Educational Methods Commons^™

The Mechanics Of Scientific Belief, Michael Cook

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

In "Science: Conjectures and Refutations," Karl Popper establishes a criterion for the scientific character or status of a theory: its falsifiability. And in one move, he turns a host of common scientific postulates—like the Ideal Gas Law, the Law of Conservation of Mass, Newton's First Law, and the Theory of Evolution—into "metaphysical research programs" whose nature renders them impossible to disprove though observable experiment ("Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind"). According to Popper, the nature of such postulates transcend the physical world; making them just as unfalsifiable as a spiritual power, or a god. In this way, they concern …

Educating The Outsiders: The Importance Of Social Support In The Success Of Latino Undocumented Students, Emily Adkins

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Immigrants of all types come to the United States hoping for some sort of a better life, but when they reach this country, they are faced with barriers. Language barriers, citizenship barriers, and financial barriers must all be overcome by the immigrant family. Undocumented students face particular challenges that seem insurmountable, but schools can offer these students success if they choose to do so. By going out of their way to involve the families of these students while making them feel comfortable in the safe place that the United States school system is and by encouraging teachers to reach out …

Of Love And Other Ills, Enrique Quezada

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

All went as it had for fifteen years in the Rivera González household until the day Matilde saw José Juan coming home from school with vomit on his lips, his skin so pale she thought he was a ghost. Matilde hesitated, but decided to open the door after concluding that, if that pallid personage who resembled her aunt Catalina—God bless her soul—was a messenger of death, she wouldn’t put up resistance. She was ready to bid farewell.

No one had seen her so determined since she yelled at her husband in the consulting room of Dr. Guardado demanding that they …

"So Dead And Bald" Destroys The World: A Psychological Critique Of Object Metamorphosis In Infinite Jest'S Game Of Eschaton, R. Christian Phillips

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

"Do not underestimate objects! . . . It is impossible to overstress this: do not underestimate objects" (Wallace 394). Even the most cursory reading of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest reveals the importance of objects to this work. Objects affect and vigorously direct all the characters throughout, from the tennis balls being continuously squeezed by students at the elite Enfield Tennis Academy (ETA) to the veil Joelle van Dyne wears to the plethora of drugs being consumed and, most importantly, to the cartridge of James O. Incandenza's final film, which is given the ultimate power of life and death over …

Journal Of Undergraduate Research And Creative Activity Volume One

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Contents:

HONORS PROGRAM INDUCTION 3

CAGE'S DUNGEON 18

EACH AND EVERY MINUTE 20

THE "G" WORD 21

DOLLHOUSE 22

"MY PAINTINGS WOULD BE NO DIFFERENT THAN A PICTURE IN A BIOLOGY TEXTBOOK" 23

OF LOVE AND OTHER ILLS 28

SYMPTOMS OF THE VIRUS 36

GODSPEED 43

PALM EPIPHYLL COVER SHIFTS TO HIGHER ELEVATIONS IN TROPICAL CLOUD FOREST, INDICATING LOCAL CLIMATE CHANGE 45

EVOLUTIONARY EXPLANATION FOR INVASIVE ABILITIES OF CENTAUREA STOEBE (SPOTTED KNAPWEED) IN INTRODUCED AREAS 56

CONNEXIN-43 AND TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY 72

MOVEMENTS IN DIALOGUE 93

JARGONS AND PIDGINS AND CREOLES, OH MY! 102

"SO DEAD AND BALD" DESTROYS THE …

Connexin-43 And Traumatic Brain Injury: A Potential Target For Therapeutic Intervention, Lauren R. Moore

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is a widespread, degenerative affliction with no current therapeutic interventions. The long-term degradation caused by TBI results from secondary injury cascades that are initiated by primary injury. An early and important step in the damage process is reactive astrogliosis in astrocytes. Astrocytes communicate through gap junctions, which are composed of two connexon hemichannels from the two communicating cells and these connexons themselves are composed of six connexin protein subunits. Connexin 43 (Cx43) is a particularly important connexin to gap junctional communication and could act either to preserve the astrocytes from oxidative stress, or to propagate the …

"My Paintings Would Be No Different Than A Picture In A Biology Textbook", Andi Kur

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

I find that there are innate balances in life, universal dichotomies that permeate our understanding of the world. My paintings are about a duality such as this that exists between art and science. We are told from youth that these subjects are poles in constant strain, as miscible as oil in water. I spent thirteen years in school believing that I must choose between the two, that it is unnecessary to carry both with me. Drawn between a distinct love of each, I realized how vehemently I disagreed. Everything: every rock to every tree to every person is suspended between …

Evolutionary Explanation For Invasive Abilities Of Centaurea Stoebe (Spotted Knapweed) In Introduced Areas, Erin Koren

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Since every invasion and every exotic species presents a new challenge with novel invasion strategies, the invasion of Centaurea stoebe (synonymously referred to as C. maculosa) into North America will be used as a case study to deeply examine invasion strategies. Centaurea stoebe is a short-lived (approximately 3 years) perennial member of the aster family (Broz et al., 2007). It occurs in two different cytotypes, or with two different chromosomal factors. In its home range, it exists in both diploid and tetraploid cytotypes, but only the tetraploid version is present in introduced ranges in North America (See Figure 1; Treier …

Jargons And Pidgins And Creoles, Oh My!, Emily Gray

UReCA: The NCHC Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity

Nowadays, creoles are often employed when a group wants to reach the minority audience with its message. Thanks to the presence of creoles on every continent, this strategy has the potential to be highly successful. Creole writings can be divided into two main subcategories: ecclesiastical and non-ecclesiastical. Writings related to Christianity can be found wherever English-based creoles are widely used and accepted. Creolized translations of missionary prayers have been dated back to the eighteenth century (Todd 71). Negerhollands, a Dutch-based creole of the Virgin Islands, even boasts a translation of the Bible. Translations of creoles have also been used in …

Ap: Not A Replacement For Challenging College Coursework, Margaret Walsh

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

College affordability is weighing heavily this year on the minds of students, parents, faculty, and the U.S. electorate. Intent on saving money on college tuition as well as impressing college admissions committees, high-achieving students frequently start college-level work early through Advanced Placement courses. However, these courses do not replace the learning that takes place in college-level honors courses. For honors students, making the transition between high school and college means finding opportunities to learn in new ways, taking risks, and diving deeper into ideas.

For more than fifteen years I have been a professor of sociology at a public liberal …

Using Hybrid Courses To Enhance Honors Offerings In The Disciplines, Karen D. Youmans

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

How honors faculty and administrators might best respond to the challenge of AP/IP/dual enrollment credit mandates across the country will depend largely on the nature of their institutions and the size, structure, and mission of their individual programs. While the debate will continue about long-term consequences for the quality of higher education, the realities of the mandates have begun to force new and creative thinking about curriculum design in honors programs that could lead to positive developments for both students and faculty. In response to the demand to develop honors course offerings beyond the general education curriculum, the honors program …

The Honors College Experience Reconsidered: Exploring The Student Perspective, James H. Young Iii, Lachel Story, Samantha Tarver, Ellen Weinauer, Julia Keeler, Allison Mcquirter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Often administrators overlook the student voice in developing strategic plans, mission and vision statements, marketing strategies, student services, and extracurricular programming. Engaging students in these areas may enhance students’ cooperation, interactions, responsibility, and expectations. In order to assess honors students’ perspectives and experiences, the present study, rooted in a phenomenological approach, conducted three focus groups of traditional honors students, senior honors students, and honors college ambassadors. Students described their honors experience in three contexts: connectedness, community, and opportunity. This study informed a new vision and a new set of goals for the University of Southern Mississippi Honors College, and it …

Motivating Learners Through Information Literacy, Clarence Maybee, Michael Flierl

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This paper is included in the Information Literacy: Key to an Inclusive Society, the proceedings of the European Conference on Information Literacy, 2016. The paper introduces a model for creating information literacy learning activities that motivate students. The model draws from informed learning, an approach to information literacy that emphasizes the role that information plays in fostering learning about a subject. Self-determination theory, a motivational theory that focuses on enabling self-determined learners, is applied within the informed learning framework. The results of the investigation outline characteristics of motivating learning activities that enable learning subject content through engagement with information. The …

Effects Of Video Modeling With System Of Least Prompt To Teach Telling Time, Sarah-Ann Katherine Webb

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to teach telling time to the hour, half-hour, quarter to the hour, and to 5 min to students with austim spectrum disorder (ASD) or other developmental disabilities using video modeling (VM). Two research questions were asked: 1. Is there a functional relation between VM and increases in level and trend for telling time to the hour, half-hour, quarter hour, or 5 min for students with ASD and/or other developmental disabilities? 2. Will the use of the VM help students reach criterion on the task analytic steps for the process of telling time? A multiple …

The History Of Inequality In Education And The Question Of Equality Versus Adequacy, Diana Carol Dominguez

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Although the U.S. Constitution espouses equality, it clearly is not practiced in all aspects of life with education being a significant outlier. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson wrote about inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These two theories are related to education through educational adequacy and equality. Sufficientarianism, or educational adequacy, says that what is important is that everyone has “good enough” educational opportunities, but not the same ones. Egalitarianism, or educational equality, says that there is an intrinsic value in having the same educational opportunities and only having good enough opportunities misses something …

Field Ecology Curriculum On White Tail Deer Population In Maine, Shellbe Flynn '20

Capstones, Research Projects, and Curricula

Essential question:

How do scientists use ecological data to make decisions about populations and ecosystems?

Guiding questions:

How do matter and energy flow through biological and physical systems?

How are species interdependent and interrelated?

How do populations respond to positive and negative inputs?

How do ecosystems respond to positive and negative inputs?

A Design Thinking Approach To Professional Development In Reasonable Adjustment: A New Methodology For Trainers In The Vocational Education And Training Sector Of Western Australia, Russell Thom

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research has demonstrated that design thinking (DT) could be used as a professional development (PD) methodology for Vocational Education and Training (VET) trainers in understanding and applying reasonable adjustment (RA). The use of design thinking has the further benefit of raising the trainer’s empathy and understanding of the impact of injury and disability upon a person’s life and the significance of RA outside of the training context.

A workshop (PD session) was designed and conducted to explorer the relevance and success of the PD framework and the use of design thinking in developing an understanding and applying RA. The …

Proceedings Of The 3rd Annual Cuny Games Festival, Robert O. Duncan, Joe Bisz, Julie Cassidy, Carlos Hernandez, Kathleen Offenholley, Maura A. Smale, Deborah Sturm, Cuny Games Network

Publications and Research

Proceedings of the CUNY Games Conference, held from January 22-23, 2016, at the CUNY Graduate Center and Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Literacy and Story - Anything Can be Attempted: In-Person Simulations and Role-Plays in Educations - Game Design - STEM - Design Research - Literature and Story - Awareness: Gender and Sex - Transformative Games Initiative: Game Design as a Classroom Laboratory for Any Discipline - Narrative and Rhetoric - Design Challenges - Information Literacy and Language - Game Design for All: What’s Your Game Plan? Turn Any Idea into a Game! - Ghosts in the Machine - Game …

A Guided Inquiry-Based Laboratory Experiment: Synthesis And Characterization Of Various Phthiocol Complexes, Turina Jangula

The Journal of Undergraduate Research

Despite proven effectiveness of constructivist guided-inquiry based instruction for college chemistry courses, teaching in advanced chemistry courses such as inorganic chemistry remains very much traditional. This persistence of traditional instructional approaches could be attributed to the lack of inquiry-based curriculum materials for these courses. In this paper a guided-inquiry based inorganic laboratory experiment on the synthesis and characterization of phthiocol complexes with four different metals is presented along with suggestions for implementation as a laboratory activity. The experiment is unique in terms of its development based on a social constructivist framework and has student discussion and conceptual understanding of inorganic …

Towards A Persuasive Design Pattern For A Gamified M-Learning Environment, Ferial Khaddage, Christoph Lattemann, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

New innovative technologies create opportunities for persuasive engagement. Persuasive technology is all about software, systems and applications designed to hook, reinforce, change and shape the attitudes of the learners without using coercion or deception. Persuasive design pattern if applied effectively and efficiently may influence learners’ attitudes towards the learning task, and may hook them to the specific learning activity offered via a gamified mobile application. In this paper the concept of persuasive design pattern in gamified m-learning platforms should be introduced to the scientific community. Persuasive design in a gamified mobile learning environment is described and persuasive set of design …