Digital Commons Network^™

Senior Thesis Work, Corey Jansen

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

In closing, it is important to remember, as stated earlier, that no one can prove exactly what it was that the authors of Genesis were trying to get across to us. It is valid to note, however, that the stories they were trying to get across were intended for and more properly understood by the people at that time and place. While they form the basis of many of our beliefs in Christianity, they weren't written with the realization that thousands of years later there would be great scientific discoveries that would teach us more about the world and about …

The Biopsychosocial Model Of Medicine: Implications For The Future Of Healthcare, Abby M. Luensmann

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

The science of medicine is changing at an incredible rate. New treatments, technologies, and biologically-based discoveries seem to occur almost daily. In fact, the health care business has evolved into the largest service industry in the United States, grossing more than $1 trillion annually (Taylor, 2003). Despite the obvious attention paid to health-related issues in this country, is our health care system actually providing American citizens with the most efficient and effective care treatments possible? Do current medical practices have the best interests of the American public in mind, or are outdated philosophies being used to treat illnesses and diseases …

Cerebral Palsy: Physical Therapy And Medical Treatment Issues, Jill Pedretti

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

A discussion of the various terms associated with CP as well as the different classifications will precede a review of several randomized controlled trials, case studies, cohort studies and other related articles regarding treatment methods. Specifically, the use of Intrathecal Baclofen Therapy (1TB), Botulinum toxin injections (Botox), Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy, Threshold Electrical Stimulation (TES), and Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy will be examined.

The Welsh Language: Cultural Preservation Or A Losing Battle?, Kim Mercer

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Wales, the tiny country that along with Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England makes up the United Kingdom, has always been a land of great contrasts and conflicts. From the rocky northern crags of Snowdonia to the sunny (for Britain) beaches of South Wales, the land itself seems to foster divisions, cultural and political as well as physical. The Welsh are likewise a mixed population, containing major populations of English immigrants and other "foreigners" drawn to the country for job opportunities, political refuge, as well as retirees enthralled with the landscape and change of pace from the rapid urbanization of much …

Implementing Writer's Workshop In A Kindergarten Classroom, Katie Hauschildt

Graduate Research Papers

Can children be taught to write in kindergarten? Should children be taught to write in kindergarten? How do you teach children to write in kindergarten? These and many other questions about the appropriateness of writing and how to teach writing have been swirling around the education community for many years. As a kindergarten teacher I myself began wondering about these questions and how to answer them. I was intrigued by the idea of providing a framework in my classroom that would encourage emerging readers and writers to create and manipulate their own text.

In an effort to better understand the …

Integrating Technology Into Literature Circles, Carrie A. Lutkenhaus

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project is to develop a series of in-services that train middle school literature teachers in the integration of technology into literature circles. A staff development workshop was created to coincide with the Fort Dodge Community School District reading improvement goal. The audience for this staff development workshop will include eight fifth and sixth grade teachers from Fair Oaks Middle School. A review of the literature concerning literature circles and the integration of technology confirmed that the integration of technology into literature circles would have a positive effect on the literature classroom. Literature circles and the integration …

Home-School Reading Journals And Parental Involvement, Annalisa Marie Miner

Graduate Research Papers

"When schools encourage children to practice reading at home with parents, the children make significant gains in reading achievement compared to those who only practice at school" (Tizard, 1982).

Throughout my teaching career I have always worked with many students who are from homes that do not participate often in school and do not appear to have school-like literacy activities as a part of their family culture. I want to find a way to involve all families as collaborators in increasing their children's literacy achievement, because I feel this will benefit the children academically and also create a love of …

Assessment: A Creative Component, Sandy Ross

Graduate Research Papers

This is the year in our curriculum cycle where science is being reviewed with the goal of purchasing of new textbooks, materials, etc. Due in part to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, and in part to the desire to have consistency throughout the district, our science curriculum will be drastically changing. We are moving from teaching one content area in depth for the entire year, to using a more integrated approach where all content areas are addressed each year. The standards and benchmarks are being rewritten to coordinate with the concepts tested on the Iowa Tests of Basic …

Standards Based Recommendations For K-8 Science Curriculum At Independence Community School District, Jan Reed

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study was to determine the gaps, redundancies, and conceptual inconsistencies present in the Independence Community School District K-8 science curriculum. The study was divided into four chapters with the first chapter providing an introduction, followed with a chapter laying out the background and framework. Chapter three consists of the method to create the product and the product itself which include the National Science Education Standards in one section and spreadsheet matrices in the traditional science content areas of life, earth/space, and physical science, science as inquiry, and science and technology for grades K-4 and grades 5-8 …

Chest Compression-Only Cpr As An Alternative To Traditional Cpr In Adult Cardiac Arrest: A Review Of Literature, Karin L. Wille

Graduate Research Papers

Despite the fact that the meaning of the term CPR is widely understood by the general population and that most people understand CPR to be a key to survival in the cardiac arrest victim, CPR is not being performed on the vast majority of people experiencing cardiac arrest. Statistically, approximately 350,000 cardiac arrests occur each year in the United States (AHA, 2003; Weisfeldt and Becker, 2002). Retrospective studies of witnessed cardiac arrest events indicate that no bystander CPR was performed 3 in 55% to 84% of cases (Bossaert, Van Hoeyweghen, and The Cerebral Resuscitation Study Group, 1989; Cummins et al., …

Walk A Mile In Our Shoes: A Day In The Life Of A School Library Media Specialist, Melissa Kane

Graduate Research Papers

Some school staff may have an incomplete understanding of the roles and responsibilities of the school library media specialist. This research project, designed for school staff to view shows the activities of school library media specialists. The project is set up in a thirteen minute video project. The research project also consists of a survey of three Iowa schools to see how the perceptions of school staff compared to what media specialists actually do in a day. Some of the survey results are included throughout the video project and in a pamphlet that is included with the video project. The …

Measuring The Success Of Classworks Computer Instruction, Susan J. Boatwright

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this research was to test the effectiveness of the computer program, ClassWorks Gold (CW) in improving student reading and writing scores. ClassWorks Gold is a computer program that merges parts of 150 commercially available language arts program with a built-in assessment and internal e-mail system.

Garfield Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received a grant from the Iowa Department of Education for the purchase and implementation of CW as a supplement to regular language arts classroom instruction. The grant required action research for an assessment. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of CW with two third grade …

Gender Assignment To English Words In The Spanish Of Southern Arizona, Elise M. Dubord

Faculty Work

This paper examines the gender assignment of English words in the Spanish of Southern Arizona based on the categories of biological sex, phonological gender, and analogical gender. It is determined that biological sex is the greatest indicator of gender assignment, followed by phonological gender and lastly by analogical gender. There was a small (7.9%) proportion of variation in gender assignment to English words in the corpus that is attributed to a combination of words that are neither phonologically nor socially integrated into the Spanish lexicon and the linguistic insecurity of the participants.

Teaching Speaking In The Foreign Language Classroom, Amanda J. Smith

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

One of the most necessary skills for living in the twenty-first century is gaining the ability to know and use another language. In many areas of life, from business transactions to broadcasting television weather warnings, the demand for proficiency in a foreign language is growing. One of the most important skills to have in a foreign language is the ability to speak the language with native or non-native speakers of that language. A great number of foreign language learners most likely consider one of their primary language goals to be the ability to speak the language at a high level …

Students Who Self-Injure : How Can Counselors Help, Martha Watter

Graduate Research Papers

It is estimated that approximately two million Americans self-injure (Nadelson, 2000). Generally, females are most likely to self-injure and usually begin in their teens. Approximately 72 percent of those who self-injure use deliberate cutting (Ng, 1998). Although possibly new to many common civilians, self-injury has been called the addiction of the 90's according to many researchers (Nadelson, 2000). This paper describes what self-injury is, when it usually begins, and the many reasons why an adolescent chooses to self injure himself or herself. Each teen should be treated as an individual, although, most often, self-injurers come from similar family situations and/or …

The Transformation Of A Middle School Industrial Shop To A Modular Industrial Technology Lab And Communicating This Transformation To The Local Community, Lynn Figg

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this graduate project was to describe the transformation of a middle school industrial arts shop to a modular industrial technology lab and the subsequent public relations effort to communicate this transformation to the local community. This project facilitated a better understanding of what a modular industrial technology lab is, what it looks like, and how it meets the needs of the industrial technology curriculum.

A PowerPoint presentation was created to explain to the diverse audiences how the change from a traditional industrial arts "shop" class to a modular industrial technology lab at an intermediate school took place, …

Phonemic Awareness In The Kindergarten Classroom, Shelly Jelinek

Graduate Research Papers

There are two objectives that I hope to meet with the completion of this project. The first is to provide teachers with phonemic awareness activities to supplement the Marion Independent School District early childhood and/or elementary curriculum. The second objective is to provide activities that meet the requirements of my district's phonemic awareness assessment.

Shared Reading For Teaching English As A Foreign Language To Young Learners In Russia, Inna V. Kuznetsova

Graduate Research Papers

Shared Reading has proven to be very effective in developing language and literacy skills of children in the West. This project introduces Shared Reading as a curriculum component of English as a foreign language for young children in Russia. Review of the literature regarding the effectiveness of Shared Reading is described. The project includes two units of four lessons each that illustrate implementation of Shared Reading, oral language and other literacy activities. The project concludes with specific recommendations for dissemination of this work.

Reflections About My Second Year Of Teaching Reading, Molly Melloy Recker

Graduate Research Papers

On the second day of school, I realized that four students had entered my first grade classroom – reading. As that school day concluded, at the beginning of my second year of teaching, I remember sitting down at my desk, and thinking to myself, "Now what?" These were not the students I was expecting.

In this paper I explain how I adapted my reading beliefs and teaching practices to meet the challenge the four students posed to me. I describe each student, and their reading behaviors. Next, I discuss perspectives about early literacy, in order to examine my beliefs in …

Literature Response Journals And Students Entitled To Special Education Services, Andrea J. Safina

Graduate Research Papers

This article examined the types of responses students entitled to level 1 and level 2 special education services made in their journals when responding to books read aloud by a special education teacher. The books chosen to be read aloud were from different genres and about varying topics. The responses were also examined to see if the genre read had any impact on the students' responses.

The responses made by the students fell into eight categories and genre did not affect the response pattern when students were responding to books read aloud by the teacher. The students still made more …

Integrating Technology To Facilitate Math Instruction In The Elementary Classroom, Terri Schmidt

Graduate Research Papers

Integrating technology throughout the elementary curriculum is a topic that concerns educators. This paper informs educators as to why they should explore the implementation of technology into the math curriculum in the elementary classroom. This paper discusses brain-based learning, how to use brain-based learning techniques as well as the computer to integrate math and the benefits of using the computer in the math classroom throughout the day in the elementary classroom.

Writing As A New Component Of English As A Second Language Programs For Young Russian Children, Elena Voronina

Graduate Research Papers

This project is based on the fundamental idea that oral and written languages develop simultaneously and mutually support development of each other. Reading and writing are two language processes which are impossible to separate from each other, whether learning one's native language or a foreign language. However, in Russian English Foreign Language (EFL) programs this is not the case. The main focus for five and six year olds in these programs is oral communication, the ability to speak with your partner and comprehend what is being spoken. For young learners writing may facilitate language development. The language becomes not just …

Content Analysis Of The Changing Roles Of Female Protagonists In Girls Series Novels Written After The Women's Movement, Tina Kathryn Ristau

Graduate Research Papers

While series novels have been popular for many years, the actual roles of females have changed through time. Series novels written in recent years may not reflect the changes women's roles have undergone. Nancy Drew acted as one of the first female protagonists in girls' series novels and provided an intelligent, independent role model for young girls. Series novels written after the Women's Movement in the 1980s and 1990s may not reflect the changing role of women in society.

While researching this problem a content analysis form was used to evaluate five series novels each, from five different girls series. …

Food Insecurity Among Elderly Persons In Black Hawk County, Iowa, Martha A. Etten

Graduate Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Music That Teaches, Susan L. Carroll

Graduate Research Papers

Not many materials for librarians are available in a participatory form. Most materials are available for presentation. But research has shown that affective learning, which allows students to participate, has had a positive effect on young children learning their basic skills. This research project will be used for participation. The research project used the standards, benchmarks, and objectives found in library curricula for kindergarten through third graders. These standards were the basis of the lyrics to the songs. Music was composed to complement the lyrics and a songbook was designed which included these songs, illustrations, and suggestions for activities to …

Iowa’S Covered Bridges, Marilyn K. Schmitz Ralls

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project was to write and illustrate pictorial an informational picture book on Iowa's covered bridges. This picture book was meant to assist upper elementary teachers in teaching transportation and architecture to their students and inform them of the value of covered bridges in Iowa's history. The finished product is an informational picture book aimed for nine to twelve year olds, but which younger children and adults could enjoy. In sharing this book with others, the readers mostly were drawn to the photographs, but were also drawn to the writing, especially the ghost story.

Writing In The Kindergarten Classroom : It Can Be Done!, Stephanie Kartman

Graduate Research Papers

When discussing early writing Vicki Spandel (2001) brings up the following very important point: "We need to notice the little things (not just the big milestones) and put them to work to encourage our young writers, who are often doing much more than they get credit for'' (p. 321 ).

This project was built upon the idea that teachers would support writing through various instructional methods such as interactive, shared, and direct writing instruction. These activities are meant to supplement the Marion Independent School District kindergarten curriculum.

Mapping Wetlands And Potential Wetland Restoration Areas In Black Hawk County, Iowa Using Object-Oriented Classification And A Gis-Based Model, James Harken

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Wetlands are transitional lands between terrestrial and aquatic systems that provide many benefits, including: floodwater retention, non-point pollution treatment, wildlife habitat, and soil-erosion control. Wetlands in Iowa have decreased over 95% in the last 200 years. Therefore, there is a need to map and monitor these resources, as well as to determine potential sites for wetland restoration. In Black Hawk County, wetland maps are outdated, and ground surveys have proved to be too time-consuming and expensive. Traditional pixel-based automated classifiers of remotely-sensed imagery have also proven to be inaccurate in classifying wetlands because of spectral confusion. This study tests multispectral …

Modeling And Measuring The Dispersion Of Odors From Hog Confinements, François Béra

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

A comparison was made between predicted and measured odor concentration downwind of two hog finishing confinements. Two Gaussian dispersion models, STINKBAK and AERMOD, were used. The experimental cases examined odor emanating from a mechanically-ventilated facility and a curtain-sided facility during summer 2003. A field olfactometer was used to measure odor concentration. The odor concentrations served as input to STINKBAK, which then estimated the odor emission rate from the confinement. AERMOD used this emission rate and other meteorological data to predict the peak concentration of odor around the confinement over the sampling hour.

The calculated odor emission rates are slightly higher …

Early Literacy And Making Sense In An Inclusive Preschool Classroom, Patresa A. Hartman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this ethnographic study was to build understanding regarding the meaning and role of early literacy as a meaningful interaction in one inclusive preschool classroom. I was specifically interested in the idea of literacy as a social construction - as an interaction with one's environment for the purpose of making sense of it. Furthermore, I investigated the way this construction facilitated or denied one child's citizenship in the classroom community, which is located within an early childhood center in a mid-sized, Midwestern city. My topic, examining early literacy as a sense-making interaction, lent itself quite naturally to qualitative …