Computer Science Student Invited to White House
Since receiving her invitation last week to attend the White House "Champions of Change: Women/Girls in STEM" event on Dec. 9, Computer Science major Marissa Halpert has been excited "like you wouldn't believe." Read More »
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2012 CISAT Faculty Award Recipients Announced More >
JMU Student Recieves VOTA Scholarship Sarah DiDomenico is the The Virginia Occupational Therapy Association (VOTA) Graduate Student Scholarship Award winner for 2011. More >
O. Ashton Trice Scholarship Founded This memorial scholarship is open to all School Psychology students and is awarded to the student with the highest GPA and exceptional academic performance, honoring the intent of the donor. More >
JMU-RMH Collaborative Fall 2011 Research Rounds Announced All meetings in RMH Lower Level Conference Rooms 2 and 3. More >
CSD Students 'Ride' for Credit
By Amanda Rivera
Posted: October 30, 2007
What if class time was made up of cotton-candy and roller-coasters? As unbelievable as it may seem, students in CSD 631 are proof that some wishes do come true. As part of a project to better understand the anatomy and physiology of the inner ear, Communications Sciences and Disorders (CSD) graduate students traveled to the State Fair of Virginia in Richmond early October. Although they were not required to ride all the rides, CSD professor Dr. Jonathan Spindel, asked that the students be “open-minded and adventurous.”
Completing their class’ discussion on the human vestibular system, students were given this opportunity to experience first-hand the effects of an altered balance and motion sense. Julie Stehm, a student in CSD 631, says, “We rode the rides and we were trying to figure out what the physics were in terms of gravity and acceleration and how it affected our inner ear system and our oculomotor [system].”
However, certain side effects of the rides proved unpleasant for some. “I have really bad problems with motion. I did feel really off-balance when I got off them,” says Julie. The “physics” of one particular ride, the Hi-Roller, was enough to dissuade even the professor. The students learned to take the good with the bad though, correlating their experiences on the trip with their studies. “We had been studying all these things in class, so this was a practical application of it,” comments Julie. After the trip Dr. Spindel asked the students to submit a lab report highlighting each “ride’s functional operation, physical impact on the vestibular and balance system and a description of the physiologic mechanisms involved during each aspect of the ride.”
For most of the students the trip provided them with a chance to connect with fellow classmates outside the classroom. “It was really a class bonding trip,” admits Julie. From a clinical perspective though, the trip had a much broader objective. Julie says, “What he [Dr. Spindel] wanted us to get out of it was a sense of empathy for patients who have balance disorders and that was definitely established for me.”
