Education Commons^™

Strategies For Reading Scholarly Articles, Hannah Krauss

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This handout reviews suggested strategies for reading scholarly articles in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, recommending reading out of order based upon the discipline. The second page contains tips for taking notes on articles for research and classes.

Investing In Textbook Affordability Pays Off For Students, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Investing in textbook affordability can have a huge payoff for students—just ask Assistant Professors Alice Brawley Newlin and Marta Maras in the Management department. Their open, customized textbook for Statistical Methods (MGT 235) is completely free. It has been used by over 400 students and saved them an estimated $150,000! The story of how this remarkable outcome was achieved has its origins in Musselman Library. [excerpt]

2022 Gettysburg College Student Textbook And Course Materials Survey Executive Summary, Janelle Wertzberger, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In Fall 2022, Musselman Library conducted its second course materials survey, this time in collaboration with 10 other liberal arts colleges from around the country. The results from this new survey illuminate how students are affected by textbook and course material costs, how they cope with these costs, and how effects and behaviors have changed since our 2019 survey.

This report summarizes the background of the project, key findings, and recommendations.

2022 Gettysburg College Textbook Survey Full Report, Mary R. Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In Fall 2022, Musselman Library conducted its second course materials survey, this time in collaboration with 10 other liberal arts colleges from around the country. This report compiles the results from Gettysburg College participants' responses. Comparisons are also made to the results from Gettysburg's 2019 survey and the larger group of colleges.

Gendered Stem Beliefs And Major Choice, Nicole T. Cesanek, Benjamin J. Durham

Student Publications

Beliefs and expectations about who can and should pursue STEM careers contribute to a student’s sense of STEM identity and may help to explain the gender gap in pursuing STEM in higher education. The formation of these beliefs is a long and complex process, starting very early on in an individual’s life. We analyze how gendered STEM beliefs of students, parents, and teachers in ninth grade affect a female student’s probability of majoring in STEM in college. We add to an analysis done by Sansone (2019) in an appendix of his paper by using actual majors instead of intended majors. …

Increasing Substance Safety Concentrating On The Fentanyl Epidemic, Rachael A. Geesaman

CAFE Symposium 2023

An action plan designed to combat the fentanyl epidemic, I plan to educate others on the dangers of fentanyl by sharing and debunking common misconceptions and research online in a digestible format. To do so, I plan to create a website and Instagram account that has a global outreach to educate others and alleviate the stigma around substance use and death by fentanyl poisoning. Furthermore, the project is to spread awareness of current efforts and resources in specific areas in South Central PA, such as Adams County, Franklin, and Cumberland Counties.

Implementing A Definition Of Street Harassment At Gettysburg College, Ella A. Prieto

CAFE Symposium 2023

My project focuses on implementing a definition of street harassment at Gettysburg College. To do so, I plan to add the definition to the Student Code of Conduct through meetings with the Student Life Committee. In order to ensure my success in adding the definition, I will pass an opinion through the Student Senate and send out a survey through engageGettysburg to show support for the definition. By accomplishing this, I hope to make Gettysburg College a more inclusive, open, and safe environment for all students,

Bridging Communities Of Practice: Cross-Institutional Collaboration For Undergraduate Digital Scholars, R.C. Miessler, Clinton K. Baugess, Kevin Moore, Courtney Paddick, Carrie Pirmann

All Musselman Library Staff Works

At Bucknell University and Gettysburg College, an increasing focus on supporting creative undergraduate research as intensive, high-impact experiences has resulted in both institutions implementing library-led digital scholarship fellowships for their students. Gettysburg’s Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship began in 2016, and Bucknell’s Digital Scholarship Summer Research Fellowship in 2017.1 While academic libraries have emerged as leaders on college campuses for digital humanities (DH) services, the programs at Gettysburg and Bucknell are distinctive in their structured curricula, a focus on independent student research, and the development of a local community of practice. Each program situates undergraduate research in the field of digital …

Educational Attainment: An Analysis Of Teenage Parenthood And Dropout Prevention Programs, Megan Mccook

Gettysburg Economic Review

This paper explores how teenage parenthood affects students’ high school education attainment, and evaluates the effectiveness of dropout prevention programs that offer on-site childcare. I use data from the High School Longitudinal Study (2009), collected by the National Center for Educational Statistics through the US Department of Education. These data combine survey responses from students, their parents, and school staff. Using school fixed effects and instrumental variable estimation I evaluate the impact of teenage parenthood on the probability of dropout. Female students with a child have, on average, 13.8 percentage points higher likelihood of dropping out of high school. The …

Homer Rosenberger: Learning Beyond The Classroom, Theodore J. Szpakowski

Student Publications

Homer Rosenberger, a Pennsylvania historian, cared deeply about sharing information. He collected books and articles on the history of PA, as well as meeting minutes for the many societies he participated in. All of this material is now stored in boxes available at Musselman Library in Gettysburg, PA. This paper is a combination of research and reflection on the experience of working with the Rosenberger collection, specifically a box that deals primarily with correspondence learning and public history.

Ms-286: Elizabeth And Elmer Mckee, Class Of 1944, Jessica A. Cromer

All Finding Aids

This collection contains over 500 letters, 17 V-Mail, and 25 additional items, including Elmer’s college transcript, military documents, and personal narrative. The bulk of the letters are written by Elmer (Chuck) to Elizabeth (Diz), but there are over 100 letters written by Elizabeth in the closing years of this collection (1945-46). These letters provide insight into the Gettysburg College experience during the early 1940’s and the daily life of men stationed in Europe during World War II. Many of the letters depict Elmer and Elizabeth navigating their personal relationship, whilst simultaneously navigating the complex time period in which they lived. …

Syllabus: Sociology Of Mass Media And Popular Culture, Alecea Ritter Standlee

Open Syllabus Collection

This syllabus is for a 200 level Sociology of Mass Media and Popular Culture course that uses a combination of open-access and library-licensed material. The course explores two of the most transformational and interconnected social institutions in contemporary society, mass media and popular culture. Material is included to analyze the social impact of music, film, television, social media, gaming, sport and related topics. The material also includes an annotated list of additional resources and readings to help professors adapt this course to their own needs.

The Relationship Between Perceived Stress And Disordered Eating In Undergraduate Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Caroline G. Martin

Gettysburg College Headquarters

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected and imposed challenges on nearly everyone, including college students. Despite their already stressful situations, previous research has demonstrated increased stress levels among college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, research has also shown an increase in disordered eating for college students during the pandemic. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between both perceived stress and disordered eating during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study used a correlational design to investigate a potential association between perceived stress and disordered eating among undergraduate college students during the COVID-19 pandemic. By administering the EAT-26, the CSSEC, …

Drafting An Assessment Plan For Your Instruction Program: Sustainably Assessing Information Literacy In An Undergraduate Stem Course, Kevin Moore, Clinton K. Baugess

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Assessing student learning across a library instruction program can be infeasible without being strategic, intentional, and realistic. Librarians at a small college will share how they developed a sustainable, 3-year assessment plan for the ACRL Framework and targeted a 100-level biology course-one of the two high-enrollment STEM courses that receive library instruction on their campus each year. The presenters will share their assessment plan, flipped instruction model, workflow-management strategies, and lessons learned for collaborating with STEM faculty to assess information literacy.

Learning By Doing: The Archaeology Education Program For Middle School, Tara D. Noel

Student Publications

Approached through the disciplinary and theoretical frameworks of public archaeology, the Archaeology Education Program for Middle School was created to better understand how an archaeology education program might be integrated into an existing curriculum and become nationally applicable to middle school settings. Research was conducted at St. Teresa of Calcutta Catholic School, where seventh grade students, teachers, and administration were involved in the investigation of the program's feasibility and design. It was determined that the objectives of this archaeology education program are to inform students about archaeology through educational tools and exercises that are tailored to different classroom settings, in …

The Religious Lexicon Embedded In Public American Curricula, Daniel R. Jones

Student Publications

What is the relationship between one's own religious beliefs and their everyday colloquial diction choices? Moreover, why is the subfield that encompasses the intersection of sociolinguistics, education, and religious studies one that has gained little scholarly interest in recent years, where one could argue the importance of religious belief, and other socio-political beliefs in education have come center stage in the heart of American political debate? This article will tackle this broad range of topics through a case study focusing on my primary research question: How does a teacher’s own religious identity affect the religious language utilized in their classroom …

Textbook Remix: An Introduction To Libretexts For Oer Editing, Mary Elmquist, Alice M. Brawley Newlin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

So, you’ve found an open textbook that you really like, but it’s not quite right for your class? LibreTexts might be the answer! Join us for this informal webinar to learn a little more about this online platform designed for customizing and distributing open textbooks. From Gettysburg College, Scholarly Communications Librarian Mary Elmquist will provide an introduction to the platform, its structure and features, and Dr. Alice Brawley Newlin, Assistant Professor of Management, will speak on her ongoing experiences using LibreTexts to edit and implement an open textbook for a Statistical Methods course.

This session should provide insight for both …

Inequitable Impacts Of Textbook Costs At A Small, Private College: Results From A Textbook Survey At Gettysburg College, Sarah Appedu, Mary Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger, Sharon K. Birch

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Recognizing that higher education settings vary considerably, librarians at Gettysburg College sought to better understand textbook spending behaviors and the effects of costs on our students. We adapted the Florida Virtual Campus 2016 Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey to suit the context of our small, private, liberal arts college. Most students spent $300 in Fall 2019. Financial aid awards did not cover the cost of required books and course materials for most students receiving aid. Negative effects were more pronounced for first-generation students and Pell Grant recipients, who were more likely to not purchase required books, to not register …

Faculty And Student Perspectives On Open Education At Gettysburg College, Mary R. Elmquist, Janelle Wertzberger, Alice M. Brawley Newlin, Natasha J. Gownaris, Christopher C. Oechler, Ryan E. Nedrow

Friday Forum

Commercially available textbooks and course materials are often expensive for students and sometimes don’t cover topics in exactly the way you might prefer to teach. Freely available and completely adaptable open educational resources (OER) have risen in popularity in recent years, both nationwide and locally, as a way to address both issues. Join us to hear from Alice Brawley Newlin (Management), Tasha Gownaris (Environmental Studies), Chris Oechler (Spanish), and Ryan Nedrow ’22 to hear about their experiences with OER in the classroom. Panelists will talk honestly about the benefits, drawbacks, challenges, and successes associated with open course materials in order …

Peer Research Mentors At Gettysburg College, Meggan D. Smith, Mallory R. Jallas, Clinton K. Baugess, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Musselman Library at Gettysburg College developed a Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program to expand the library’s formal research and instruction program. Designed and coordinated by a group of research and instruction librarians, the PRM program is built around a cohort of eight undergraduate students from a variety of class years and disciplines. Each PRM has a librarian supervisor. The PRMs participate in intensive training, provide reference service alongside professional librarians at the Research Help Desk, and develop outreach projects to better connect student patrons with library collections and services. [excerpt]

Access Challenge For Public Health Students, Janelle Wertzberger, Amy B. Dailey

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Health sciences students regularly engage in problem-based learning. This information literacy activity introduces a public health scenario and asks students to use published sources to determine the cause of a described disease and develop a treatment protocol. The activity design highlights different levels of information privilege and invites students to consider challenges to accessing public health information in a variety of settings. The exercise was initially created for undergraduate students in a 300-level global health course.

'Shut Up And Take The Mellon Money!': Adapting A Library-Led Digital Humanities Program To Accommodate Grant Funding., R.C. Miessler, Kevin Moore

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This presentation discusses how the team of librarians who facilitate Musselman Library's Digital Scholarship Summer Fellowship program have negotiated the shift from local to grant funding, focusing on how we have organized our team and adapted program outcomes, assessment, and reporting to fit the requirements of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Presidential Leadership Grant. We review some unexpected challenges when working with grant funding and how we have successfully worked within the parameters of the grant to fit our needs locally.

Examining The Impact Of Climate Change Film As An Educational Tool, Brittany Bondi, Salma Monani, Sarah M. Principato, Christopher P. Barlett

Student Publications

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of film in communicating issues related to climate change. While previous studies demonstrate an immediate effect of a film post-screening, this study also considered if a film can inspire long-term effects, and if supplemental educational information plays a role on participant understanding.

Design/methodology/approach: Using surveys, we assessed undergraduate students’ climate change responses pre-, immediately-post, and 9-weeks post watching the climate change documentary The Human Element (Prod. Earth Vision Institute, 2018). In the 9-week interim before the final survey, half of the participants received weekly information on climate change via …

Escalation Of Commitment And Heuristics In Outdoor Leadership: How Poor Education Can Impact Outdoor Leaders’ Decisions, Perry A. Darby

Student Publications

This study combines established escalation of commitment theory with research specifically aimed at understanding the role of heuristics in the field of outdoor leadership in order to create an understanding of decision-making processes in this context. Current decision-making frameworks taught to outdoor leaders rely on these theories but has yet to undergo rigorous testing as to its effectiveness. This study gave current decision-making education to one group and a control education to another group and found no significant differences between the two when asked to respond to the same situation. This finding suggests that further research into decision-making frameworks in …

2019 Gettysburg College Student Textbook And Course Materials Survey Executive Summary, Janelle Wertzberger, Sarah Appedu, Mary R. Elmquist

All Musselman Library Staff Works

We’ve all heard stories of students struggling with textbook costs, but how do our students cope when the price gets too high? Modeled after the Student Textbook and Course Materials Survey conducted by Florida Virtual Campus, Musselman Library’s course materials survey sought to uncover how textbook costs impact the success of Gettysburg College students. Results give insight into participants’ perceptions of how much money they spend, the strategies they use to reduce costs, and the effects of the cost of course materials on their academic success.

The Executive Summary details our research questions, key findings, and main takeaways.

What Is "Safe Sex"? Understanding The Need For Sex Education Reform, Julianne Baker

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

Currently, the United States has no standardized requirement for sex education. This has precipitated a large gap in knowledge about safe sex and a lack of consensus in current social and educational policy. Debates about abstinence-only and comprehensive sex education have reached a standstill. In an effort to advance the discussion, this paper reveals that the neuroscience behind adolescent sexual risk taking provides underutilized evidence for comprehensive sex education programs. Research shows that adolescents have biological differences in their brain structure that result in a decision-making process different from that of adults, one that can preference rash decisions and potentially …

Campus-Based Agriculture: The Future Of Food At Gettysburg College, Bryn K. Werley

Student Publications

This research investigates various methods for producing food on the campus of Gettysburg College in order to improve food sustainability. The transportation of food contributes to the increased use of fossil fuels, which in turn leads to global warming and climate change. By producing a larger portion of its food on-campus, Gettysburg College could reduce the amount of food transported to the school, thereby lessening the College’s environmental impact. Urban farming techniques, hydroponics, aquaponics, and greenhouse-based agriculture are explored as viable methods for achieving this goal. Examples of the use of these techniques on college campuses are drawn from Allegheny …

Hbcus Importance To The Black Community, Jarrett A. Torromeo

Student Publications

This paper looks at the importance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Black community. It explores how they are necessary in order to bring a sense of belonging to the Black community and how they can grow. They are critically underfunded compared to other universities/colleges but this can change with the sports that they have to offer.

A Culture Of Aggression: School Culture And The Normalization Of Aggression In Two Elementary Schools, Brent D. Harger

Sociology Faculty Publications

Since the late 1990s, increased public and academic attention has been focused on topics related to bullying and peer aggression in schools, yet these behaviors have proven difficult for schools to address. Using data from an ethnographic study of two rural elementary schools in the Midwestern United States, I make both methodological and theoretical contributions to the literature on this topic. Methodologically, I show that examining ‘minor’ aggressive behaviors in schools reveals the way that more serious issues are also normalized. Theoretically, I show that students and adults actively construct shared understandings in these schools regarding the normalization of aggression, …

On The Margins Of Friendship: Aggression In An Elementary School Peer Group, Brent D. Harger

Sociology Faculty Publications

This article uses qualitative data from a larger study of two elementary schools in a rural city of about 15,000 people in the Midwestern United States. Here, I focus on a single peer group and those who are on its margins to provide insight into the intersection of friendship, aggression, and masculinity. In doing so, I address the lack of research examining how aggression functions within peer groups and why those who are victimized choose to remain in these groups.