Digital Commons Network^™

Comparing Fossil Instruction With And Without Analogy Use For Gifted Middle-School Students, Tabatha J. Klopp

Graduate Research Papers

Twenty-eight identified gifted elementary to middle school students (n=28) (16 female, 12 male; 26 Caucasian, 1 Hispanic, and 1 Native American), participated in the study of Iowa fossils through form and function analogy compared to self-research of information on the Internet, and practiced new concepts through technology-rich or hands-on craft projects. This study compared using analogical thinking skills along with technology skills to determine the effects on science learning in the elementary gifted classroom. Analogical thinking or teaching is a method recognized as a valuable source of new ideas, a way to transfer previous knowledge to solve new problems. Content …

The Effects New Literacy And Digital Learning Have On Our Youth, Joshua L. Mitchell Sr.

Graduate Research Papers

This review explores the effects new literacy and digital learning has on our youth. It is empowering to students to be able to create while learning in the 21st century. One of the purposes of this review was to discover the greatest minds trying to understand the changing role of new media in education. A major resource used for this review was the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub supported by the MacArthur Foundation. This resource contained many articles that pertained to new literacy and digital learning. The articles led the reviewer to believe that a growing field of academics …

Thomas Jefferson And His Religious Beliefs In The Contexts Of History And Today, Nolan Christian Hovland

Honors Program Theses

The written word has great power. It has been said that the pen is more powerful than the sword, and one would be hard pressed to prove otherwise. When studying a figure from history like Thomas Jefferson. it is possible to study the architectural designs, pictures, artifacts from his Iifetime, as well as the recent DNA discoveries. but his written words allow for the most complete study of his life. Like other men and women of his day, Jefferson wrote many, many letters. These letters were written to scores of different people over the course of his life. I le …

The Use Of Nonfiction With Early Childhood Aged Children, Lacy J. Rose

Graduate Research Papers

Many children enter upper elementary unprepared to effectively read and write nonfiction. Some researchers suggest that children's lack of developmentally appropriate experiences with nonfiction during the early childhood years is in part to blame for this later school difficulty. The purpose of this literature review is to investigate the appropriateness of nonfiction for young children, as well as potential benefits and drawbacks of its inclusion in early childhood classrooms. This review of research is followed by the review of the implications current research has had on practice. In addition, suggested ways to increase early exposure to nonfiction are examined.

Infant Literacy, Tera Weber

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this project is to share the importance of reading to infants with their caregivers and teachers. This project will highlight what the research says regarding reading, what the infants gain from reading, and ideas on how to incorporate reading into group settings with infants through a professional development project. Participants in this professional development opportunity will be able to see recorded examples of teachers reading to infants, infants interacting with text, and materials that teachers may take back to their classrooms.

Measuring Depth Of Understanding When Using Smartphones As Cognitive Tools In The Elementary Classroom, Lisa Westcott Schaa

Graduate Research Papers

The intent of this research was to measure how students' depth of understanding was affected by using smartphones in an elementary classroom, and what effects these cognitive tools had on students' abilities to express their level of understanding of the unit on Earth Changes. This empirical research took place for six weeks in the fall of 2011 with a class of eighteen Caucasian boys and girls of middle to low income economic status in a small town in Iowa. Students were a given a pre-test using traditional paper and pencil. Participants were split into two groups-with one group using traditional …

Concept-Based Picture Books For Mathematics, Miranda E. Kral

Graduate Research Papers

New picture books are published every year. Teacher librarians continuously search for new titles to add to their collections through collection development. A resource was not available that provided a list of children's picture books that include a conceptual approach to mathematics. The purpose of this project was to develop an annotated bibliography of children's picture books which, after analysis by the researcher, included materials that take a conceptual approach to mathematics learning for upper elementary students.

The project was completed by selecting children's picture books, meeting selection 13 criteria, found in WorldCat that included multiplication or division concepts. The …

What About The Girls? The Female Fantasy Protagonist In Contemporary Young Adult Literature, Christine M. Tomlinson

Graduate Research Papers

Most are familiar with the Hero archetype as he's been seen from The Odyssey to Star Wars. However, rarely is a female seen in that role. This study attempted to discern the characteristics and the journey of the female hero in Young Adult contemporary fantasy literature. The researcher attempted to answer the following questions:

1. Are contemporary female heroines in fantasy young adult literature more typically Earth Mother/Temptress in nature than Hero?

2. Do contemporary female heroines' journeys significantly differ from the traditional archetypal hero's journey?

3. Is there a new archetype emerging, and if so, what are its characteristics? …

The New Literacies: Transitioning The Secondary Writing Workshop Classroom, Laura Schafer

Graduate Research Papers

The New Literacies are an important aspect of education in the 21 st Century. As with any educational reform, there is some confusion surrounding the terminology of this movement. This paper will review the major components of the new literacies as well as examining the increased use of technology within the secondary writing workshop classroom. With the advancement of technology, students are incorporating more computer use both in and out of the classroom. ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) literacy skills must begin to transition into all classrooms; teaching includes the use of technology as part of instruction rather than a …

The Relationship Between Physical Activity And Academic Achievement, Annie M. Stoessel

Graduate Research Papers

The relationship between physical activity, physical education and academic achievement has gained increased attention in recent years. The nation's obesity rates keep rising and the nation's students continue to be less active than needed to maintain their health. Complicating the issue is the added pressure that schools have felt to cut physical education and physical activity from the school day in order to include more time for the core curriculum. Recently, new research has been added to the conversation that focuses on the relationship of physical activity and its impact on the brain and specifically student cognition. The focus of …

Learning Transfer Of Geospatial Technologies In Secondary Science And Mathematics Core Areas, Curtis P. Nielsen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to investigate the transfer of geospatial technology knowledge and skill presented in a social sciences course context to other core areas of the curriculum. Specifically, this study explored the transfer of geospatial technology knowledge and skill to the STEM-related core areas of science and mathematics among ninth-grade students. Haskell's (2001) research on "levels of transfer" provided the theoretical framework for this study, which sought to demonstrate the experimental group's higher ability to transfer geospatial skills, higher mean assignment scores, higher post-test scores, higher geospatial skill application and deeper levels of transfer application than the …

The Role Of Animal-Assisted Therapy In Initial Psychotherapy Sessions With Adolescents, Erin B. Stromberg

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is defined as "a goal directed intervention in which an animal, meeting specific criteria, is an integral part of the treatment process" (Nebbe, 1995, p. 40). Since its first introduction into the scientific community in the 1960s, AAT has grown in both recognition and application. This is primarily attributable to the characteristics of AAT that allow it to be appropriate for a wide range of populations. These qualities are shown to be especially effective in research with children (Menzies Inc., 2003). Interventions that exercise the advantageous qualities of AAT, and its service in promoting the well being …

Circulating And Organizational Testosterone And The Perception Of Dominance, Jon C. Pedersen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This project focused on the relationship between both circulating testosterone (T), prenatal exposure to T, and perception of emotions in the faces of others. Based on past research, Twas hypothesized to be related to the Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities, which are concerned with reading emotions and intentions of others. More specifically, T was hypothesized to be more strongly related to the perception of dominant emotions compared to the perception of non-dominant emotions. To test this idea, the Test of the Eyes was used, which measures the ability to correctly perceive emotions in pictures of faces (specifically, eyes). To date, …

A Sociable Humanoid Autonomous Robotic Platform (The Sharp Project): An Evaluation Of The G.E.N.E.S.I.S. Robot As An Interactive Consumer Robotic Platform, Jeffrey J. Rick

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The Social Humanoid Autonomous Robotic Platform (SHARP) project is an android project that was created with the intent of making learning about androids and robotics easier for the novice, diverse for the expert, educational in the classroom, and useful in the home or business. The project centers itself on its simplicity, low cost, and expandability. This paper illustrates how the SHARP Project has the potential to be an affordable fit in nearly every modern setting. The introduction of the SHARP project lays the groundwork for people of many ages, incomes, and educational levels to take advantage of robotics technology. The …

The Design And Evaluation Of Wireless Sensor Networks For Applications In Industrial Locations, Hameed Madwar

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In manufacturing industries, there exist many applications where Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN's) are integrated to provide wireless solution for the automated manufacturing processes. It is well known that industrial environments characterized by extreme conditions such as high temperature, pressure, and electromagnetic (EM) interference that can affect the performance of the WSN's. The key solution to overcome this performance issue is by monitoring the received Signal Strength Index (RSSI) at the received sensor of the WSN device and track frame error rate of wireless packets.

ZigBee is a wireless sensor network (WSN) standard designed for specific needs of the remote monitoring …

Being In The World : An Existential Inquiry Of Knowing One's Self Through A Personal Project : In The Context Of Dissertation Survival, Tomoe Kitajima

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study--a philosophical exploration, partly in an autoethnographical account--provides an empirical demonstration that one's personal project has a strong and positive impact on the dissertation process both for endurance to complete the process and for quality of the product. The concept of project is often explained as one's pursuit of his or her most important philosophical issues. This dissertation originated in the very beginning of my doctoral education in summer 2000 when I first encountered the man behind the coffee shop counter. In his life story he expressed a strong question about the problem of knowledge and authentic living. How …

Coolant Fluid In A Turning Operation: Soybean Coolant Fluid In Different Concentrations Versus Petroleum Coolant Fluid, Mary Esther Eckman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The manufacturing sector today's market felt the need to reduce costs along with the ability to be more "green."

Traditionally petroleum based fluids are used in the manufacturing industry. However they are environmentally more harmful as well as cause significant hazards to the operator. This thesis will provide a case study for this sector to become more environmentally friendly with the use of a soybean based cutting fluid. To prove the point a number of tests were performed turning 4140 steel on a CNC turning center. A number of tests were conducted to provide a comparative study of dry, petroleum …

Predicting Reflective Reactions To Rejection Using The Multimodal Model Of Rejection, Abigail Leigh Harris

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Following rejection, people experience both reflexive and reflective reactions. According to the multimodal model of rejection (Smart Richman & Leary, 2009), relational construals surrounding the rejection impact the subsequent reflective behavior. The purpose of this study is to predict the behavior following rejection based on the theoretical model. It is hypothesized that when partner "relationship value" is high, rejection will result in more pro-social behaviors, compared to when partner "relationship value" is low, in which rejection will result in more anti-social behaviors. Though belonging is a fundamental motivation, not all humans exhibit the same level of sensitivity as others. Therefore …

Before Words, There Were Leaves: A Collection Of Poems, Jason Bradford

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The poems in this thesis explore ideas of habitation, animality, humanity, community, and the inevitable disconnection experienced by the lack of communication between the interior and exterior. These poems attempt to construct the in between. The "I" character of these poems lives with several animals and insects throughout the sequence of these poems. The "I" character identifies something valuable in these beings, something unknowable outside the realm of physical coexistence. The same can be said of the animals, who seem to find comfort, sustenance, and kinship with the "I" character. The "house" becomes a blending of the interior and exterior, …

A Qcm-Adhering Bacillus Anthracis Soil Phage Assemblage Is Less Diverse Than A Total B. Anthracis Soil Phage Assemblage, Gabriel David Connell

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Recently, phages have been used as affinity reagents in quartz crystal microbalance (QCM)-based biodetection methods. The goal of this study was to isolate and characterize a Bacillus cereus group soil-phage assemblage, which was isolated from 5 grams of local topsoil, and compare its population structure to that of a similar phage assemblage that had been additionally selected by adhering to a QCM electrode. Viruses aren't well-defined in terms of 'species', therefore operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were defined by structural protein profiles from sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). We were able to obtain a conservative estimate of soilphage 'species' richness …

Heinrich Baermann: The Clarinetist And Inspiration, Alisa Nagel

Honors Program Theses

When composing music, inspiration can be drawn from many sources. Some composers find inspiration in the works of other composers, some draw on innovations of the technical aspects of instruments, and some find a muse. Heinrich Baermann became the muse for composers Carl Maria von Weber and Felix Mendelssohn. Each composer wrote several pieces for Baermann, and worked with him personally. It is clear that Heinrich Baermann was a virtuoso clarinetist who helped define an era of clarinet playing, but his direct influence on the aforementioned composers has rarely been analyzed. Developing a greater understanding of this influence is important …

Ists, November 2011, Iowa Academy Of Science

ISTS Newsletter

In this issue:

--Notes and News

--Thoughts

--Opportunities

Minutes Of Graduate College Curriculum Committee, October 28, 2011, University Of Northern Iowa. Graduate College Curriculum Committee.

Minutes - Graduate Curriculum Committee

Minutes of the committee that oversees the development of the curriculum of the University of Northern Iowa Graduate College.

Carne Viva In Postville: Stories Of Madres And Monarchs, Jennifer Cooley, Karen Mitchell

Faculty Publications

Carne viva are two words in Spanish that together can be translated various ways. Taken literally, they refer to live flesh, like an open wound. In this way they can allude to the slow process of recovery after a traumatic event. The words draw up images of enduring pain. In addition, they can be read to refer to fresh meat and in the context of human relations, to the image of a new conquest. They can also draw our thoughts to the context of a slaughterhouse, where working conditions involve constant contact with carcasses and blood, and the value of …

Tallgrass Prairie Center Newsletter, Fall 2011, University Of Northern Iowa. Tallgrass Prairie Center.

Tallgrass Prairie Center Newsletter

Inside This Issue:

-- Iowa Wrote the Book on IRVM
-- Center Extreme MakeOver: New Research Lab, Seed Cooler, Shop and Equipment Storage Space
-- "The Effect of Perigynia Removal and Stratification on Germination and Emergence of Three Sedge (Carex) Species"
-- Recent Presentations of Center Programs and Projects Natural Areas and Ecological Management Seminar presents: Bulk Seed Harvesting of a Diverse Reconstructed Prairie
-- Wetland Delineation Course June 11-15, 2012
-- Videos Soon to be Available On-Line
-- Natural Selections Seed to be Stored Nationally

Philosophy & World Religions Department Newsletter, V3, Fall 2011, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Philosophy And World Religions.

Philosophy & World Religions Department Newsletter

Inside this issue:

-- Notes from the Head
-- Faculty Updates: John Burnight
-- Faculty Updates: Grant Goodrich
-- Faculty Spotlight: Reza Lahroodi, Professor of Philosophy
-- Faculty Spotlight: James Robinson, Professor Of Religion
-- Harry Brod's Work with The Center for Violence Prevention
-- Discussion & Lectures by Dr. Russ Shafer-Landau
-- Student Interview: Emily O'Loughlin
-- Student Interview: Kayleigh Massman
-- Philosophy Club
-- Alumni Updates
-- RIPD Seminar
-- Impact of Scholarships
-- Support for Students or Department
-- Alumni Highlight: Tom Hesse
-- Alumni Highlight: Peg O'Rourke
-- Alumni Response Form

Ists, September 2011, Iowa Academy Of Science

ISTS Newsletter

In this issue:

--Notes and News

--Opportunities

Iowa Academy Of Science: The New Bulletin, V07n2, Summer 2011, Iowa Academy Of Science

New Bulletin

Inside This Issue:

--Message from the Executive Director

--2011 Friends of Science & Outstanding Service Award Winners

--IAS Corporate Memberships

--2011 Distinguished Science Awards

--IAS—Iowa DNR Pilot Workshop bucks national trends

--Wanted: Saylorville Gift Shop Coordinator

--Announcements, Events & Deadlines

Formation Of Intercellular Junctions During Secondary Neurulation In The Tail Bud Region Of Developing Chick Embryos, Selena Mae Losee

Honors Program Theses

During secondary neurulation, the tail bud of the developing chick embryo undergoes a transition from unorganized mesenchymal cells to a structured epithelial tube. Cells undergoing this process must polarize and then assemble specific molecules that allow them to create intercellular junctions. Intercellular junctions contribute to the cells' ability to adhere, communicate with each other, or block the movement of molecules between neighboring cells. Previous studies have suggested cell-to-cell junctions play an important role in cavitation of the tail bud and in organizing the lumina that form. This study aimed to determine if tight junctions and gap junctions develop in this …

Eighteenth Annual Csbs Student Research Conference [Program] April 9, 2011, University Of Northern Iowa

INSPIRE Student Research & Engagement Conference Programs

A program for the INSPIRE conference where undergraduate and graduate students present their research, internship, volunteer and study abroad experiences, club activities and creative performances.