Alumni
2012
JENNIFER PAI-YU CHENG
Jennifer Pai-Yu Cheng is designing a market research study to measure university students' knowledge about their on-campus arboretum, as well as collect students' opinions about potential appeal factors and their interests in the institute. "This research project will focus on the students at Cal State Fullerton and the analysis will be presented to the Fullerton Arboretum to assist with future educational developments".
CYNTHIA CHAVEZ
Cynthia Chavez is investigating whether or not native flowering plants will increase pollination in an urban garden. "I feel this is an important area of study because due to colony collapse disorder many food crops are not being pollinated at the rate that they used to," said Chavez. "There has been a tremendous amount of research done on the honey bee and other bee species but not specifically in our community". This research plans to observe the abundance of all pollinators in the garden before and after the placement of native flowering plants. "This is important in learning how to deal with the bee crisis and learning if there are native pollinators and native plants we can depend on to increase food production".
TIFFANY DUONG
Tiffany Duong is studying water conservation as it applies to urban agriculture. Duong is applying a type of soil amendment in different ways to obtain a better understanding of which method conserves the most water. Applying the most water conservative method would reduce gardening costs and hopefully be beneficial to the world's water supply.
JOSE GONZALEZ
CALVIN LUNG
Calvin Lung's research topic is to understand the effect a particular diet has on worm casts, produced specifically by Eisenia fetida. "These worms can break down organic matter, such as food wastes, and turn them into a nutrient-rich soil amendment that plants can easily uptake," said Lung. "By harvesting these worms, we can reduce the amount of organic matter that ends up in landfills and turning it into a highly valued commodity in the gardening community".
MIRIAM MORUA
Miriam Morua is currently researching Water Conservation Efforts and Urban Agriculture Studies. Morua is researching two different irrigation systems: Microjet Irrigation vs. Soaker Hose Installations in order to assess which system is better for a small scale urban gardens that provide the most productivity of capsicum chilies.
ASHLEY PANICKO
I am interested in understanding how food sourcing and presentation in cafeteria lunches affects fruit and vegetable consumption in junior high school students. My methods include sorting food waste by food type and weighing the individual food types to determine what food junior high students are not consuming. In order to assess what food types are proportionally least popular with junior high students, a daily lunch schedule will be obtained from the school cafeteria. Once the least consumed fruits and vegetables are identified, I will change the presentation of those fruits and vegetables to determine if presentation style influences fruit and vegetable consumption.
LORENZO VINLUAN
Lorenzo Vinluan's focus is in child health and nutrition, specifically on the barriers and constraints that affect fruit and vegetable consumption. "I intend to focus on junior high students because early adolescence is a critical time period for the establishment of healthy eating habits," said Vinluan.
JONATHAN MONAHAN-WIGGS
Jonathan Monahan-Wiggs is working on an agriculture-based culinary education program that will be placed at Ladera Vista Junior High. Lesson plans and activities are being developed in collaboration with various community partners (including teachers from the junior high and partners at the Fullerton Arboretum). A pre and post assessment will be used for students enrolled in the program.
