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Utah State University

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2020

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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Crowdsourced Conservation, Emmy Heywood Dec 2020

Crowdsourced Conservation, Emmy Heywood

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Since the 1800s, America has been known for its massive conservation projects–setting aside huge swaths of land in public parks and passing legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts. Now, new technologies are making a different type of conservation project possible, and conservationists are capturing massive amounts of data to inform conservation efforts through community involvement. These crowdsourced projects harness knowledge and skills of large groups of people who can contribute to conservation goals. For example, the internet platform Sciestarter connects 100,000 registered citizen scientists plus millions of onsite visitors with over 3,000 individual conservation projects. The global …


Stated And Revealed Preferences For Supporting Endangered Species At Mammoth Cave National Park, Erin Crump, Whitney Yardley Dec 2020

Stated And Revealed Preferences For Supporting Endangered Species At Mammoth Cave National Park, Erin Crump, Whitney Yardley

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

When asked to put a value on unique and endangered species that live in US national parks, many people say they would be willing to pay to help conserve species. But it can be difficult to assess whether an individual's stated preferences match up with their actual preferences towards donating to preserving these species. The purpose of this study is to measure whether stated preferences about hypothetical giving match up with revealed preferences about actual giving for how much individuals are willing to pay to help conserve endangered species in Mammoth Cave National Park. To do this, we distributed a …


What Are The Consequences Of (De)Criminalization?, Isaac Rhea Dec 2020

What Are The Consequences Of (De)Criminalization?, Isaac Rhea

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The US has the highest incarceration rate of any developed country (1.46M in 2018) and this large population of inmates creates a significant cost for taxpayers and governments. Further, the traditional prison system may not be the most effective way to reduce crime and rehabilitate offenders. Extensive researchhas been conducted to study decriminalization as a solution to these problems, and promising results have been found indicating a path forward to reduce inmate populations and government expenditures, improve offender outcomes, and maintain public safety.


Drought Tolerant Plants For The Western United States In Response To Climate Change, Emily Rice Dec 2020

Drought Tolerant Plants For The Western United States In Response To Climate Change, Emily Rice

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

The Southwest United States has been severely impacted by climate change. Already the driest region of the US, temperatures in the area have risen approximately 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the previous century ("Climate Impacts in the Southwest", 2017). Those temperatures are expected to rise by 3.5 to 9.5 degrees before the end of the current century ("Climate Impacts in the Southwest", 2017). In a region already considered to have many drought areas, this temperature increase will stress water sources, making the competition between farmers, urban areas, and native groups to become more intense. The same temperature increases that cause severe …


The Worth Of Citizenship, Rachel Sneddon Dec 2020

The Worth Of Citizenship, Rachel Sneddon

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

Currently there are roughly 9.2 million immigrants in the United States who have held lawful permanent residence long enough to gain U.S citizenship. Yet many do not pursue naturalization to become citizens. On average since the year 2000 about 700,000 residents naturalized per year. Some nonprofits or local governments run citizenship drives to encourage more people to become citizens. The purpose of this paper is (1) to review the research on what the relationship between naturalization and immigrants' economic outcomes is, (2) to evaluate if citizenship drives assisting immigrants in the naturalization process would be beneficial for the country as …


Non Compete Agreements And Low Wage Workers, Ellie Willard Dec 2020

Non Compete Agreements And Low Wage Workers, Ellie Willard

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

In the wake of the COVID-19 spurred pandemic and the resulting recession, finding a job can be difficult in the current economic environment. As a result, law-makers are debating the efficacy and legality of non-compete clauses in employee contracts. Non-compete agreements typically require an employee to agree not to work for a competitor for some amount of time after they end their current employment. Non-compete clauses are not a new idea and have been used internationally as a way to lower risks of hiring new employees for centuries. Recently, the scope of non compete agreements has extended past hiring and …


Expanding Healthcare To Underserved Communities, Hunter Murdock, Colten Dougher Dec 2020

Expanding Healthcare To Underserved Communities, Hunter Murdock, Colten Dougher

Fall Student Research Symposium 2020

According to the Bureau of Health's Workforce Health Resources and Services Administration, there are almost 253 million people who do not have adequate access to healthcare in the United States. While innovations in technology, drug manufacturing, and procedures will continue to make healthcare more affordable and more accessible, policies restricting doctors' and nurses' abilities to practice healthcare are creating barriers that prevent them from utilizing existing technology to reduce healthcare shortages in underserved areas. The underserved populations in America include rural communities, Native Americans, and linguistic minority groups. Many of today's healthcare policy suggestions aim at increasing health insurance coverage …