Digital Commons Network^™

From Graph Coloring To Receptor Clustering, Ye Chen

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

1. Hued colorings for planar graphs, graphs of higher genus and K4-minor free graphs.;For integers k, r > 0, a (k,r) -coloring of a graph G is a proper coloring of the vertices of G with k colors such that every vertex v of degree d(v) is adjacent to vertices with at least min{lcub}d(v) ,r{rcub} different colors. The r-hued chromatic number, denoted by Xr (G), is the smallest integer k for which a graph G has a ( k,r)-coloring. A list assignment L of G is a function that assigns to every vertex v of G a set L(v) of positive …

A Three-Part Study In The Connections Between Music And Mathematics, Molly Elizabeth Anderson

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The idea for this thesis originated from my fascination with the studies of both music and mathematics throughout my entire life. As a triple major in Middle/Secondary Math Education, Mathematics, and Music, I have learned more than I thought possible of music and math. In proposing this thesis, I desired to use my knowledge of arithmetic and aesthetics to research how music and mathematics are intertwined. I am confident that the following three chapters have allowed me to develop as an academic in both music and mathematics. This thesis serves as a presentation of the connections of music and math …

The Role Of Teachers In Ability-Tracked Mathematics Classrooms, Danyelle M. Doldoorian

Senior Theses and Projects

Tracking, or ability grouping, is a salient feature of the American education system. As opposed to most studies on tracking which investigate student achievement and student experiences, this study investigates the role of teachers in a tracked curriculum. The goals of this study are to discover how teachers feel about tracking and to understand how teachers operate their classrooms with respect to the different ability groups. I conducted observations of tracked middle and high school mathematics classrooms and directed interviews with the teachers of these tracked classes. I found that teachers alter their language, classroom pace, quality of review, and …

Existence: An Unholy Trinity. An Account Of Indeterminate Existence, Salas Sanchez-Bennasar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What is it for something to exist? This dissertation provides an answer to this question by giving a philosophical theory of existence in which the concept of existence in understood as a complex tri-partite notion. The account of existence defended here is arrived at by taking into consideration past philosophical theories of existence, the everyday and scientific uses of the notion, and also philosophical considerations about the nature of reality.

There are three conditions that are central to existence: spatiotemporality, mind-independence, and being a member of the quantificational domain of a true and complete scientific description about the world. To …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities In General Education Classrooms And Student Success As Measured By Public School District Graduation Rates, Dropout Rates, And Act Mathematics Performance, Renee Anne Rudloff

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The accountability of No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2001) provided assurance that “all children (would) have a fair, equal, and significant opportunity to obtain a high quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments” (Section 1001). According to research, subgroups such as students with disabilities have historically underperformed on state assessments (Darling-Hammond & Rustique-Forrester, 2005; Eckes & Swando, 2009). Measuring their progress holds the school district, teachers, and students accountable for the results, thereby raising expectations, improving teaching, and increasing learning.

In Michigan, students seeking a standard diploma must meet …

How Do District Level And Building Level Leaders Collaborate To Implement Mandated Change?, Gwendolyn Zimmermann

Dissertations

This research study examined how school leaders, in particular the associate superintendent of curriculum and a junior high school principal, in the same district collaborated to plan for and implement mandated change. In this research study, the mandated change was that of the State's adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics.

This study utilized a case study methodology. The case study included one case of an associate superintendent of curriculum for the district and a junior high school principal located in suburban Cook County bounded within the timeframe of August 2012 to October 2013. The district identified had …

The Correlation Between The Geographical Region Of A High School And The Enrollment Ratio Of Males To Females In Accelerated College-Preparatory Level Mathematics Courses, Mary Anne Latragna

Dissertations

Females, in this modern age of feminism, have excelled in all fields of study and graduate from college in larger numbers than males. However, few women go into the STEM fields (Hill, Corbett, & St. Rose, 2010). To close this gap in mathematics-related fields, it is paramount that high schools produce female students who are advanced in Mathematics. The problem was the underrepresentation of females in mathematical fields of study, with a more pressing issue of underrepresentation of females in college preparatory mathematics classes at the high school level. The purpose of this study was to determine if the geographical …

Inversion Of The Broken Ray Transform, Roman Krylov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The broken ray transform (BRT) is an integral of a function along a union of two rays with a common vertex. Consider an X-ray beam scanning an object of interest. The ray undergoes attenuation and scatters in all directions inside the object. This phenomena may happen repeatedly until the photons either exit the object or are completely absorbed. In our work we assume the single scattering approximation when the intensity of the rays scattered more than once is negligibly small. Among all paths that the scattered rays travel inside the object we pick the one that is a union of …

Parameter Sensitivity Analysis For Co-Mediated Sickle Cell De-Polymerization, Yao Selom Messan

Theses

Sickle cell anemia is an abnormality that causes a deformation in the shape of the red blood cell that hinders the circulation of the red blood cell through the blood vessel. The deformation is caused by the association of monomers to each other to form polymers (polymerization). The oxygenation of the sickle cell may lead to the melting of polymers (depolymerization). Many studies have been conducted to understand the dynamics of depolymerization. This study focuses on the impact of various parameters over the output values in the system of de-polymerization. Both mathematical and statistical approaches for the sensitivity analysis of …

Classworks As A Means To Gaining Equity In The General Education Math Classroom: Perceptions Of Students Receiving Special Education Services, Diane Marshall

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the importance of math steadily increasing, researchers in the field of special education have made efforts to increase the performance of students with disabilities (Fuchs et al., 2008; Gersten, Jordan, & Flojo, 2005). Despite the deficits these students face, the trend has been for many years that most students with disabilities in math receive their instruction in the general education classroom. The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions that students receiving special education services have regarding the effectiveness of Classworks, a computer-assisted instructional program, in helping them gain equity in the general education math classroom. Critical …

The Effectiveness Of The Flipped Classroom, Raymond Szparagowski

Honors Projects

This research study explores the “flipped” or “inverted” classroom and its effects on student learning. The flipped classroom is a form of education in which students learn new content during out-of-class-time instead of the traditional review exercises that are normally given, which opens up class time for activities, problem solving, and other forms of instruction. During this study, a flipped classroom was implemented in a high school mathematics course. Data was collected from student grades, a pre and post survey, a class interview/discussion, and my personal notes from teaching. My results indicate that some potential benefits of the flipped classroom …

Effectiveness Of Technology-Integrated Instruction On High School Students' Mathematic Achievement Scores, Michele Lee Ramsay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In an effort to improve mathematics retention and increase assessment scores, the public school district under study implemented Study Island into their Grade 9 algebra program. Study Island is a commercialized web-based program, customized to specific state standards and applied as a supplemental instructional tool. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Study Island with general education students and to determine whether the effectiveness of replacing some traditional mathematic instruction with technology was beneficial. The theoretical foundation stemmed from Bloom's work on mastery learning, which holds that children can learn if given the proper environment and …

Re-Analysis Of The World Data On The Emc Effect And Extrapolation To Nuclear Matter, Stacy E. Karthas

Honors Theses and Capstones

The EMC effect has been investigated by physicists over the past 30 years since it was discovered at CERN. This effect shows that the internal nucleon structure varies when in the nuclear medium. Data from SLAC E139 and JLab E03 103 were studied with the Coulomb correction and directly compared. The Coulomb distortion had a greater impact on the JLab data due to slightly lower energies and different kinematics. The EMC ratio was found to have a dependence on a kinematic variable, which was removed when Coulomb corrections were applied. The methodology was developed to apply Coulomb corrections, which had …

The Analytic Hierarchy Process: A Mathematical Model For Decision Making Problems, Giang Huong Nguyen

Senior Independent Study Theses

The ability to make the right decision is an asset in many areas and lines of profession including social work, business, national economics, and international security. However, decision makers often have difficulty choosing the best option since they might not have a full understanding of their preferences, or lack a systematic approach to solve the decision making problems at hand. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) provides a mathematical model that helps the decision makers arrive at the most logical choice, based on their preferences. We investigate the theory of positive, reciprocal matrices, which provides the theoretical justification of the method …

Markov Chain Theory With Applications To Baseball, Cal D. Thomay

Senior Independent Study Theses

The applications of Markov chains span a wide range of fields to which models have been designed and implemented to simulate random processes. Markov chains are stochastic processes that are characterized by their memoryless property, where the probability of the process being in the next state of the system depends only on the current state and not on any of the previous states. This property is known as the Markov property. This thesis paper will first introduce the theory of Markov chains, along with explaining two types of Markov chains that will be beneficial in creating a model for analyzing …

Keeping Your Options Open: An Introduction To Pricing Options, Ryan F. Snyder

Senior Independent Study Theses

An option is a contract which gives the holder of the option the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell a given security at a given price, which is called the strike price. For example, suppose Yahoo stock is currently trading at $10 per share. A person could buy an option that gives him or her the ability to purchase shares of Yahoo stock for $12 in one year. If the price of Yahoo stock is greater than $12 in one year, the holder of the option will make money. However, he or she will not use the …

Measuring Student Satisfaction In Online Math Courses, Antoinette M. Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

Colleges and universities worldwide have struggled to find a way to measure student satisfaction in online courses. This study examined the growth of math courses that are delivered in the online format. This study aims to address many gaps in the research literature concerning distance education using technology. In particular, it is the intention of this study to investigate satisfaction and performance of students as a result of taking online courses.

There has been an expanding concern over whether students are satisfied and can perform well in courses taken in an online environment. Satisfaction and performance in distance education have …

When Every Teacher Is A Language Teacher : A Case Study Of High School Math And Science Instructors' Use Of Multimodal Accommodations With Els, Karen Marie Gregory

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This case study investigated the multimodal accommodations that content teachers make in order to dually support linguistic and conceptual development for English language learning students. Data from digitally recorded classroom observations, teacher interviews, student work, and questionnaires were collected from the participating math and science teachers. The data were analyzed from the theoretical framework of an ecological -semiotic perspective of language teaching and learning (van Lier, 2004), and is theoretically tied to communication accommodation theory and multimodal communication theory as well.

Education And Women Mathematicians In The Middle East, Syeda Tooba Zahra

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Middle Eastern women have made important contributions in the field of Mathematics. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the educational background for women in the Middle East and look at the life and contribution of a sample of women mathematicians in representative Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Iran, and Pakistan.

A Systematic Review Of Research On Successful African American Students In Mathematics: Implications For Seminole High School, Trung Vong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to synthesize the counter-narratives of mathematically successful African American students. The gap in educational achievement between African American and White students is well documented in the United States, especially in mathematics education. Although Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test scores have increased for both groups at Seminole High School, the gap has remained over 30% for nearly a decade. Most research on this topic has focused on the reasons why African American students fail to achieve. Various individual, social, and organizational factors have been suggested. However, a growing body of research has highlighted the stories of …

El Uso Del Texto Escolar Para El Desarrollo De Competencias Matemáticas En El Componente Geométrico - Métrico En Grados 8° Y 9° De Tres Instituciones Distritales De La Ciudad De Bogotá, Lina Yovana Paipa Reyes, Jenny Carolina Pérez Rojas, Hermeht Pérez Caro

Maestría en Docencia

El texto escolar es una de las herramientas pedagógicas que a través del tiempo ha servido como apoyo en el proceso de enseñanza, especialmente en el área de matemáticas, debido a ello, toma relevancia identificar el uso que da el docente del texto escolar para desarrollar competencias matemáticas, comenzando por determinar los criterios de selección del texto escolar, las intenciones de uso por parte del docente y el establecimiento de relaciones entre las competencias destacadas en el texto escolar de matemáticas y las que el docente pretende desarrollar en la asignatura de geometría . De acuerdo con los objetivos propuestos, …

How Teacher Beliefs About Mathematics Affect Student Beliefs About Mathematics, Kelly Smith

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Bayesian Model Of Fertility Decisions In Relationship To Female Labor Force Participation, Rebecca C. Wardrop

Senior Independent Study Theses

Due to the increasing number of women in the labor force, opportunity costs associated with labor force participation are becoming an important factor in fertility decisions. Further, these decisions are assumed to be dynamic as the opportunity costs change as a woman progresses through her career. A Bayesian statistical model , which allows the distribution of the likelihood of having children to be updated as information is gathered, lends itself to the dynamicity of the decision-making process. A generalized model for fertility decisions in terms of labor force participation is created. I also discuss potentials for implementation and furthering the …

Generalist And Specialist Pollination Syndromes: When Are They Favoured? A Theoretical Approach To Predict The Conditions Under Which A Generalist Or Specialist Pollination Syndrome Is Favoured., Tyler L. Poppenwimer

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Hittingtime And Pagerank, Shanthi Kannan

Master's Theses

In this thesis, we study convergence of finite state, discrete, and time homogeneous Markov chains to a stationary distribution. Expressing the probability of transitioning between states as a matrix allows us to look at the conditions that make the matrix primitive. Using the Perron-Frobenius theorem we find the stationary distribution of a Markov chain to be the left Perron vector of the probability transition matrix.

We study a special type of Markov chain &mdash random walks on connected graphs. Using the concept of fundamental matrix and the method of spectral decomposition, we derive a formula

that calculates expected hitting times …

Teaching For Students' Confident Transition From Number To Algebra, Christina Lang Lee

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The adoption by all states and territories of the national curriculum by 2013 saw students in schools across the country taught introductory algebraic concepts from Year Five. In the twenty first century the need to be algebraically competent has become a necessity much as computation was in the previous centuries.

The Researcher has found from experience that students who have struggled with number and number operations will then most probably make poor progress in their study of algebra. The transition from number to algebra requires a robust understanding of number and number operations

This study investigated the balance of instructional …

An Analysis Of Parent, Student, And Staff Satisfaction With Supplemental Educational Services (Ses) To Improve Student Achievement Among At-Risk High School Students In Failing Schools, Cynthia A. Williams-Lanier

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine parent, student, administrator, and staff satisfaction with supplemental education services (SES) provided at a small, nonprofit, community-based, African-centered program (Alkebu-lan Village) that focused on improving English language arts and mathematics achievement among at-risk high school students. Alkebu-lan Village, an SES provider, offered an integrated comprehensive program that combined academic tutoring with breakfast and lunch, as well as social and physical activities. A mixed methods study was conducted to determine if participation in a SES (Alkebu-lan Village) improved high school students’ reading and mathematics achievement. Student records were used to obtain the pre …

Supporting Middle School Students With Emotional Or Behavioral Disorders In Blended Learning: A Fraction Intervention Using Virtual Manipulatives, Barbara Serianni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students with emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) are more likely than other students with disabilities to drop out of school (Blackorby & Wagner, 1996) and suffer societal consequences that include higher probabilities and rates of incarceration, poverty, drug abuse, homelessness, low wages, and unemployment (Bradley, Doolittle, & Bartolotta, 2008; Wagner, 1995). High school graduation is a critical factor to improve post-secondary outcomes for students with EBD; yet it is often mathematics, specifically algebra, that stands in the way of graduation (Blackorby & Wagner). Students with EBD often enter middle school lacking foundational mathematics skills, such as fractions, which sets them …