Digital Commons Network^™

Missionary Of Faith: Uniting And Educating Catholic Youth Under God, Joshua Ryan Mcgarvie

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

Religion, as discussed further in the following research, is clearly not the focus of many people’s lives in our society today. In my opinion, younger generations should be taught Catholicism to develop a solid moral foundation at a young age. For my capstone project, I volunteered to teach a Religious Education (RE) class to 6th-8th graders in my local parish. Through the development of a more robust and engaging curriculum, specifically designed to teach the most profound concepts of the Church, I was able to further the cause of bringing Catholicism to these younger members of society. As a leader …

Para Educator And Classified Staff Study: Hacker Middle School, Cierra Hunter Donlee Webb

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The following research and data collection was conducted over the course of 7 weeks during the capstone period of the authors final course for their Interdisciplinary Professional Studies degree. The following content is the interviews, data collection, and experiences of the author on their journey of this project. It establishes the wants and needs of the staff at a local middle school in Mountain Home Idaho. The author’s goal was to establish a foundational path for improvement and communication when it pertains to the classified and para educator staff at the local middle school and how this establishment could be …

Affective Domain Development In Virtual Education: Visual Thinking Strategies And Art Pedagogy, Jayne Josephsen

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Development of the affective domain is linked to increasing self-awareness of internal dialogue, such as biases and assumptions, which can affect the ability of nurses to engage in person-centered care and meet the identified patient outcomes. Through visual thinking strategies (VTS) paired with art-based pedagogy to examine grief, loss, and bereavement concepts in a hospice and palliative care nursing virtual education course, affective domain development was advanced. Foundational to this virtual educational intervention was using the VTS framework of questions and pairing them with art-based pedagogy promoting open-ended interpretation and response to the art presented. This assisted the students in …

Technology And The Leading Of Learning: The Use And Effects Of Technology In The Classroom, Eric M. Hannah

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

In the present research paper, the focus is on exploring the various methods of collecting data through technological means and examining the views of 6th-grade students and teachers on the utilization of technology within the classroom setting. As a researcher without a background in education, this study seeks to understand the transformative influence of technology on contemporary learning, highlighting its positive outcomes for teachers, students, and those participating in remote education. The significant increase in the adoption of technology, particularly during and following the recent pandemic, has prompted schools and educators globally to reassess their instructional approaches, striving to create …

Financial Advisory Firm: Mark's Financial Solutions, Mark Y. Foruria

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

This business plan project provides research on financial advisor firms, financial education and literacy and money management in American society. There are numerous tools and resources available to become financially independent and literate. The problem is that all this information does not reach the communities that need them the most (low-income), especially the youth because it is not taught in school. To address the financial illiteracy issue among the American population I created a business plan, offering the financial services the people need most. At the same time, I created this capstone project doing some research on people's financial health …

Critical Workforce Skills For Bachelor-Level Geoscientists: An Analysis Of Geoscience Job Advertisements, G. W. Shafer, K. Viskupic, A. E. Egger

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Understanding the skills bachelor-level geoscientists need to enter the workforce is critical to their success. The goal of this study was to identify the workforce skills that are most requested from a broad range of geoscience employers. We collected 3668 job advertisements for bachelor-level geoscientists and used a case-insensitive, code-matching function in Matlab to determine the skills geoscience employers seek. Written communication (67%), field skills (63%), planning (53%), and driving (51%) were most frequently requested. Field skills and data collection were frequently found together in the ads. Written communication skills were common regardless of occupation. Quantitative skills were requested less …

Protecting Students: Data Privacy In The African Union, Etienne Vallée, Yu-Chang Hsu

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The adoption by the African Union of its Convention on Cyber Security and Personal Data Protection in 2014 represented a step forward to protect personal data and to ensure that data remain private and secure. This is especially important for students, who often have no autonomy in the educational technology they use. Students cannot choose why data and information is collected, nor how it is used. In this paper, the importance of data privacy in general is explored, along with a particular focus on educational data privacy. The legal implications for the protection of data privacy in Africa are then …

What Is Pedagogy?: Discovering The Hidden Pedagogical Dimension, Norm Friesen, Hanno Su

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

What is pedagogy, exactly? Merriam-Webster defines it simply as “the art, science, or profession of teaching.” In contemporary academic discourse, however, pedagogy is generally left undefined — with its apparent implicit meanings ranging anywhere from a specific “model for teaching” (e.g., behaviorist or progressivist instruction) to a broadly political philosophy of education in general (most famously, a “pedagogy of the oppressed”). In this paper, Norm Friesen and Hanno Su follow the Continental pedagogical tradition in giving pedagogy a general but explicit definition. They do so by looking at how pedagogy arises both in everyday life and in school as unavoidably …

Connecting Homeschool Families With Information And Resources, Sara M. Szczesiul

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

This capstone project focused on identifying a need in the community for information on options and resources for home education in Idaho to be made transparent and accessible to the public, to assist families who may be considering home education as an option for their children. Employing an action approach, I created a website by which the community may access information on the various home education options available in Idaho, the laws and regulations that govern home education in the state, and some of the resources that are available to aid in the home education process.

Diversity And Engagement In Supplemental Elementary Art Education, Maggie Espinoza Sennesael

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

In this project, I identified two main issues in standard elementary level art education through consultation with a teacher (second grade, public school), and research. These issues are the apparent lack of diversity in the selection of artists that are included in lessons, as well as a tendency for children’s art activities to be oversimplified or limited in regard to their potential for creative expression and overall engagement. In an effort to address these two issues, I designed and assembled an educational resource (digital lesson/activity book) that would include a diverse range of artists for students to learn about as …

Study Protocol For A Cluster-Randomized Trial Of A Bundle Of Implementation Support Strategies To Improve The Fidelity Of Implementation Of Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In Rural Schools, Lindsey Turner, Hannah G. Calvert, Christopher M. Fleming, Teri Lewis, Carl Siebert, Nate Anderson, Tate Castleton, Ashley Havlivak, Michaela Mcquilkin

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: Improving the implementation of evidence-based interventions is important for population-level impacts. Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is effective for improving school climate and students’ behavioral outcomes, but rural schools often lag behind urban and suburban schools in implementing such initiatives.

Methods/Design: This paper describes a Type 3 hybrid implementation-effectiveness trial of Rural School Support Strategies (RS3), a bundle of implementation support strategies selected to improve implementation outcomes in rural schools. In this two-arm parallel group trial, 40 rural public schools are randomized to receive: 1) a series of trainings about PBIS; or 2) an enhanced condition with training …

Practice Note: Using Yoga For Emotional Regulation In Intermediate School Teenagers, Nafees Alam

Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: This paper examines techniques used in yoga, including breathing techniques, various forms of meditation and physical postures that can impact youth diagnosed with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) learning to regulate their emotions to enhance their academic performance. Methods: The intervention was administered to teens at an intermediate public school for six weeks. Seventeen participants were chosen by mental health counselors and worked together with a yoga facilitator to better serve teens struggling with emotional regulation. Results: Pre- and post-tests show that meditation was the overall preferred technique chosen by students as a method to aid with emotional regulation. …

Recruiting In Law Enforcement, Kyle R. Scott

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

Recruiting in 2022 is difficult to say the least, for many professions. I have worked or volunteered in public service for almost two decades. The last five years I have worked for my two of the largest law enforcement agencies in the state of Oregon and have personally seen the struggles to hire and retain employees. There are variety of reasons law enforcement is struggling to recruit, finances, politics, liability and wages are just a few things that hinder recruiting efforts for many law enforcement organizations. My goal is to shed light on what my organization offer and how we …

Capstone: Burn Surgery Education Module, Sophie J. Weber

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

I chose to solve a training and continuing education problem in my workplace, by creating a manual on burn surgery. This manual will later be turned into a computer education module, but will always be available in a hard copy as a reference material. I had to find an approach that reflected how my peers wanted to be educated and on what education points they felt were the most important to their success in surgery.

Elementary Schools’ Response To Student Wellness Needs During The Covid-19 Shutdown: A Qualitative Exploration Using The R = Mc2 Readiness Heuristic, Hannah G. Calvert, Hannah G. Lane, Michaela Mcquilkin, Julianne A. Wenner, Lindsey Turner

University Author Recognition Bibliography: 2022

During spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and accompanying public health advisories forced K-12 schools throughout the United States to suspend in-person instruction. School personnel rapidly transitioned to remote provision of academic instruction and wellness services such as school meals and counseling services. The aim of this study was to investigate how schools responded to the transition to remote supports, including assessment of what readiness characteristics schools leveraged or developed to facilitate those transitions. Semi-structured interviews informed by school wellness implementation literature were conducted in the spring of 2020. Personnel (n = 50) from 39 urban and rural elementary …

Future Needs Of The Cybersecurity Workforce, Connie Justice, Char Sample, Sin Ming Loo, Alex Ball, Clay Hampton

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Expected growth of the job market for cyber security professionals in both the US and the UK remains strong for the foreseeable future. While there are many roles to be found in cyber security, that vary from penetration tester to chief information security officer (CISO). One job of particular interest is security architect. The rise in Zero Trust Architecture (ZTA) implementations, especially in the cloud environment, promises an increase in the demand for these security professionals. A security architect requires a set of knowledge, skills, and abilities covering the responsibility for integrating the various security components to successfully support an …

Using Service-Learning In Graduate Curriculum To Address Teenagers' Vulnerability To Web Misinformation, Francesca Spezzano

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

We report on how we implemented service-learning (S-L) in a CS graduate class to improve student understanding of the class materials and provide a service to the community, i.e., addressing teenagers’ vulnerability to Web misinformation. We show how S-L benefits CS students in their course theory understanding and personal skills development, while teenagers’ news media literacy and misinformation detection accuracy were positively impacted.

The Myth Of The Vanishing Race: Interpreting Historical Photographs Of Native Americans, Thomas P. Albritton

History Graduate Projects and Theses

Much of Indigenous peoples’ experience in America has been shaped by white settler colonialism, politics, and imperialism. The master narration and representation for the Indigenous past predominantly have been created by white men (European colonists, historians, and creators of pop culture), resulting in a myth of a vanishing race, the belief of many non-Indigenous people’s that Indigenous cultures, customs, and heritage were vanishing or have disappeared. Specifically, the Edward S. Curtis photograph titled “The Vanishing Race—Navaho,” ca. 1904 continues to be a significant propagator of misconceptions of a vanishing race or a long-forgotten people, even as those cultures, customs, and …

Facing The Challenge Of Genetic Counselors' Need For Rapid Continuing Education About Genomic Technologies, Kelly D. Farwell Hagman, Devon Lamb Thrush, Samantha Freeze, Darnelle L. Dorsainville, Jennifer Eichmeyer, Kimberly C. Banks, Genomic Technologies Special Interest Group Of The National Society Of Genetic Counselors

Genetic Counseling Faculty Publications and Presentations

The last couple of decades have seen the rapid advancement of genomic technologies (GT) and their equally rapid adoption into clinical testing. Regardless of specialty, all genetic counselors are unified by the fundamental goal to aid in diagnosing patient's genetic disease underscoring the importance for genetic counselors to maintain an in-depth understanding of GT. The National Society of Genetic Counselors’ (NSGC) GT Special Interest Group conducted an online survey of NSGC members to assess current genomic technologies knowledge gaps. A total of 171 individuals from a variety of primary work settings completed the survey sufficiently to be included in the …

The Influence Of Undergraduate Research Assistant Experiences On Future Nursing Roles, Kelsy Mitchell, Julie Rekiere, Jane S. Grassley

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Undergraduate nursing students have difficulty comprehending the relevance of research to their future as nurses. Working as an undergraduate research assistant may provide opportunities to develop an appreciation of research. The purpose of this study was to explore former undergraduate research assistants' perceptions of their experience and its effects on their practice as professional nurses. This study used a qualitative descriptive design. Seven former undergraduate research assistants were interviewed. Interview transcripts were analyzed for themes using content analysis. Data analysis yielded three main themes: immersion in the research process, empowered to practice evidence-based nursing, and future …

Using The Fitness Challenge To Teach The Principles Of Conditioning And Improve Campus Physical Activity, Shawn R. Simonson

Kinesiology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The goal of KINES 432 Conditioning Procedures is for students to develop the skills to appropriately prescribe exercise and conditioning that will enhance the student’s ability as a practitioner to help others improve conditioning and achieve their health, fitness, and performance goals. The focus is on program objectives, planning, exercise analysis, and prescription as well as the supporting theories, rationale, and research. Application of concepts occurs via projects, service-learning and laboratory experiences. KINES 432 is also designated a university Finishing Foundations course. Boise State University’s Foundational Studies Program provides undergraduates with a broad-based education that spans the entire university experience. …

Reducing Pressure Injuries In The Intensive Care Setting: Nursing Knowledge And Best Practices Approach, Michelle Harvey

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: For many health care organizations, pressure injury (PI) prevention strategies have become a priority focus to improve patient outcomes and associated costs.

Problem: A rural community hospital located in the Eastern U.S. experienced an increase in hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs), predominantly in the intensive care unit (ICU). In 2018, 17.4% of HAPIs occurred in the ICU.

Approach: Implementation of a Quality Improvement project in an adult ICU, providing education and on-going learning activities to nursing staff, and applying a standardized plan of care “bundle” for prevention interventions.

Outcomes: The approach resulted in improved documentation of flotation of heels, …

Modeling Potential Energy Of The Gaussian Gun, Leslie Atkins Elliott, André Bolliou, Hanna Irving, Douglas Jackson

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The Gaussian gun is an arrangement of magnets and ball bearings (pictured in Fig. 1) such that—when the leftmost ball is released—the rightmost ball is ejected at high speeds. The device has been described in several articles on energy education. The sudden appearance of kinetic energy offers a productive context for considering a range of challenging ideas: the often-counterintuitive relationship between force and potential energy, the escape velocity for attractive forces, why energy is required to break bonds, and why energy is released when bonds form. Beyond these ideas, it is also useful for motivating the representation of a potential …

The Seven Layers Of Complexity Of Recommender Systems For Children In Educational Contexts, Emiliana Murgia, Monica Landoni, Theo Huibers, Jerry Alan Fails, Maria Soledad Pera

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Recommender systems (RS) in their majority focus on an average target user: adults. We argue that for non-traditional populations in specific contexts, the task is not as straightforward–we must look beyond existing recommendation algorithms, premises for interface design, and standard evaluation metrics and frameworks. We explore the complexity of RS in an educational context for which young children are the target audience. The aim of this position paper is to spell out, label, and organize the specific layers of complexity observed in this context.

Variation In Wealth And Educational Drivers Of Fertility Decline Across 45 Countries, Heidi Colleran, Kristin Snopkowski

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fertility decline in human populations is an inherent evolutionary puzzle with major demographic, socio-cultural and evolutionary consequences. The individual level predictors of fertility decline are numerous, but the way these effects vary by country and how they are causally mediated by other factors has received relatively little attention. Here we take a multilevel approach to compare similarities and differences in the primary predictors of contemporary fertility declines—wealth and education—across 45 countries in Africa, Asia, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East using Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data collected from 2003 to 2015. We use multilevel models …

Champions Of Democracy: Libraries' Essential Contributions To A Civil Society, Elizabeth Ramsey

Library Faculty Publications and Presentations

Librarians are rolling up their sleeves, taking off their glasses, and pulling no punches in their efforts to ensure that Americans understand Democratic processes and the essential nature of community participation in those processes. By making the most of their positions as community centers and trusted information providers, libraries are bringing people together to learn about and discuss political issues face to face, empowering them to work collectively for their civil rights and the rights of others.

Impact Of Physician Education And Availability Of Parameters Regarding Esophageal Pressure And Transpulmonary Pressure On Clinical Decisions Involving Ventilator Management, Lonny Ashworth

Respiratory Therapy Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: This study investigated the effects of physician education and the availability of P_eso and P_L data on physicians' decisions regarding ventilator management during specific simulated clinical conditions.

Materials and methods: The study was a prospective, before–after study using a case scenario–based questionnaire and a case simulator device comprising an Avea ventilator and an artificial lung and esophagus, which was connected to a Series 1101 Electronic Breathing Simulator. The 99 physicians participating in the study were provided with five simulated cases with on-time ventilator graphics without P_eso and P_L and completed a questionnaire on decisions they …

Confessional Technologies Of The Self: From Seneca To Social Media, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Foucault’s general notion of “technologies of the self” provides an invaluable starting point for investigating a range of broadly “confessional” practices and technologies over time — from medieval confession to contemporary forms of networked identity construction. Foucault defines technologies of the self as “reflected and voluntary practices by which men not only fix rules of conduct for themselves but seek to transform themselves, to change themselves in their particular being, and to make their life an oeuvre.” These are practices or techniques, in other words, that are both undertaken by the self and directed toward it. Specifically confessional technologies …

Suicide Prevention In The Non-Psychiatric Hospital Setting: A Nurse Education Process, Terry Bird

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background/Purpose. Numerous studies indicate that nurses and other healthcare professionals receive little or no suicide-related education or training. Unfavorable attitudes about suicide can also negatively influence caregiver behaviors and impact patient care. Evaluations of Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) as a gatekeeper training intervention consistently demonstrate enhanced knowledge, more favorable attitudes, and increased intervention skills. This project aimed to conduct a small-scale pilot of ASIST for hospital nurses, effect suicide education policies, and prevent suicide sentinel events at the project site.

Design. A single comparison group pre/post testing design was used.

Methods. A combination of purposive and network sampling …

Lost In Translation: Wittgenstein As A Tragic Philosopher Of Education, Norm Friesen

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

As a landmark philosopher of language and of mind, Ludwig Wittgenstein is also remarkable for having crossed, with apparent ease, the “continental divide” in philosophy. It is consequently not surprising that Wittgenstein’s work, particularly the Philosophical Investigations, has been taken up by philosophers of education in English. Michael A. Peters (1999), Christopher Winch (2002), Smeyers & Burbules (2010), and others (e.g., Aparece 2005) have engaged extensively with the implications of the later Wittgenstein’s philosophy for education. One challenge they face is Wittgenstein’s use of the word “training.” It appears throughout his discussions of language learning and in his periodic references …