Each year, the Connections Project at College of Western Idaho (CWI) features student presentations, research, art works, literary readings, and more, stemming from a wide range of programs and areas of study at the College. For the first time, however, this year’s event will include mini talks from students still in high school — enrollees in CWI’s Dual Credit program.
Joseph Peters, pre-calculus instructor at Renaissance High School, regularly assigns his students research projects to help them connect mathematical concepts to the world around them. After reviewing their work and recognizing the quality, he encouraged two students — Emmie Bevan and Scarlett Waski — to join the CWI Connections Project.
They both agreed and will break new ground as the first dual credit high school students to present mini talks at CWI’s Connections Project — happening April 18 at the Nampa Campus Academic Building (NCAB).
Waski has long had an interest in biomedical engineering and was drawn to the study of the human heart. Utilizing research and math, she coded, designed, and ultimately printed a life-sized 3D model of the organ. Her use of computer science, statistics, mathematics, and engineering to interpret biological data has prepared her for a potential career path in biomedical engineering.
With an interest in photosynthesis and plants, Emmie Bevan’s research focused on inverse equations as related to the Beer-Lambert Law, which explains how light absorption relates to an object's opacity. Through her work, Bevan discovered the applicability of this Law to the absorption of light by plants, and other objects that undergo photosynthesis. Bevan hopes those that attend her mini talk gain a deeper understanding of the work involved in developing products that help build our society.
The work by these students and others from across the College can be viewed during the Connections Project.
Thursday, April 18
2 – 7 p.m.
Nampa Campus Academic Building (NCAB)
The event is free and open to the public.
