ESS Senior Research Presentation Night & Frabutt Prize

March 23, 2023

At the annual Senior Research Presentation night for Education, Schooling, and Society students more than 30 students shared their research with other majors and minors. The night provided a fantastic opportunity for non-seniors to hear the kinds of projects and research done by this year’s ESS Seniors. Several undergraduates commented that the night provided them with more ideas, helped them ask questions of their peers, and really got them excited to start their own original research during their Senior year. For a list of researchers and their projects from this year click here.

Each year at the annual Education, Schooling, & Society Senior Night the James M. Frabutt prize is awarded to a senior for exceptional original research based in the community. Faculty nominations on outstanding projects are vetted and read and the winner and their community partner institution are awarded a generous cash prize.

This year Madison “Maddie” McBride won the Frabutt prize. Director of ESS, Dr. Andrea Christensen awarded McBride at the ESS Senior Research Presentation night and spoke about McBride’s outstanding research on educational maker spaces in elementary education in the area, a project directed by Dr. Julie Dallavis. McBride’s research provides a foundation on the importance of these types of learning environments in schools and focused particularly on the elementary grade years.

Next year McBride intends to take her talents to work with West Monroe Partners as a Design Research consultant in their Product, Experience, and Engineering labs.