CU Boulder students create chalk art to represent their research
Oct. 17—Elaborate chalk drawings filled with vibrant colors slowly expanded across the sidewalk until they completely consumed a large plaza at the University of Colorado Boulder on Tuesday.
Using nothing but chalk, undergraduate students created visual representations of their research projects to share with people who took the time to stop by and ask about the art.
"It gives us an opportunity to talk about our research," senior Lucy Ward said. "It helps us get experience before we have to defend our thesis, it helps other people understand what research is going on at CU and it gives us a fun way to do it."
Students were joined by professional chalk artist Kyle Banister, who provided assistance with colors, sketches and designs throughout the event. Banister serves on the Artists Committee for the Denver Chalk Art Festival and has done work for the Colorado Rockies, Denver Broncos and Denver Center for the Performing Arts.
Junior Jaxon Cook was one of the students creating chalk art. He participates in a sleep and chronobiology lab that studies how different sleep conditions and circadian rhythms can affect performance-measured outcomes including cognition and vigilance.
Cook is in the first week of collecting preliminary data. The goal is to find out how the timing of consuming food can affect internal clocks throughout the whole body and not just the central nervous system.
"One of the biggest things right now is how time-restricted feeding, or intermittent fasting, can affect metabolic health not just in the brain but throughout the whole body," Cook said. "And, how timing of meals can affect metabolism or cell output in the liver, in the muscles or in the stomach."
Cook said he's not artistically inclined, but thought it would be a cool thing to do and hopefully help find people interested in participating in the study. People interested in participating can visit tinyurl.com/2ejk3x93.
Ward and senior Daniel Alas created a chalk representation of their research in a neuroscience lab.
Ward and Alas study dopamine and glutamate in the midbrain area, which is important for reward, learning, aversion, addiction and depression. They've been working on the project for about a year and a half.
"Essentially we want to give more nuance to dopamine and the neurotransmitters in these very important parts of the brain," Alas said.
Historically, they said, dopamine and glutamate have been studied separately in big groups. Alas and Ward said the two together can have different behavioral functions.
"If we're able to give a more nuanced understanding to the different subtypes, then it will allow for future research to do more targeted research with less off-target effects," Ward said.
Ward and Alas arrived at 9 a.m. and worked for about five hours on their chalk art. While they worked, other students, friends and teachers stopped throughout the day to ask about the drawing.
"I think everyone really likes all of the different colors people are using," Ward said. "I definitely think that the art everyone is doing is making people more interested, rather than just sitting there and talking about it. I think having the art is bringing everyone together."
The chalk drawings are at the Visual Arts Complex Plaza which is located behind the CASE building, 1725 Euclid Ave. As long as it doesn't rain, the chalk drawings will be on display in the coming days.
"Participating in research at CU is a really good time and it's taught us a lot, and I think it's good for everyone to get involved in," Ward said. "I think this symposium has been a great opportunity for everyone to come together from different types of research with one common goal to draw and have fun."
