Education Commons^™

Possible Effects Of Sexual Health Education On Health Behaviors And Indicators, Chloe Lafosse

Honors Scholar Theses

Sexual health education has long been evolving, and while a mountain of research has built a compelling case for continuing its improvement, the authors of the present paper were interested in evaluating the efficacy of state education standards in 2009, 2014, and 2019 on a multitude of sexual health outcomes in 2019. We concluded that throughout all three years, states with higher educational requirements could in fact produce better health outcomes, but those outcomes were heavily targeting delaying pregnancy. The educational requirements appeared to have neglected all other aspects of sexual health, including STD prevention, even though STD-based education was …

The Use Of Animal-Assisted Therapy In Educational Settings, Jasmine Morris

Honors Scholar Theses

Animal-Assisted therapy is a form of goal-based intervention where an animal is a part of the treatment process. This study evaluated two different interventions that use animal-assisted therapy practices in educational settings. The first intervention studied was a UConn IDEA Grant project titled “Promoting Positive Well-Being Among Adolescent Girls of Color Using an Animal Care Framework”. Results were analyzed using a two-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), fitting separate models to each grade, and chi-squared analysis. There was no significant impact of the intervention on increasing student knowledge of the content covered in the program The second intervention studied was the …

An Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Virtual Reality In Distance Learning, Rashana Weerasinghe

Honors Scholar Theses

This study focuses on the applicability of emerging technologies in education. To explore this, our research was conducted through an “Intro To Emerging Technology” course taught by the OPIM Department at the University of Connecticut. The class meets in two modalities: virtual reality environment and video-conferencing platform. Our research explores the learning outcomes produced by the different classroom environments, seeking to better understand the impact of virtual reality in distance learning. The purpose of this is to identify and predict how virtual reality will be integrated into a distance learning environment and understand if it can be used as a …

Asians And The Study Habits Of Non-Asians In The United States, Sabrina Tang

Honors Scholar Theses

In the United States, Asian American students spend an hour more per day studying than non-Asians (Hofferth et al. 2020). Chen and Stevenson (1995) attribute this to parents and peers who hold higher standards for Asian students. Compared to other races, Asian Americans tend to place a high value on education as a marker of achievement. This thesis explores whether Asian culture impacts non-Asian work ethic by examining whether non-Asians study more in geographic areas with larger Asian populations. I find statistically significant, but small increases in the study time of non-Asians where there is a greater population of Asians.

Evaluating Urban Parks Accessibility And Equity: A Case Study Of Hartford, Ct And New Haven, Ct, Natalie Roach, Mara Tu

Honors Scholar Theses

Public parks provide cities with environmental benefits, positive health effects, recreational opportunities, community building, educational spaces, and public amenities. However, certain populations have been systematically denied their fair share of these benefits because of unjust practices in the creation and maintenance of urban parks. With a lens of environmental justice, the goal of this research was to assess park quality and accessibility of two Connecticut cities, Hartford and New Haven, by gathering publicly available information as well as using GIS tools.

The Trust for Public Land (TPL) has an existing ParkScore rating system that evaluates the quality of a city’s …

Using Citizen Science To Determine The Age Of Alewife Fish, Rodchill-Paul Jules

Honors Scholar Theses

Aging scales of economically important fish like the Alewife (Alosa pseudoharengus) is a critical task in the fisheries industry, which can benefit from the help that citizen science offers. In order for those benefits to take effect, common people should be comfortable and fairly knowledgeable about what is expected of them in the study. Then, results can be generated in a way that gives all types of citizens a good opportunity to participate and produces reliable data that can be used for scientific purposes. This experiment studied the effects of simple word instructions versus diagramed instructions on the …

How Teachers Manage Resource Inequity In Different Educational Contexts: A Case Study & Recommendations, Elizabeth George

Honors Scholar Theses

This study explores how teachers make decisions and navigate different contexts to support their students. I investigated how teachers use agency, ownership, and learning in the positive, adaptive choices they make to achieve better student outcomes. The purpose of this honors thesis is to surface ideas about how teachers can serve students in different schools with various needs and different amounts of resources.

The research questions framing the study are as follows: (1) How do teachers make choices about how to utilize their professional support network? (2) How do teachers make choices about their instructional approach to support students? (3) …

Incentivized Learning And Libraries: A Comparative Study Of Summer Reading Programs In Connecticut, Andrew Morrison

Honors Scholar Theses

With digital forms of entertainment and media more inescapable than ever, it has become increasingly difficult to encourage children and teens to read. Simultaneously, despite an overwhelming amount of literature demonstrating the educational benefits of reading, especially as a necessity in the summer between academic years, library budgets are shrinking as federal funding nears its end. How do libraries promote summer reading amidst declining interest and decreased funding? Using data from public libraries across Connecticut, this paper investigates how libraries are adapting their children's summer reading programs to a changing landscape, how programs are designed to incentivize reading without eliminating …

Teaching Practices, Institutional Cultures, And Access To Music Learning, Jonah Garcia

Honors Scholar Theses

The mission of the National Association for Music Education is “to advance music education by promoting the understanding and making of music by all” (NAfME, n.d.-b). Despite these aspirations of equality, research suggests that both demographics and geography have a role in determining who is able to participate and who will choose to participate in school music (Elpus & Abril, 2019; Salvador and Allegood, 2014). This study examined the factors that influence school music participation and the representation of student populations in the music programs of two Connecticut secondary schools. Names of schools and participants have been changed to preserve …

Mirrors Of Our Own: Multiracial Representation In Children’S Picture Books, Kiana Foster-Mauro

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States multiracial population is a fast-growing portion of our population. As the multiracial population grows, so does the need for multiracial representation within books. This study analyzed the representation of multiracial individuals in children’s picture books for ages newborn-8. I identified 75 board and picture books published in the United States between the years 2009 and 2019 that feature mixed race characters. The identified texts were analyzed in a critical content analysis using a framework based upon Critical Race Theory. Through this framework, I examined how multiracial characters in the texts are portrayed, the power dynamics, and what …

Examination Of Online Accommodation Information For College Students With Disabilities In New England, Emily Rakers

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study is to report on the status of information available to college students with disabilities on the websites of New England colleges’ centers for students with disabilities. Primarily, this study focused on information about the application process for a student to receive accommodations. Data was generated by compiling a list of common factors on the websites of centers for students with disabilities at colleges not in New England, and then searching the New England websites to see if they included these factors on their own websites. Three separate categories of schools were included in the study: …

District Regulated Nutrition Programs: Identifying The Gap Between Language In District Wellness Policies And Implementation Practices In Public Schools, Abigail Lafontan

Honors Scholar Theses

BACKGROUND: The federal government requires that every school district taking part in the Federal Child Nutrition Program have a written district wellness policy of how the districts will address: nutrition education, nutrition guidelines, physical activity, physical education, and parent and community involvement. Although many aspects of school nutrition are federally regulated, there are specific food-related practices that can only be regulated at the district level. Policies concerning these “district-led” practices often appear in the district wellness policy. This study focuses specifically on three topics addressed in district wellness policies: (a) Is free potable drinking water available to students throughout the …

Analyzing The Mindsets And Behaviors Of Introductory Physics Students Through The Lens Of Intellectual Humility, Meagan Sundstrom

Honors Scholar Theses

Students often enter the physics classroom with intuitive conceptions drawn from real life experiences or former coursework, and may be hesitant or reluctant to re-evaluate these mindsets in favor of formally instructed knowledge. The goal of introductory physics courses is not only to teach and expose students to new content, but also to cultivate students’ ability to reason through and derive content knowledge through personal inquiry. This scientific process necessitates one’s abilities to be open-minded in terms of hearing evidence that contradicts his or her personal opinion, to be willing to discard any original misconceptions in the face of such …

Teacher Perceptions Of Arts Integration Into General Education Curriculum, Molly Pines

Honors Scholar Theses

In elementary schools, art is often taught as a supplement to general education, and is frequently separated from academic subjects. Traditionally, elementary school students were only exposed to art through with “pullout programs.”” (McKean & Sudol, 2010). However, incorporating arts into the general education classroom, and into academic subjects, can potentially have positive outcomes such as allowing students to . Students who learn with an integrated approach are often inspired to broaden their conceptions of the world, and themselves, and to obtain and use knowledge in an authentic way (Brand & Triplett, 2012).make authentic connections across disciplines. “A common thread …

Breaking Out From Tradition: Redesign Of Large Physiology Lecture Increases Engagement, Inclusion, And Student Outcomes, Jordyn Dickey, John Redden, Kristen Kimball

Honors Scholar Theses

The human digestive system is a diverse network of cells, tissues, and organs that is regulated by intrinsic (e.g. nervous and endocrine systems) and extrinsic factors (e.g. secretions, pH, and the microbiome). Given the volume of content and the dense physiology involved, this system is difficult for instructors to teach and equally challenging for students to understand. This is especially true in our two-semester Human Anatomy and Physiology course for pre-health students at the University of Connecticut. In the Spring 2017 semester, we developed and implemented an active learning based approach when teaching the histology and regulation of gastric secretions …

Preservice Teachers' Referral Of Students For Special Education, Annie Maclachlan

Honors Scholar Theses

The purpose of this study was to understand which students teachers nominate for special education services, and what student qualities influence the nomination. Specifically, in this study, we investigated whether a student’s ethnicity and classroom behavior influence his or her nomination for special education. We created six profiles in which we varied ethnic names and classroom behaviors, and asked juniors and seniors in a selected teacher preparation program to evaluate the profile they were given. They were then asked to indicate whether or not they would refer their given hypothetical student for special education services, and to provide justification for …

Self-Perceived Success Of First-Generation College-Going Latinx Students, Sarah Mongillo

Honors Scholar Theses

This exploratory study aims to address the unique experiences of Latinx first-generation college-going students during their undergraduate careers. Literature has emphasized the obstacles Latinx students face during admission phase to college; this research examines the experiences of students attending a predominantly white institution (PWI) in the northeast. Latinx individuals are the most underrepresented ethnic group on college campuses, and those whose parents lack knowledge of the US education system must overcome additional struggles. Through qualitative data analysis of 20 undergraduate students’ survey responses, this study finds that first-generation college-going Latinx students feel isolated in their college experience and prioritize non-traditional …

A Study Of Parent Perceptions Of Advanced Academic Potential In The Early Grades, Jennifer L. O'Brien

Honors Scholar Theses

Parents are key stakeholders in children’s education; this project, which is part of a larger study about early identification of high potential, focused on parent awareness of the behaviors that indicate high potential and the kinds of resources that would support developing academic potential in the early grades (grades K-2). This project consisted of an online parent survey and a parent workshop with a card sort component in which parents indicated what kinds of resources would be priorities. The study took place in three school districts with large populations of families from low-income backgrounds. A total of 38 parents completed …

Underrepresentation Of Minorities In Gifted And Talented Programs: A Content Analysis Of Five District Program Plans, Jessica Stargardter

Honors Scholar Theses

Many educators and researchers recognize the issue of underrepresented minority groups in gifted and talented education programs. Since the landmark Supreme Court case Brown vs Board of Education in 1954, policies, laws, and standards have been attempting to establish equity in educational programs. This content analysis explores how select districts in the metropolitan region of Colorado align with the NAGC’s standard 2. The research showed that the majority of these districts followed NAGC’s standard 2, but the underrepresentation of minority groups within the metropolitan region of Colorado continued. National, state, and local districts need to do more to promote equity …

Literacy Across Disciplines: An Investigation Of Text Used In Content-Specific Classrooms, Pam Mcdonald

Honors Scholar Theses

This pilot study focused on literacy in secondary settings, where classes are content-specific and organized into varying levels. Teacher views on literacy instruction as well as the types of texts used across the disciplines and course levels were explored. The following research questions guided the study: 1) Do early high school teachers view their class’ reading tasks as more discipline- or content-focused? 2) Does the complexity of the texts assigned in early high school vary across the various course levels? 3) Does the complexity of the texts assigned in early high school vary across the disciplines? 4) Does the authenticity …

Life History Theory And School-Age Pregnancy: Review And Application, Anna Rozman

Honors Scholar Theses

The United States currently holds one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the developed world, but many Americans, including policy makers, view adolescent childbearing as a societal problem that stems from negligence, promiscuity, and poor decision making. This project seeks to frame the institution of school-age motherhood through the lens of Life History Theory, which posits that early reproduction is an adaptation in the face of harsh conditions and high extrinsic mortality rates. This assertion is supported by evidence that adolescent childbearing has been the norm for most of human history, and continues to be practiced in natural fertility …

Green Chemistry As A Tool For Understanding The Toxic Substances Control Act: A Lecture Module For Undergraduate Students, Molly R. Blessing

Honors Scholar Theses

The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) is the central form of chemical regulation existent in the United States today, yet scientists are often unaware or uncertain of its provisions. Violations of TSCA by unknowing chemists set industry and government unnecessarily at odds. A lecture on TSCA was developed for undergraduate students that uses the concept of green chemistry to promote interest and incentivize learning. Green chemistry methods are cleaner and less wasteful than traditional chemical ones, and many companies using them are at the forefront of technological innovation. The lecture explains both green chemistry and TSCA, includes company case studies, …

Self-Talk+ And Strategic Teacher Moves Aimed At Cognitive Advancement In Linguistically Diverse Elementary Mathematics Classrooms, Bailey M. Muchin

Honors Scholar Theses

This study’s objective was to determine the purposes of self-talk and related forms of talk (self-talk+) in linguistically diverse elementary mathematics classrooms, teacher moves that are often associated with self-talk+, and the relationship between self-talk+ and strategic teacher moves. This study analyzed transcripts, audio recordings, and video recordings from several elementary mathematics classrooms in dual language programs in order to determine the relationship among self-talk+ and strategic teacher moves. This study specifically focused on the purposes of self-talk+ that contributed to, or had the potential to impact, student cognitive advancement. The results of data analysis were mapped in order …

Use Of Phonetics In The Beginner French Classroom: An Analysis Of Textbooks, Melissa B. Scarbrough

Honors Scholar Theses

Textbooks are a common resource for teachers in a variety of content areas, as such it is important that teachers know whether or not textbooks are aligned to standards and current research. This study investigates if common textbooks, reported to be in use in schools across Connecticut, are aligned to recent second language acquisition and French linguistics studies.

Evaluation Of Gifted Education Using A-F School Grading Accountability Systems, Daniel R. Arndt

Honors Scholar Theses

A recent trend in accountability systems in the United States has been grading schools on an A-F scale. Some of the evaluation components included in these systems are standardized test proficiency rates and student growth measures. Traditionally, these systems have not emphasized accountability for gifted education programming or services. The accountability systems of the sixteen states in the U.S. under these A-F systems were analyzed for indicators that involve gifted education, which does not yet have a federal mandate or centralized decision-making. The frequency of evaluation components were compared at the high school and elementary school levels. The only gifted …

Responding To Trauma: Help-Seeking Behavior And Posttraumatic Growth In A College Sample, Aaron J. Burrick

Honors Scholar Theses

Research indicates that traumatic experiences can impact college students’ mental health, academic abilities, and relationships with peers. Trauma and associated symptoms of PTSD can lower students’ well-being and increase the risk of withdrawing from the university. Research also emphasizes the importance of psychological help-seeking as a way to experience posttraumatic growth. This study examines traumatic experiences, help-seeking attitudes, barriers, and behaviors, and posttraumatic growth in a sample of 168 undergraduate college students. Results indicated an overwhelming preference for informal help-seeking resources and the importance of traumatic severity in the decision to seek help. Additionally, female participants reported greater traumatic severity …

Middle School Student Perceptions Of Homework In Mathematics, Camille M. Thomas

Honors Scholar Theses

Homework has been a source of debate in schools for the past several decades and will continue to be an important topic in the future. It is a traditional part of education but some debate its importance in the classroom. This study explored student perception of homework and their reported performance in middle school mathematics. The research questions focused on student attitudes about homework, the relationship of students’ self-efficacy and support resources to their homework completion, and the relationship of students’ general level of achievement in mathematics to their attitudes about homework. The study involved a survey of 230 middle …

Aspects Of The High School Music Program And Their Relationship With The College Marching Band Experience, Glen J. Ullman

Honors Scholar Theses

A quality musical ensemble requires the director to be attentive to the needs and abilities of its members. This study examined various aspects of students’ musical and academic preparation in relation to their current experience with music in college. With more insight about the backgrounds of college musicians, and the way those backgrounds relate to their experiences in performing ensembles, music directors will be better able to tailor instruction to the needs of their musicians. For this study, a survey was distributed to members of the University of Connecticut Marching Band about their demographics, education, past musical experiences, and current …

Practicing And Preservice Teachers' Sense Of Efficacy For Character Education, Carolyn Lowe

Honors Scholar Theses

This study explored preservice and practicing teachers’ perspectives on their preparation to support students’ character development and their sense of efficacy in implementing classroom practices related to this area of education. The research questions framing the study were as follows: (1) What levels of efficacy around character education do practicing and preservice elementary teachers from the same teacher preparation program report? (2) How do efficacy levels differ between practicing and preservice teachers? (3) What influences on their efficacy for character education do practicing and preservice teachers report? The study involved a survey of 79 practicing and preservice teachers, with similar …

Genocide In The Classroom: How Transitional Societies Are Affected By The Quality Of Genocide Education, Leah Oppenheimer

Honors Scholar Theses

Recognized as a legal term since 1944, genocides have been an unfortunate occurrence since the beginning of world history. However, many countries have failed to properly educate students about genocides that have taken place in their own countries by either not providing accurate or consistent information about what took place or denying the genocide outright. Additionally, in many countries, relations between formerly warring ethnic groups have not improved, despite the often large amount of time that has passed since the end of the genocide. This study examines how history education, both accurate and inaccurate, has affected the current social situation …