Kutztown University students Margaret C. Friedman and Sierra Smart participated in Undergraduate Research at the Capitol Pennsylvania day Tuesday, March 25. KU participates in this educational conference annually, which allows undergraduate students enrolled in Pennsylvania’s colleges and universities to showcase their research and talents to the commonwealth’s key decision makers.
Students were given the opportunity to share experiences and ideas with their counterparts from other schools and enlighten state legislators on the topics that are important to our society.
Friedman, a senior environmental science major from East Greenville, Pa., examined the long-term trends in reproductive success of tree swallows breeding on the Kutztown University campus from 2009-23. Friedman found that tree swallows that lay their eggs later had higher hatching success and tended to produce more offspring, possibly because of cold snaps of adverse weather in May.
Smart, a junior geology major from Kutztown, Pa., researched ground penetrating radars (GPR) to locate unmarked burials in historic cemeteries and to guide forensic investigations. Smart studied how GPR techniques can be used to investigate at the York City Cemetery and the Lincoln Cemetery to locate and characterize mass reinterments that were caused by disinterred individuals following the United States Civil War.
