Digital Commons Network^™

Integrating Supports To Meet The Needs Of The Whole Child, Rebecca Wright, Deshonda Stringer

Georgia Association for Positive Behavior Support Conference

Georgia Multi-Tiered System of Supports (GaMTSS) is a data-driven, multi-level prevention system designed to meet the needs of the whole child by implementing a continuum of tiered supports. This session will discuss the integration of academics, behavior, and well-being which is essential for student and educator success. These supports play a critical role in impacting positive school climate. An overview of the five essential components of GaMTSS, with an emphasis on building a strong infrastructure, will also be discussed.

Embodied Cognition And Teaching Stem: Tenets To Explain And Enhance A Middle School Science Project, Jonathan E. Roberts, Joshua L. Williams, Robert A. Hodgdon, Caroline Payne, Gabriela Ruiz Emmanuelli

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

STEM pedagogy is a popular area for research and discussion. The empirical literature on this topic supports a variety of approaches (e.g., inquiry-based) to help instructors spark student interest create an effective learning environment, and foster long-term retention and transfer of information related to STEM topics. One potential approach is to use tenets of embodied cognition, in which behavior and cognition emerge out of real-time sensorimotor behavior of the individual situated within a particular context, to implement strategies to enhance STEM pedagogy. We applied the six lessons of embodied cognition to understand the beneficial aspects of a middle-school project on …

Measuring Social Influence In Online Social Networks - Focused Literature Review On Human Behaviors, Shyamala N. Chalakudi, Gnana Bharathy, Dildar Hussain, Dakshinamurthy Kolluru

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

Measuring an individual's social influence (SI) capability is gaining traction with the rapid growth and expansive reach of online social networks (OSN). However, most existing frameworks and methods are confined to graphical theories or the structural properties of these networks. Even behavioral investigations are often limited to a narrow set of influencing behaviors and confront significant challenges in encompassing the breadth of human psychological characteristics. This study aims to address this gap through an exhaustive and focused literature review, concentrating on the definitions of human behavior characteristics rooted in established sociology and psychology theories. Beyond providing a comprehensive overview, the …

Faculty Senate Agenda, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Teaching Literacy: The Intersection Of Social Studies And Language Arts Through Integration, Christopher D. Moore, Jennifer Shiers, Pamela Mccabe, Jeremy Nix

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Social studies education has always been an important component of K-5 education; however, as dedicated, content-specific instructional time has steadily decreased over the past two decades to give more time to mathematics and specifically English Language Arts, literacy scores have also decreased. Partnering ELA and social studies in the K-5 space allows for students to build their background knowledge in social studies, while increasing their literacy by using instructional resources connected to social studies during the ELA block, and then teaching social studies thinking skills during devoted social studies class time.

Revealing The Stories Of A Place: Designing Curricula On An Island, Ariel Cornett, Delandrea Hall, Kathryn L. Haughney, Cynthia C. Massey, Amanda Wall, Kania Greer

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

Ossabaw Island is a Georgia barrier island, accessible solely by boat and protected from development through a public-private partnership between a foundation and the state. This site has the potential to serve as a primary resource for inspiration, education, and lifelong learning. Our study illuminates how one pre-service teacher (PST) and six teacher educators (TEs) experienced an immersive site visit to this local learning environment. We highlight the importance of experiencing places first-hand and using sources (e.g., oral histories) to make content connections. Additionally, the immersive site visit experience allowed us to collaboratively brainstorm place-based curricular units.

Community Of Practice Mentoring To Retain Middle School Teachers, Karen Weller Swanson, Micki M. Caskey

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

The purpose of this article is to describe and explain a mentoring initiative for supporting and retaining middle school teachers. First, we examine the persistent problem of teacher retention in U.S. schools, particularly in middle schools. Then, we describe a mentoring initiative—a community practice mentoring model that is well-suited for facilitating professional learning and addressing the retention issue. We define community of practice and note how communities of practices work in schools. We argue that a community of practice model is both a powerful conceptual framework for mentoring teachers and a practical approach to supporting middle school teachers’ practice. Next, …

Faculty Senate Agenda, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Mrs. Mary Frances Jones Linning

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Course Correction: Examining 2020’S Middle Level Teacher Education Through A Critical, Antiracist Lens-A Collaborative Self-Study Of Teacher Education Practices, Kristie W. Smith, Kristina N. Falbe

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

The work of teacher education in a 2020’s context is challenging and filled with opportunity. With a diversifying P-12 student body (Love, 2020; Pitts, 2019) and the confluence of social, political, and educational factors (Nieto & Bode, 2018), the complexities of teacher education are vast and fluid. In a historical moment that has included teaching in a time of pandemic, national reckonings over race and injustice, and explicit legislation to guide teaching about social history (Kelly et al, 2023), effective middle level teacher education is multifaceted. It calls for the development of teacher candidates skilled in creating school environments that …

Get Fit! With Math And Lit: A Pilot Program Of Physical Activity, Mathematics, And Literacy With Middle Grades Students Through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Christine L. Craddock, Brittany Pinkerton

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

In an afterschool program at a university literacy center, we piloted the integration of physical activity with multimodal mathematics and literacy exercises. We aimed to incorporate the three tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) including academic success, cultural competence, and critical consciousness with middle grades participants by utilizing a sports-based youth development model (SBYD), Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR). Participants participated in 30-minute sessions bi-weekly over two months, which included reflective discussions and journaling to begin and end activities, respectively. Participants were invited to suggest activities during sessions and interact cooperatively with facilitators and peers. They also engaged in …

Faculty Senate Agenda, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Inkwell Edition, Georgia Southern University

The Inkwell

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Contractor Selection Through Fuzzy Topsis And Fuzzy Saw Techniques, Mohammadsoroush Tafazzoli, Ayoub Hazrati, Kishor Shrestha, Krishna Kisi

Civil Engineering & Construction: Faculty Publications

Contractors play an integral role in construction projects, and their qualifications directly impact various aspects of a project’s success. The unbiased selection of contractors is a challenge in the construction industry worldwide, particularly in public projects where impartiality in the final selection is essential. Numerous factors must be considered when evaluating contractors, making the selection process challenging for the human brain. This paper introduces and compares two methods for assessing contractor prequalification by applying the fuzzy theory. The idea is to facilitate using human judgments in a mathematical system for decision-making with regard to selecting contractors. The method is based …

Ernest F. Lovett Sr.

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Gaining Ground: Toward The Development Of Critical Thinking Skills In A Social Problems Course, Ada Haynes, Jacob Kelley, Andrea Arce-Trigatti

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The purpose of this article is to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning in sociology by examining a set of course redesign improvements made in a Social Problems course at the undergraduate level. These improvements center on increasing students’ critical thinking skills by integrating research-based, innovation-driven learning and student-centered strategies into a four-part course assessment redesign. Using a primarily case study approach, we examine quantitative data in the form of an interdisciplinary pre- and post- Critical thinking Assessment Test (CAT) from students enrolled in one iteration of the redesign for this particular course. Results from this analysis highlight …

Designing An Effective Motivational Climate: Effects On Students’ Effort And Achievement, Margaret Ellis, Brett D. Jones, Fei Gu, Hande Fenerci

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

We present a case study that demonstrates how instructors can intentionally design a positive motivational climate in online and hybrid courses. We also examine the extent to which students’ perceptions of the motivational climate predict their effort and achievement across three different modalities (face-to-face [FTF], online, and hybrid) of the same course. We surveyed students in an undergraduate computer science course once a semester for three consecutive years (FTF in Year 1, online in Year 2, and hybrid in Year 3). Measures included motivation-related scales and final course grades. Our findings, based on survey responses from 981 students, demonstrate that …

Building A Grassroots Learning Assistant Program, Katie V. Johnson, Lindsay A. Singh, Laura J. Frost

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduates who work in active-learning classrooms with students facilitating discussions and encouraging deeper thinking, while also receiving pedagogical training. We describe how we built an LA program at a regional comprehensive university starting as a grassroots STEM initiative to recruit teachers, and expanding into a campus-wide multi-disciplinary program focusing on student success in a variety of general education courses. Additionally, in the 2020-2021 academic year, we conducted a formative assessment to further understand the program's impact. Our findings revealed strong alignment among students, faculty, and LAs regarding the LA's role in student learning. Qualitative themes from …

Practice What We Preach?: A Review Of Journal Publishing Practices Related To Reflective Writing In Sotl, Laura Cruz, Eileen Grodziak, Hillary H. Steiner, Laura Cruz

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) scholars have long advocated for the inclusion of reflective writing as a legitimate form of scholarship. That said, for those instructors seeking to publish their reflective work, especially scholarly personal narratives (SPNs), there are persistent gaps between the aspirations of the field and the realities of scholarly publishing. The present study seeks to illuminate that gap through a systematic analysis of the policies and practices of academic journals as they pertain to the publication of reflective writing in SoTL. The ultimate aim of the study is to enable editors to close the gap between …

Starting And Sustaining An International Teacher Collaboration: Insights And Recommendations From A Sotl Project., Lindsay J. Neill, Heather Swenson Brilla, Neil Haigh

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

During the COVID-19 pandemic, two higher education teachers, located respectively in the United States and Aotearoa New Zealand, collaborated in the design of curricula on the relationship between identity and food for their students. Intended to help their students develop cross-cultural knowledge and relationships, they hoped that their collaboration would also benefit their professional relationship and learning at a time when these aspects of their teaching lives were negatively impacted by COVID-19. As a contribution to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), they undertook, with the help of a researcher colleague, an investigation of (a) factors that influenced their …

Forming International Collaborations For Sotl Research: An Autoethnographic Reflection, Emily Faulconer

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This essay serves as a personal narrative to share experiences and lessons learned in using a sabbatical to form international collaborations for SoTL research. I share my motivations for seeking an international collaboration, explore my predicted and realized benefits, and address challenges encountered including time constraints and administrative barriers.

Balanced N-Color Compositions, Jesus Omar Sistos Barron, Hua Wang

Mathematical Sciences: Faculty Publications

We introduce the notion of balanced n-color compositions, and consider the related enumeration problems. We also establish bijections with four other combinatorial objects, namely two types of Motzkin lattice paths, pairs of regular compositions with restricted parts, and regular compositions with a centered maximum.

Trends In Substance Use And Mental Health Among Adolescents In Georgia, 2002-2022, Saumya S. Palipudi, Bangaru Talli Palipudi, Murty Komanduri

Georgia Public Health Association Annual Meeting & Conference

Background: While substance use and absence of mental health disorders among youth in the United States (US) have declined over the past two decades, post COVID-19 pandemic, these conditions have increased significantly with notable disparities, and witnessed a crisis in public health. In 2022, 24.7% or 6.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 in the US had either Major Depressive Episodes (MDE) or Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and 3.7 percent had both in the prior year². Increased stress, lack of peer connections, parental abuse, and poor mental health conditions were attributed to this increase in substance use^{3-7 …}

Brain Computer Interface-Based Drone Control Using Gyroscopic Data From Head Movements, Ikaia Cacha Melton

Honors College Theses

This research explores the potential of using gyroscopic data from a person’s head movement to control a DJI Tello quadcopter via a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI). In this study, over 100 gyroscopic recordings capturing the X, Y and Z columns (formally known as GyroX, GyroY, GyroZ) between 4 volunteers with the Emotiv Epoc X headset were collected. The Emotiv Epoc X data captured (left, right, still, and forward) head movements of each participant associated with the DJI Tello quadcopter navigation. The data underwent thorough processing and analysis, revealing distinctive patterns in charts using Microsoft Excel. A Python condition algorithm was then …

A Nlp Approach To Automating The Generation Of Surveys For Market Research, Anav Chug

Honors College Theses

Market Research is vital but includes activities that are often laborious and time consuming. Survey questionnaires are one possible output of the process and market researchers spend a lot of time manually developing questions for focus groups. The proposed research aims to develop a software prototype that utilizes Natural Language Processing (NLP) to automate the process of generating survey questions for market research. The software uses a pre-trained Open AI language model to generate multiple choice survey questions based on a given product prompt, send it to a targeted email list, and also provides a real-time analysis of the responses …

Approval Gap Of Weighted K-Majority Tournaments, Jeremy Coste, Breeann Flesch, Joshua D. Laison, Erin Mcnicholas, Dane Miyata

Theory & Applications of Graphs

A $k$-majority tournament $T$ on a finite set of vertices $V$ is defined by a set of $2k-1$ linear orders on $V$, with an edge $u \to v$ in $T$ if $u>v$ in a majority of the linear orders. We think of the linear orders as voter preferences and the vertices of $T$ as candidates, with an edge $u \to v$ in $T$ if a majority of voters prefer candidate $u$ to candidate $v$. In this paper we introduce weighted $k$-majority tournaments, with each edge $u \to v$ weighted by the number of voters preferring $u$.

We define the …

The Future Of Academic Reference Services In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: An Overview, Lili Li, Kay Coates

University Libraries: Faculty Presentations

The purpose of this study explores the deep impact of ChatGPT on reference services in academic libraries. Based on the identified research literature, this study used the method of descriptive content analysis to evaluate the general capabilities of generative AI applications, such as ChatGPT, to transform reference services in academic libraries. With the homepage of the Georgia Southern University Libraries, two experienced librarians examined the potential of generative AI applications like ChatGPT to impact future reference services in ever-changing academic libraries. Based on the word limit, this study only focused on a few key areas of reference services, such as …

2024 Gs4 Student Scholars Symposium Program, Georgia Southern University

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Statesboro Campus presentations can be found on Pg. 4-17.

Faculty Senate Agenda, Georgia Southern University, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Aerodynamic Design And Analysis Of A Modified 2006 Mazda Miata, William N. Recher

Honors College Theses

Aerodynamic forces developed by automobiles have destabilizing effects at high speed. These forces tend to skew toward a vehicle’s rear which can present safety concerns, especially for rear-wheel-drive automobiles like the Mazda Miata. To address oversteer and high-speed instability, a vehicle’s design can be tailored to bring about aerodynamic balance and improve traction. LiDAR was used to bring the physical automobile into the digital space. Then, a splitter and diffuser were added to reduce the magnitude of the destabilizing forces. Next, the size and shape of the rear-wing required to balance the vehicle was calculated using a combination of parameters …