Digital Commons Network^™

Maggie And Her Students: Talking And Reasoning In A Reform-Based Mathematics Classroom, Debra Louise Semm Rich

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In this qualitative case study, I explored how Maggie, the teacher, and her students used language to advance students' conceptual understanding of mathematics in a reform-based mathematics classroom. Specifically I sought to describe how Maggie's reform-based mathematics classroom environment impacted the quantity and quality of mathematical language spoken by her students. Maggie's eighth-grade mathematics classroom was observed during a course of study on data and statistics. Three semi-structured interviews with Maggie, artifacts provided by her, and fourteen 52-minute classroom lessons, supported with field notes, were analyzed.

Environmental themes were revealed as they related to Maggie, her beliefs, goals, knowledge, and …

Disrupting The Discussion : The Story Of Disruptive Students In The Online Classroom, Belle Doyle Cowden

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Many online classrooms today are designed based on learner-centered principles. Implicit with this design perspective is the goal to create and facilitate a virtual learning community in which students learn from and share with each other through discussion based computer conferencing. In the current literature, little has been shared on what happens to the online learning community when students behave in a manner deemed challenging, difficult, or disruptive. However, as in the face-to-face classroom, disruptive student behaviors do appear in the online classroom.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how disruptive student behaviors impact the online learning community …

Effects Of Environmental Variables On Food Consumption, Denise Eslinger

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Overweight and obesity is a growing epidemic among adults, adolescents, and children in the United States. Since 1980, rates of obesity have doubled among adults and tripled among children, and college students are not immune to this trend. This may be due, in part, to portion sizes that exceed individuals' caloric needs. Although many studies have demonstrated that people's food consumption is highly influenced by environmental factors ( e.g., the size of a portion that is given), there has been very little theoretical work exploring the reasons for this influence. To determine if portion size would affect consumption when a …

The Impact Of Attachment Disorder On The Family And Child, Stephanie Durocher

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

John Bowlby's attachment theory suggests that based on their needs for protection, comfort and nurturance, infants form attachments with their primary caregivers. The initial relationships a person has with others will serve as a blueprint for all future relationships. This connection has a significant influence on every area of a person's life, including cognition, physical and emotional health, future relationships, education and development of values. When an infant's needs are met with inconsistency, abuse or maltreatment, the influence on a child's life and those caring for the child is widespread. This study sought to explore the impact caring for a …

Cylinders And Spheres : Toddlers Engage In Problem Solving, Rosemary Geiken

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Every day more six million infants and toddlers (children under 3 years of age) enter some kind of out-of-home care, with 22% of this group attending center-based programs. Studies on the quality of care in centers indicate that 40% of these children are in poor quality settings while 51 % are in mediocre to medium quality settings. Two factors contributing to these low ratings are lack of age-appropriate materials and lack of learning opportunities. To address these data Piaget's theory of constructivism guided the design of a study to provide evidence of construction of knowledge that occurred when toddlers were …

Enrollment Of Students With Disabilities In Career And Technical Education, Cory C. Johnson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The enrollment patterns of students with and without disabilities in Career and Technical Education (CTE) were examined. Data were collected from the transcripts and Individualized Education Plans (IEP) of 27 students with disabilities and the transcripts of 27 students without disabilities from three school districts at the end of their senior year. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistical analyses to describe differences between the enrollment patterns of students with and without disabilities as well as between students with different types and severity of disability. Overall, students in special education earned more CTE credits than students in general education. Additionally, …

Effective Professional Development For Teachers Of Students With Autism, Erin Marie Torruella

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The number of students with autism is on the rise. The main treatment for children with autism is their education. It is essential that teachers are prepared to work with students with autism. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a teacher training workshop held by Area Education Agency 267. Fifty-one participants of the workshop training responded to a survey regarding their implementation of strategies learned, their understanding of the content and strategies learned, the change in their planning and delivery of instruction, and the impact on their students' achievement.

The study found that the training …

Girl's Basketball In Iowa: The Game Of Six-On-Six And Its Impact On The State's Athletic Culture, Sarah Gronemeyer

Honors Program Theses

Since the beginning of civilization, sporting activities have played a role in the lives of people. Whether it was the ancient Greek Olympics, or the Native-American game of lacrosse, people found time to participate in athletic endeavors, whether it be for competition or friendly play. While this was originally limited to men, women also found time to participate in sporting activities, although on a more limited basis that reflected their "delicate" nature. 1 As in most other social areas, women were limited to only those sports and leisure activities that were deemed "ladylike", since physical exertion and competition were too …

Differences In Depression Levels Among Tenors, Baritones, And Basses, Rhiannon Jane Talbot

Honors Program Theses

Music and speech are closely related to one another. Both have specific elements, such as average fundamental frequency, pitch variation, and speed, to accurately communicate emotion. Some emotions have characteristic speech patterns; in the case of sadness, a low mean fundamental frequency, slow speed of speech, and minimal pitch variation are common. Both music and speech also utilize physical metaphors (up/down, high/low, etc.) to express positivity and negativity. The study was intended to determine whether male vocal register correlated with levels of depressive symptoms. Specifically, tenors were expected to have lower levels of depression than baritones and basses. Participants (16 …

Music Videos As Social Commentary: A Sociological Analysis Of Lady Gaga, Jacob Allen Everett Rudy

Honors Program Theses

Since the television channel Music Television (MTV) aired its first music video on August 1, 1981, music videos have come to serve as vehicles for music artists from all genres. Using these productions as a way to simultaneously promote a song and a particular artist has proven to be successful means with which to build a career in the American music industry. However, as with all cultural artifacts, music videos contain much more information than simply visual interpretation of songs. They are rich in sources with which sociologists can further understand social norms and institutions. Through the analysis of music …

Social Media Marketing: Facebook And The Effect Of Coupons On Customer Loyalty Among College Students, Ciara Pearce

Honors Program Theses

Research for this honors thesis involved social media marketing (SMM), which is the utilization of social media channels to engage with online communities by building and maintaining mutually beneficial relationships. SMM exists as a subset of the field of integrated marketing communications (IMC). The primary goal of IMC is to synchronize marketing communications from all platforms to create a consistent and strong message. The inclusion of social media marketing in corporate IMC plans is occurring more and more often, as participation in social media sites continues to rise. According to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, …

Sacred Stones For Sacred Structures: An Examination Of Patterns In The Temples And Twin Complexes At Tikal And Palenque, Meredith Mae Hild

Honors Program Theses

Extensive work in uncovering and reconstructing Classic Maya temples has been completed while the importance of Maya studies has increased during the past centuries. Little has been done, however, in the interpretation of certain Maya structures within the context of Maya thought. That context includes an understanding of the Maya interpretation of their place within the cosmos, an aspect of Maya culture that dictated every individual's daily actions. Researchers have tended to focus on architectural analyses that describe the dimensions and building materials of temples and other monumental structures. This leads to interpretations that are lacking in cultural significance. While …

Violent Crime And Drug Use: The Relationship Between Drugs And Types Of Crime, Richard William Fortney

Honors Program Theses

Previous research shows us that there is a relationship between drugs and crime (Chaiken and Chaiken 1990; Dawkins 1997; Goldstein 1985; Harrison and Gfroerer 1992; Inciardi and Pottieger 1994; French, McGeary, Chitwood, McCoy, Inciardi, and McBride 2000). This paper seeks to determine whether there is a relationship between the types of drugs an individual uses and the types of crimes that they commit. There have been studies that researched similar relationships, such as French et al 2000, but they did not look at the differences in types of drugs used by individuals. Instead, they focused on simply finding a relationship …

Raising Good Soviets: Media Depictions Of Soviet Life And Upbringing Under Khrushchev, Chelsea Miller

Honors Program Theses

Policies on education and upbringing affected almost every individual in the Soviet Union, from the youngest child to the oldest pensioner. These policies reflected the current ideological path of the party and the need to train the children to accomplish the country’s goals. On a more personal level, these policies helped the children evolve into successful adults able to easily enter the workforce. When the public saw that these policies were not being enforced or implemented, they expressed their dissatisfaction. These individuals were able to safely voice their criticisms by pointing out the educational system’s failures within the ideological framework …

Interface Design To Support Situation Awareness In Virtual Puppetry, Keisha Joy Harthoorn

Honors Program Theses

"Virtual Heritage" is the use of digital media to reconstruct cultures and cultural artifacts as they are today or as they might have been in the past. The central element is usually a threedimensional computer model of a person, place, or thing. Frequently, these are ancient monuments, temples, homes, and other social spaces (Jacobson, 2008). The goal of Virtual Heritage is to draw viewers into the virtual world and allow them to directly experience the overall context of the environment. This phenomenon is known to researchers as “presence.” It is a long held belief that the increased presence yields better …

Musical Eating And Culinary Listening: Composing With Sounds And Flavors, Isaac Brockshus

Honors Program Theses

My interests in music are wide-ranging. While the majority of my energies as a student are invested in the mastery of music that is more or less conventional, I also find myself obsessing over ideas intended to clear new avenues of expression while establishing new perspectives on the familiar. My experimental side thrives in a vast playground of extant musical constructs, free to be exploded, reassembled, and reexamined. Within these constructs come certain audience expectations for the music. The presence of these expectations and the practical issues resulting from a clash of expectations served as instigators of creative thought throughout …

Influencing Factors Behind Urban Sprawl In The United States, Charles N. Cowell

Honors Program Theses

Urban sprawl concerns planners, urban economists, and city governments because of several negative side effects associated with it. Urban sprawl can be defined many ways, but the Merriam-Webster Dictionary states it as “the spreading of urban developments (as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city.” Deprivation of the environment, automobile reliance, inner city poverty, and even obesity are suggested to be linked to sprawl. In order to address urban sprawl effectively, its causes need to be identified. Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis will be used to show factors that may contribute to urban sprawl in the …

Beliefs, Concerns, And Methods Of Parents Raising Children Bilingually: A Study Of Hispanic Iowa Mothers Attempting To Maintain Heritage Language In Their Children, Briana Vera

Honors Program Theses

The purpose of my thesis was to discover more about parents who are raising their children to be English-Spanish bilingual, particularly their beliefs, concerns, and methods regarding this issue. I focused specifically on mothers in Iowa whose native language was Spanish and who had at least one child in the household between the ages of four and sixteen. A point of interest I focused on were the beliefs, concerns, and methods these mothers have and use to maintain their children‟s heritage language (Spanish) as the community language (English) becomes more prominent in their children‟s lives. This information is important for …

The Parallel Experience Of A Bilingual Child With A Communication Disorder And A College Language Immersion Program, Kate Sussan Elahi

Honors Program Theses

For many speech-language pathologists, it is difficult to truly understand the experience a child goes through when they have a communication disorder. Especially when at the same time, a child is learning a new language in an unfamiliar culture. This thesis bridges that gap of understanding by comparing the experience of a bilingual child with a communication disorder and that of a college student studying abroad in a language immersion program. It reviews and compares various literature and studies describing the language characteristics (i.e., form, content, use, and behavior) of bilingual children with a communication disorder. These characteristics are then …

Digit Ratios, Baron-Cohen's Reading The Minds In The Eyes And Dart-Throwing Task, Betul Zora

Honors Program Theses

There is evidence that high prenatal testosterone and the ratio of the index finger to the ring finger are correlated. There is also evidence that male-typical finger ratios correlate positively with male-typical tasks such as targeting and negatively correlated with female-typical tasks. This study examines the correlation between the digit ratio and the dart throwing task and also the digit ratio and Baron-Cohen’s Reading the Mind in the Eyes test. A different digit ratio, the ratio of the index finger and the ring finger to the pinky is also collected and correlated with both of the other tests. Sometime during …

Effects Of Sexual Assault Education On College Students' Rape-Supportive Attitudes, Jessica Ann Ueland

Honors Program Theses

Few studies have measured the effectiveness of sexual assault programming is in decreasing acceptance of rape myths. This study examined two research questions. First, would students in a class that included a sexual assault education component be more likely to demonstrate a change in degree of rape myth acceptance than students who were not in a class that included sexual assault education? Second, within the treatment group, would males demonstrate a larger change in rape myth acceptance than females? At the end of the course, the treatment group showed a significant decrease in rape myth acceptance; there was not a …

Rational Decision-Making In The Face Of Uncertainty: An Experiment In Jeopardy!, Trevor Boeckmann

Honors Program Theses

This paper examines the quiz show "Jeopardy!." In the game, players accumulate points then wager them in a final round on a single question. My study finds an empirically-best wagering system for these players, then calculates the benefit of using this system through additional games that would be won with the correct bet. My regression model then finds the determinants of empirically-best (EB) betters. The results show players tend to act too aggressively. Half of non-first place players wager incorrectly and nearly 90% of those non- EB wagers are too large. The regression shows players are most likely to make …

"With A Woman's Bitterness": Early Propaganda Against Female Rulers In Medieval Chronicles In The Twelfth And Fifteenth Centuries, Elizabeth Anne Wiedenheft

Honors Program Theses

In reading the descriptions of the Empress Matilda and Queen Margaret of Anjou by their contemporaries, it is clear that their male counterparts were threatened by their attempts to participate in the politics and governance of England. It is also clear that male rulers believed that these two women's use of power was a usurpation of the traditional gender hierarchy. Therefore, male chroniclers, living contemporaneously with either the Empress Matilda of Queen Margaret, created descriptions of them that reflected the propaganda promulgated against them during their lifetimes. This propaganda imposed a strict dichotomization of gender roles in order to prevent …

An Analysis Of Quickbooks Internal Control Utilization, Andrew J. Steckel

Honors Program Theses

The QuickBooks software created and sold by Intuit, Inc. is the most predominantly used accounting software among small businesses. According to a June 19, 2008 press release issued by Intuit, more than 3.7 million businesses use QuickBooks, and it held a 94.2 percent market share for retail units in the business accounting category as of March 2008 (Intuit, 2008). As such, large amounts of financial data and information are created, edited, and stored using QuickBooks. A large majority of these companies will rarely, if ever, have their financial statements or internal control structures audited. However, the accuracy and security of …

Assessment Of The Adoption Of Ifrs In Foreign Countries In Comparison To The Anticipated Results Of United States Ifrs Adoption, Emily Schippers

Honors Program Theses

The importance of discussing implications of adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the U.S. is imperative to financial investors, audit committees, and corporations' management as IFRS may potentially impact earnings quality and the consistency of financial statements which in turn may influence earnings per share of that particular organization. As the standards are set to converge to IFRS tentatively in 2015 for the United States, it is essential to have some indication of what types of hindrances and differences will be a result of adopting a new set of financial reporting standards. This can be accomplished by examining …

The Fair Value Accounting Debate And The Future Of The Profession, Kristina Ann Bowers

Honors Program Theses

In 2006 and 2007, new accounting statements were issued that expanded fair value accounting, which have led to a debate that extends beyond the accounting profession to the rest of the business community. While fair value accounting is not a new concept or accounting practice, the new requirements related to the statements, combined with the recent credit crisis that started in 2007, have caused many companies and users of the financial statements to argue whether or not current fair value accounting practices should be continued.

Risk Management Plans For University Athletic Facilities, Brittney Donlin

Honors Program Theses

Researching available literature on the specific topic of risk management planning for athletic facilities indicates that there is a dearth of work in this area1 . This finding is surprising given the number of people attending college and professional athletic events each weekend and recent history of violent incidents, such as the shootings in Tucson, Northern Illinois University and Virginia Polytechnic Institute (VPI). The limited articles available in this area provide an explanation of risk management processes and methodologies related to controlling campus risks, mostly focusing on the insuring of physical property against the perils of fire, wind, water and …

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan For Hospiceadeasy, Megan Elizabeth Horn

Honors Program Theses

HospiceADEASY is an online store where hospices can purchase high-quality, pre-produced, customizable hospice promotional materials. Available materials include billboards, brochures, e-marketing materials, print advertisements, 30-second radio ads and 30-second TV ads. HospiceADEASY is operated by ME&V, a full-service marketing, advertising and fundraising agency. ME&V has a wealth of experience in hospice marketing, fundraising, higher education marketing, healthcare marketing and more. This plan sets out the steps HospiceADEASY should take to increase its sales and reach a wider audience. It covers all the bases from traditional direct mail advertising to new forms of online communications and can be implemented, in full …

Scholarship Management System, Eric Irvin Sauser

Honors Program Theses

The following document is my personal reflection looking back at the process to develop the Scholarship Management System. I will begin by offering a high‐level overview of the system as well as why I chose the project for my honors thesis. I will then explain the steps I took to complete the project as well as the functionality included in the system. I will close by assessing the value of the system to the users and provide a statement of my personal gains as a result of this project.

Increasing The Accuracy Of Protein Three-Dimensional Structure Comparison, Mauricio J. Arriagada-Benitez

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Structural alignment is an important tool for identifying structural and functional relationships between proteins. A typical protein structure alignment method is an iterative algorithm that computes an optimal residue-residue correspondence, once for each inspected spatial superposition of the input proteins. The significance of this study allows us to better understand how important it is to explore in deep the analysis of proteins structure using a residue pair distance as the way to align two proteins. We assess the extent of improvements in the accuracy of the existing methods that can be made by exploring the search space in a more …