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Top-Down And Bottom-Up Approaches To Understanding The Fate Of The Federally Endangered Schaus’ Swallowtail Butterfly (Heraclides Aristodemus Ponceanus), Jaeson T. Clayborn

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The federally endangered Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly (Heraclides aristodemus ponceanus) populations have declined precipitously over the years. Despite tremendous efforts to augment the numbers of this butterfly through captive-bred releases and habitat enhancements, it remains imperiled and federally endangered. The dissertation’s objectives were: 1) to restore dry forest habitat in Biscayne National Park (BNP) for Schaus’ swallowtails; 2) to assess host plant (torchwood and wild lime) survivorship and growth in the restoration sites (BNP) and project dry forest habitat loss because of imminent sea level rise (SLR); 3) to quantify ant activity and record predator-prey interactions against Heraclides caterpillars …

Distributive Leadership’S Relationship To Teacher Self-Efficacy: An Ecological Model, Mary Dawson Jacques

All Theses And Dissertations

This ecological study identifies and tests research based constructs of distributive leadership and teacher self-efficacy on the 2012 and 2014 TELL survey using ecological methodology. This includes a confirmatory factor analysis of survey items that best measure distributive leadership and teacher self-efficacy. The overall population mean for participants who agreed or strongly agreed with the survey items was calculated and analyzed. The research focuses on a microsystem analysis, but includes a reflection on the exosystem and an analysis of variance with the macrosystem.

Analyses revealed three major findings. First by calculating the overall population mean of participants who agreed or …

Diversity For Diversity's Sake? The Relationship Between Diversity And School-Level Academic Achievement., Richard Aaron Wisman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is contention among researchers about how to best operationalize socioeconomic status (SES). This study seeks to provide an explicit definition of one metric of socioeconomic status, the diversity index (DI) of Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) and investigates its efficacy at predicting the aggregate academic achievement of students within a school, relative to other common metrics of SES which are analogous to components of the DI. Another purpose of this study is to investigate possible peer effects of socioeconomic diversity on low SES students. This study utilizes a correlational – multiple regression approach to explore relationships among study variables …

An Outdoor Curriculum Based In Phenology And Ecology Promoting The Environmental Stewardship Of Middle School Students, Alyssa R. Polovitz

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

Many students are not spending enough time in nature, and therefore may lack a passion and understanding of the environment. The literature defines this problem as the nature-deficit disorder, and it explains a need for outdoor and place-based education. This capstone developed a curriculum to help answer the research question, How can an outdoor curriculum based in phenology and ecology that promotes environmental stewardship in middle school students be developed? This emerged from the educator’s passion for the outdoors and nature and helping students develop a similar love and appreciation for the environment. Results provide a weeklong outdoor study that …

All My Relations: The Journey Of Discovering My Ecological Identity, Mike Rosekrans

Summit to Salish Sea: Inquiries and Essays

Everyone has a story to tell; a story about their journey, about their struggles, about discovering themselves, and about how they became who they are as a person. A person’s journey may help explain how one forms their identity and perceives themselves. That journey may include: values, beliefs, attitudes, hobbies, spiritual paths, or profound inspirations that have helped shape and giving meaning to a person’s life. This script is such a story. It is a story about how I became a more confident, complete person dedicated to protecting and preserving the natural world. This occurred while seeking inspiration and solace …

A Comparative History Of Resurrection Plants, John Charles Ryan

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "A Comparative Literary History of Resurrection Plants" John Charles Ryan assembles a comparative history of resurrection plants through textual analysis of early botanical commentaries, herbal references, prose, poetry, and other sources. Resurrection plants include a diverse range of botanical species, typically of arid regions, that appear to come back to life after complete desiccation. Historical and contemporary observers—from sixteenth-century herbalist John Gerard to contemporary Australian poet John Kinsella—have expressed an abiding fascination for resurrection plants' capacity to survive harsh environmental conditions. The plants court their own deaths by paring down—then restoring—physiological processes in relation to shifting ecological …

Encouraging Our Youngest Students To Think Like Scientists: Exploring Elementary Teachers' Experiences Of Teaching Disciplinary Literacy, Jacy Ippolito, Cami Condie

Jacy Ippolito

Experiences Of Overseas Trained Teachers Seeking Public School Positions In Western Australia And South Australia, S Datta-Roy, S Lavery

Education Papers and Journal Articles

Many overseas trained teachers migrate to Australia in search of different lifestyles. In their endeavour to find suitable teaching positions in public secondary schools, overseas trained teachers often confront multiple challenges. This study explored the different issues that 12 overseas trained teachers experienced before obtaining a teaching position in a public secondary school in either Western Australia or South Australia. Data were collected through using twelve in-depth semi-structured interviews and researcher generated field notes. The results indicate that participants experienced the following challenges: apparent lack of information on post immigration life in Australia; danger of misinformation; registration delays; inconsistency in …

Increased Movement And Physical Activity And Its Impact On Academic Performance On Students With And Without Disabilities, Jaclyn A. Uithoven Neerhof

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Brain-based teaching is an evidence based teaching philosophy that is widely accepted as successful practice. This philosophy revolves around teaching to how the brain functions. One aspect of this practice is relating movement to increasing brain function. This literature review examines studies where students were assessed on their academic performance after having engaged in different forms of movement, including physical education classes, organized programs, and specific movement sequences. While it is concluded that there are many factors that impact a student's performance, research shows that there is an established positive correlation between movement and exercise, and an increase in academic …

University Of Texas At Tyler Course Catalog, 2017 - 2018, University Of Texas At Tyler

Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Examining The Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Of Teacher Candidates In Hawaii, Kathleen Evans

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

As achievement gaps for indigenous, low SES, and ethnically diverse students widen, teacher education programs in Hawaii continue to be charged with preparing teachers to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population. Despite efforts to expand accreditation diversity requirements for teacher education programs, it is unknown whether these programs provide the preparation needed for teachers to develop culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. Guided by self-efficacy theory, this mixed methods study examined teacher candidates' culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy (CRTSE) beliefs, their relationships with demographic and other variables, and candidates' perceptions of factors that might affect these beliefs. Teacher candidates (N …