Taryn McCabe Presents at 2017 CREATE Conference

2017 May 2

The Third Annual CREATE Conference at Eastern Connecticut State University took place on April 21. CREATE stands for "Celebrating Research Excellence and Artistic Talent at Eastern," and is the University's premier conference showcasing student research and creative activity.

Taryn McCabe '18 of East Hampton presented a poster titled "How Do You Improve Your Town, Specifically Looking into Willimantic, Connecticut?" McCabe majors in History and Social Science.

"My project is an interdisciplinary lesson plan," said McCabe. "I worked with three other people to come up with an overall "theme" for a week-long lesson in each of our content areas (Math, English and Social Studies). Our group came up with an essential question: how do you improve your town? Within each of our content areas, we created five lesson plans that answer this question. For math, students look into town statistics and overall trends in civilian data. For English, students read a novel, answering questions and coming up with a mock-election project. For my own content area in social studies, students look at primary documents from town meetings to draw conclusions about the rights and responsibilities of citizens."

The one-day conference featured more than 300 Eastern undergraduates who presented talks, professional posters, live music, dance performances, art and photography exhibits, documentary films and panel discussions.

"CREATE is the first conference I've participated in," said McCabe. "It's nice to know that the work I put into this project was shared with people who can apply it to their own lives."

"CREATE is a reaffirmation of Eastern's commitment to undergraduate research as Connecticut's only public liberal arts university," said Niti Pandey, business administration professor and conference co-chair. Reflecting on this year's record number of participants, she added, "There is a wonderful variety of presentations and performances for people to see. CREATE 2017 showcases the hard work and talent of our students and demonstrates the dedication of their faculty mentors. We look forward to an excellent event!"

From art to zoology, Shakespeare to social media, tax law to terrorism, Eastern students of all majors explore important concepts and produce exemplary research and creative work; the culmination of their work for the 2016-17 academic year was on display at CREATE.

Patricia Szczys, biology professor and conference co-chair, added: "CREATE is a superb learning experience for all who participate and a true celebration of our student's achievements."