cooks are keenly aware …

Total Synthesis Of Rupestines H And I, Aimee Long, James Vyvyan

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

The first total synthesis of rupestines H and I is reported. The two rupestines were synthesized in twelve steps from 6-methylpyridin-3-ol. The key step is an intramolecular Mizoroki-Heck cyclization, which forms the seven-membered carbocycle characteristic of the guaipyridine alkaloids. The rupestines are diastereomers which can be separated by preparative high performance liquid chromatography. Rupestines H and I, guaipyridine alkaloids isolated from Artemisia rupestris, are structurally similar to cananodine, which has activity against two hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines.

Miss Americana & The Queen Bey: A Seismic Analysis Of Synchronous Crowd Movement At Lumen Field Concerts In Seattle, Wa, Karenna A. Merritt

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

In this study, we provide supporting evidence for music fans – and their movement, specifically – as a source of seismic energy and low frequency noise. Data collected by the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network was analyzed in the form of seismograms and spectrograms created through the ObsPy programming suite. After comparing two major concerts at Seattle’s Lumen Field, we found that consistent synchronous crowd motion contributed heavily to the generation of seismic energy at the stadium. Although seemingly frivolous in nature, concert seismicity can have civil and audio engineering implications that should be investigated in order to maximize both the …

Lake Whatcom Monitoring Project 2022/2023 Report, Angela Strecker, Joan Pickens, Carmen Archambault, Emily Flarry, Kathryn Queen, Robert Mitchell, Robin Matthews, Geoffrey B. Matthews

Lake Whatcom Annual Reports

This report describes the results from the 2022/2023 Lake Whatcom monitoring program conducted by the Institute for Watershed Studies at Western Washington University (https://diatom.cenv.wwu.edu/).

The major objectives of the 2022/2023 Lake Whatcom monitoring program were to continue long-term baseline water quality monitoring in Lake Whatcom and its major tributaries; collect storm runoff water quality data from representative streams in the watershed; and continue collection of hydrologic data from Austin and Smith Creeks.

Toying With Adapted Toys, Joshua King

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

My project is a design for an adapted toy that occupational therapists (OT) can use when working with kids. OTs are people who help others to be able to do daily tasks that they need to do to live their lives. This can look like helping a person who has been injured or has a disability to accomplish tasks like getting dressed or feeding themselves. It can also involve helping school children to improve their writing or to use assistive technology. My project started out as an idea from my mom who is an OT and was using a coffee …

Implementing Impact: A Lesson On Mysql Databases And Accessibility, Abigayle Peterson, Yasmine Elglaly

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

15% of the world’s people have a disability that could potentially hinder their access to digital information such as bank portals and medical insurance. Digital accessibility, the practice of creating user-friendly technology, helps mitigate these challenges. Despite this fact, college Computer Science (CS) programs fail to recognize the importance of including digital accessibility courses as a degree requirement. Consequently, these CS graduates lack sufficient knowledge to build accessible software when they enter the technology industry, leading to potential company lawsuits for the unethical design of technology. Our research aims to bridge the gap between accessibility knowledge and the CS college …

Shannon Point Marine Center Research Intern, Ben (Benjamin Gregory) Molenhouse

College of the Environment Internship Reports

One of my first goals was to implement the skills I have gained at university and apply them to real world scenarios. I wanted to learn about the intricacies of Zostera marina (eelgrass) populations in Puget Sound as well as the critical factors that seagrasses play within the Salish Sea. I particularly wanted to research how local conditions effect phenotypes of eelgrass populations. Lastly, I set a goal to use the opportunity to conduct research to help further my knowledge of the effects that climate change has on eelgrass populations in marine ecosystems.

King County Department Of Natural Resources Esci Intern, Grace Landaverde

College of the Environment Internship Reports

My job as an environmental science intern at King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks was to develop and complete an independent research project that will both help King County’s Science and Technical Support Section and my development as a beginning toxicologist. During my internship, I worked with three mentors whose job was to guide and assist interns in choosing and completing their independent research projects. So far in my internship, I have learned how to find and refine a research question, submit a research proposal, professionally work with my mentors and fellow interns to develop and complete the …

Nwac Snow School Intern, Zoe Marion Kass

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Mt. Baker Snow School is a cooperative program between Mt. Baker Ski Area, the Northwest Avalanche Center, Western Washington University, and the U.S. Forest Service (Mt. Baker Ski Area Inc). The aim of the program is to provide a hands-on educational experience for middle school students to learn about snow science. Snow School is primarily run by volunteer instructors, along with a few professional lead instructors from NWAC and WWU, the education coordinator Devon Schoos, the onsite coordinator Pat Kennedy and the Mt. Baker Ski Area representative Rachel Grasso. As an intern with Mt. Baker Snow School, I worked as …

City Of Bellingham Restoration Intern, Josiah Giuseppe Cennamo-Rose

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Over the course of this internship, September - June, my team and I have facilitated volunteer work parties where everyone involved removed thousands of pounds of invasive plants from parks all over the city of Bellingham. Plants such as Himalayan Blackberry, Tansy ragwort, Bindweed, Creeping Thistle, Common Tansy, Mullein, Knockweed, Scotch Broom, Clematis (Old Man's Beard), and many more. We have planted hundreds if not thousands of native plants ranging from trees like Douglas firs and Western Red Cedars to small and medium shrubs like Oregon Grape and Ocean Spray.

Skagit Fisheries Enhancement Group Intern, Michaela M. Provancha

College of the Environment Internship Reports

During the Fall 2023 quarter, my internship focused mostly on the Salmon in the Classroom program, where elementary grade students learn about salmon and their life cycle before raising their own Coho eggs and releasing them as fry. This program runs over the course of most of the school year and ends in March with salmon release field trips. This program, more than anything, strives to create positive outdoor memories for the students that hopefully stay with them as they continue to grow older. Another main goal of this program is to introduce the idea of salmon and their life …

Western Washington University Palladium Nanoparticles, Brett M. Nunley

College of the Environment Internship Reports

Throughout my three quarters of chemistry research for my environmental science internship, I gained a significant amount of experience with not only the process of scientific research, but also technical skills such as operating various analytical instrumentation. When I started in spring quarter 2023, I began shadowing Riley McGraw as I was going to be taking over his project once he graduated after that quarter. Each member of the lab had their own reaction that was catalyzed by palladium and would form nanoparticles as the reaction progressed (Figure 1).

Wwu Mapping Accessibility Project Intern, Elilzabeth A. Bridge

College of the Environment Internship Reports

The overarching goal of the Mapping Accessibility Project (MAP) is to create new ways for people with disabilities to interact with Western Washington University’s campus, and to improve areas where accessibility is lacking. This project is headed by Dr. Francisco Laso and began Fall Quarter of 2023 with three undergraduate interns (including myself), and a consultant from the Spatial Analysis Institute: Stu Rekasse.