As part of their degree requirements, Music Performance majors perform solo recitals. Voice majors have often relied on repertoire recommendations from their voice professors, or have drawn from a narrow range of well-known composers. This project seeks to connect singers to more unique song repertoire via techniques inspired by the “read alike” and Nancy Pearl’s “four doorways.” The “read alike” concept was adapted and placed within a repertoire selection framework as a set of search strategies. The framework allows students to find music that speaks to them, is varied and diverse, and promotes a more research-minded approach to performing.

Misinformation has always been present, but social media has significantly increased its scope, spread, and reach in our world today. Working with the University of Washington's Center for an Informed Public (CIP), this project places the SIFT fact-checking strategy in the hands of Android mobile device users. The ReSIFT mobile application assists users in fact-checking articles and expedites the fact-checking process. ReSIFT reduces the amount of time needed to fact-check and educates users on information verification best practices to create a community of information skeptics and critical thinkers.

Saint Mary Catholic Church in Corvallis, Oregon, was founded in 1861. Its parish archive opened in 1981. Unfortunately, the archives are tucked in a locked room in the parish hall, preventing newcomers from learning the history of the parish. A website was created to solve this information problem: attached to the main parish website, this site allows parishioners, community members, and those interested in church history to connect with these artifacts. This online resource serves as a door-opener: delivering a portrait of the 160-year history of the parish. 

In 2020, the Lake Washington Institute of Technology library, with their DEI department created the Diversity and Social Justice collection. While the initial work of adding books to the collection was finished, there was much left to be done, including writing a collection development policy and creating finding aids to help students find books within the collection. Our team was able to complete these tasks, as well as establishing collection assessment guidelines and performing an assessment. We believe that, not only have we helped advance the college’s DEI goals, we have helped make the library a more accessible place.

The Olympic Escape Room is an online game designed in partnership with University of Washington iSchool researchers. It serves as an additional game for the Loki’s Loop Project to teach high school students about misinformation in an engaging and fun format. Like a physical escape room, there is a game host, you can play individually or with a group, and there is a limited amount of time to solve the puzzles. Throughout the gaming experience, students learn different tactics to identify misinformation and become critical information consumers.

Have you stumbled upon a website where the text is too small? In addition to the lack of flexibility to adjust the view, not all information is visible. Through the redesign of historylink.tours, we are making accessibility the core of the product. Instead of adding accessibility features after, the tour cards elements from the original site are curated and re-tailored to create a more intuitive experience as a whole. With research showing the ideal text size of 21 pixels, we’re pushing for better readability for all groups with the assistance of larger text and filters to showcase relevant outputs.

Developed to help elementary grade children learn about their family, Tools for Tiny Historians includes resources on developing an interview, conducting the research process, and compiling family history. Worksheets guide students through the process and help educators create programs that will help their community, and additional linked aids help connect Tiny Historians with outside sources that will support them with any research project. With resources for students and for those working with the students, the project aims to help us learn from the people who came before us and the world of people around us.

Our team set out to understand barriers to COVID-19 data publishing across the United States. Working with our sponsor, Sarah Schacht, we investigated how governments process and normalize a high volume of data as well as publish information to a variety of stakeholders. We conducted an ecosystem scan of all 50 states and key informant interviews to understand public health department needs. Using our findings, we produced reports highlighting shortcomings and obstacles in COVID-19 data reporting and provided recommendations. The report will hopefully be used to remedy existing problems and prepare government bodies to manage data in the future.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, more activities have moved online but not everyone has access to reliable internet or the skills to do activities like school and work from home especially in rural communities. By analyzing data that has been collected by Digital Navigators using a set of intake forms, this project attempts to assess the lack of access and skills to reliable internet and devices, and provide necessary resources to rural communities in Appalachia. The results focused on the availability of the internet, access to the internet, especially in low-income households, and interest in employment.