Digital Commons Network^™

Preparing Elementary Preservice Teachers For Inquiry-Based Science And Mathematics Instruction Through A Novel Initiative, Tye Campbell, Diandra Singh, Cathlene Hillier, J-F, Haleigh Sears

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Over the past several decades, policymakers, researchers, and practitioners have placed an emphasis on inquiry-based science and mathematics instruction in elementary school. While inquiry-based science and mathematics instruction can support student learning and engagement, teacher preparation programs have experienced challenges in preparing elementary teachers to use and maintain inquiry-based teaching practices. In this study, we describe how one teacher preparation program in Canada partnered with a local elementary school to design a novel initiative that provided elementary preservice teachers with authentic opportunities to employ inquiry-based instructional practices for science and mathematics. Using a thematic approach, we explored 46 elementary preservice …

Root Distributions Predict Shrub–Steppe Responses To Precipitation Intensity, Andrew Kulmatiski, Martin C. Holdrege, Cristina Chirvasǎ, Karen H. Beard

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Precipitation events are becoming more intense around the world, changing the way water moves through soils and plants. Plant rooting strategies that sustain water uptake under these conditions are likely to become more abundant (e.g., shrub encroachment). Yet, it remains difficult to predict species responses to climate change because we typically do not know where active roots are located or how much water they absorb. Here, we applied a water tracer experiment to describe forb, grass, and shrub root distributions. These measurements were made in 8 m by 8 m field shelters with low or high precipitation intensity. We used …

Pilot Testing An Asynchronous Online Harm Reduction And Pharmacotherapy Stigma Reduction Training For Substance Use Treatment Professionals, Sandra H. Sulzer, Suzanne Prevedel, Tyson S. Barrett, Margo Mekjian, Mindy Vincent, Felicia Frabis, Cris Meier, Claire Warnick Shiverdecker, Maren Wright Voss, Paula J. Cook, Erin Fanning Madden

Social Work Faculty Publications

Harm reduction and pharmacotherapy approaches to addressing substance use disorder are evidence-based practices for reducing adverse health outcomes. However, professional stigma toward these approaches impedes implementation. In this pilot study, professionals working in substance use treatment services received a 4-hour asynchronous online harm reduction and pharmacotherapy training. Pre- and post-training surveys used Likert-scale questions to assess attitudes and planned actions. Four of the 23 survey items demonstrated a significant change in pre- to post-attitudes and planned actions relating to harm reduction or pharmacotherapy. These items included less attitudinal stigma towards: methadone and buprenorphine (p = .021), overdose prevention sites/"drug …

Curriculum Subcommittee Agenda January 4, 2024, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Program Proposals
• Semester Course Approval Reviews

• College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences
• Caine College of the Arts
• Jon M. Huntsman School of Business
• Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services
• College of Engineering
• College of Humanities and Social Sciences
• S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources
• College of Science
• College of Veterinary Medicine
• USU Courses
• Other Business

Educational Policies Committee Agenda January 4, 2024, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee (Chad Simon)
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee (Renee Galliher)
• General Education Subcommittee (Matt Sanders)

Who Are We?: Exploring American Identities, Nolan Weil

World Languages and Cultures Faculty Publications

Framed as a question—Who Are We?—the book focuses on telling the stories of a handful of ethnic/national/racial groups that contributed significantly to the formation of the United States. In particular, the book revolves around the social, economic, legal, and historical contradictions that have confronted and continue to confront the American attempt to construct a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-racial democracy, including a consideration of the forces arrayed against the American experiment. While the book does not tackle head-on the immediate cultural and political rifts currently on display in the United States today, it does take a hard look at many …

2024 Report To The Governor And Legislature On Utah's Land Water & Air, Janet Quinney Lawson Institute For Land, Water & Air

Reports

This report serves as a 2024 snapshot of key issues and concerns with Utah’s shared resources. It highlights a collection of data that is available to provide context to these issues and identifies areas where more study is needed. Addressing these challenges will enable Utah policymakers to make informed decisions for the future. Under the authorship of 52 researchers and with the support of 47 advisory board members, this report includes 6 chapters (Land, Water, Air, Forests and Rangelands, Bear Lake, and Metrics) that address the focus areas of the report.

33. Chatgpt Assistance In Creating Chemistry Practice Problems: Pitfalls, Positives, And Possibilities, Michael A. Christiansen

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

ChatGPT, a relatively new Large Language Model (LLM) artificial intelligence (Al) chatbot, has gained significant attention as the most downloaded software app, accruing over 100 million users within two months of its release. This software can generate quick, articulate responses to virtually any textual query. Many educators are concerned about its potential for enabling student cheating. However, it currently suffers significant limitations in solving chemistry problems-documented through peer-reviewed articles and from the author's experience suggesting that chemistry students will perform far better, on average, by studying than by relying on ChatGPT. This is particularly true of math-centric problems, which the …

30. Revising Llm Text To (Re)Discover Rhetoric In A Graduate Seminar, Clancy Ratliff

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

In this essay, I share an assignment that asks students to engage in rhetorical revision of LLM text using a changelog table as a tool to document the revision. To demonstrate to the students what I was asking them to do, I did the assignment myself, and my example is included in this chapter as well. I argue that the style of generated text from LLMs calls for increased resistance to the norms and conventions of school writing and an embrace of writing that's more rhetorical: a bit more personal, risky, rule-breaking, creative, and experimental, intentionally centering purpose and audience. …

29. An Ai Workshop For The Overwhelmed And Uninterested, Ritamarie Hensley

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The impact of ChatGPT and other Generative Al technologies on the role of an Instructional Designer prompted a quest to understand the pros and cons of Al for course development. Despite initial enthusiasm from some educators, many instructors resisted Al, expressing concerns about assignments, academic integrity, and Al-induced hallucinations. The workshop is designed for faculty members who may feel overwhelmed by the myriad uses of Al in education or simply lack interest in Al tools. It offers nuanced approaches to assignments, emphasizes fostering digital literacy for academic integrity, and explores turning Al-induced hallucinations into teaching tools. The workshop also underscores …

27. Pushing Past The First Draft: Exercises In Revision, Jacob Taylor

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This essay provides a series of global and local revision exercises for writing students to use while developing their revision processes. These revision exercises offer physical and digital possibilities, including opportunities to use Al learning models. Each of the included exercises can be done with or without the use of Al to accommodate individual preferences. The provided global revision strategies promote major structural and/or thematic revisions while requiring writing students to take risks. The local revision exercises help writing students tighten up sentences and improve minor stylistic elements while remaining focused on patterns they can begin to identify in future …

25. Using The Ai Explainpaper To Help Students Better Understand Journal Articles, Erin Jensen, Daniel Hutchinson

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

We have students use the Al Explainpaper to be able to read and understand journal articles as this is a common assignment in many core classes. In our experiences, students often struggle to understand the content of journal articles and then struggle to use the journal article as a source in their writing. The Al Explainpaper provides an opportunity for students to use the bot to better understand the journal article and have an opportunity to ask the program additional questions about the article. We have found Explainpaper to provide help to students in being able to read and understand …

22. Examining Ways Of Using Ai To Better Support Teaching Faculty, Mitigate Burnout, And Increase Teaching Creativity, Jennifer Grewe

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Faculty burnout is a concern within academics particularly for the most student-centered teaching faculty. In attempts to support students, faculty can sometimes do so at the expense of their own time and energy that over time can become overwhelming. There exist many concerns within academia on the use of Al and yet this is a tool that could be helpful to teaching loads if utilized properly. This chapter explores ways in which Al might help alleviate some of the workload that teaching faculty experience, which is a start to addressing burnout issues. Ideas are shared in this chapter surrounding Al's …

21. My Summer With Chatgpt, Mary Lourdes Silva

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

Out of necessity, I first used ChatGPT to process mentally and emotionally two major injuries. Trapped at home for the entire summer, I learned to write with ChatGPT to complete a large-scale research project. The anthropomorphizing experience left me feeling less alone. For nearly a year, news about Al-generated writing software sparked nationwide concern about the future of traditional essays. As an early adopter of most digital technologies and the type of person who welcomes chaos, I chose to learn everything | could about ChatGPT, which meant I needed to learn how to "cheat" with ChatGPT. Inspired by similar assignments …

20. Fit To Resist In Post-Product Space: Underserved Student Populations And Generative Ai's Writing Norms, John Paul Tassoni

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This essay describes ways the specter of Al altered interactions with students in a first-year composition course and how the response speaks to the broader impact of generative Al on underserved populations-especially in the sense that large language models and writing instruction can both affirm center/dominant discourses, values, and practices. The essay argues that the emergence of Al should shift writing instruction for "at-risk" and other marginalized student populations into post-product space. In such space, course work emphasizes students' negotiations with the expectations of higher education's hidden curriculum alongside the finished products that Al can now always already provide.

16. Use Of Ai In Teaching Social Statistics Or Data Analysis, Mudasir Mustafa

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

In face-to-face classrooms, culturally and critically conscious teachers fight to mediate skills, content, and students' backgrounds all within the bounds of a systematically flawed educational institution. For now, Als that aid in writing bypass that kind of meaningful work as Als reflect the corpus of published literature that overwhelmingly reflects historically problematic hierarchical biases.

9. Uses, Benefits, And Limitations Of Ai Chatbots: Implementing Chatgpt In The First-Year Writing Classroom, Walker Smith, Cora Alward, Jacob Morris, Lydia Peach, Veronica Pulley, Parker Routt, Kolby Sanders, Josh Vogeler

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This essay shares the findings of a Spring 2023 honors composition course in which students conducted their own primary research project to investigate the uses and limitations of ChatGPT for first-year writers. By experimenting with integrating ChatGPT into various stages of their writing and revision processes, the students identified the strengths and weaknesses of the writing tool. Then, they observed and interviewed faculty as they graded different versions of essay drafts with varying levels of ChatGPT assistance. Ultimately, they found that ChatGPT was incredibly useful for certain small-scale tasks, but posed significant risks, especially for students with less experience in …

5. Navigating Benefits And Concerns When Discussing Genai Tools With Faculty And Staff, Reed Hepler

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The author works as a Digital Initiatives Librarian and is earning a second Master's Degree in Instructional Design and Technology. He viewed ChatGPT immediately as yet another potentially useful technology. When educators at his institution promoted differing viewpoints regarding ChatGPT and other Al tools, he set out to demonstrate a method of Al integration similar to that of other technological tools. Using the Technology Consumer or Producer model and his own experience, he presented, discussed, and wrote about ChatGPT, its ethical issues, and its uses and impact on education. Reed shares his insights regarding creating instruction and training for educators. …

2. Some Ethical Considerations For Teaching And Generative Ai In Higher Education, Lydia Wilkes

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

The chapter discusses some ethical considerations for teaching and generative Al in higher education with a focus on large language models like ChatGPT. These considerations include generative Al's effects on the environment and labor, its reliance on data and tendency to violate privacy, the biases encoded in it, and the digital divide. As more sophisticated generative Al is integrated into word processors, these ethical concerns will become more difficult to perceive and the ethics of using Al more difficult to parse. This chapter concludes with a note on power and justice.

Introduction, Beth Buyserie, Travis N. Thurston

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

With the rapid development of generative Al, teachers are experiencing a new pedagogical challenge, one that promises to forever change the way we approach teaching and learning. As a response to this unprecedented teaching context, this collection-Teaching and Generative Al: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions-provides interdisciplinary teachers, librarians, and instructional designers with practical and thoughtful pedagogical resources for navigating the possibilities and challenges of teaching in an Al era. Because our goal with this edited collection is to present nuanced discussions of Al technologies across disciplines, the chapters collectively acknowledge or explore both possibilities and tensions-including the strengths, …

13. Rude Reflections: Current Ai Acts As A Mirror Of Our Flawed Society, Belinda 'Ofakihevahanoa Fotu

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

In face-to-face classrooms, culturally and critically conscious teachers fight to mediate skills, content, and students' backgrounds all within the bounds of a systematically flawed educational institution. For now, AIs that aid in writing bypass that kind of meaningful work as AIs reflect the corpus of published literature that overwhelmingly reflects historically problematic hierarchical biases.

23. Cake-Making Analogy For Setting Generative Ai Guidelines/Ethics, Maha Bali

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This is a lesson plan that offers metaphor as an innovative approach to teaching about the ethical use of generative Al. The cake-making analogy equates different ways of acquiring a cake (baking from scratch, using a readymade mix from a box, buying from a bakery or buying preserved cake from a supermarket) with varying degrees of reliance on Al as a shortcut for tasks or assignments. The lesson invites participants (who may be students or teachers) to critically consider the implications of each mode, examining factors such as quality, time, cost, and personal investment. This analogy is then applied to …

Snake Translocation Policies And Practices Within The United States, Robin E. Bedard, Megan Rottenborn, Emily Taylor

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Human–wildlife conflict with nuisance snakes (Serpentes) is rapidly increasing with human population growth and development rates. Translocation of nuisance snakes has become a widespread practice, aided by social media pages connecting people to volunteer and for-profit snake translocators. However, translocators often struggle to find information and resources from wildlife agencies about the policies required, and some may unintentionally use translocation procedures that disregard the health and survival of the snakes. The goals of this study were to (1) obtain data on policies, permitting, and training required for translocating nuisance snakes in each U.S. state that has snakes and (2) compare …

Quantifying Wild Pig Disturbance In Pastures And Wetlands Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle-Derived Imagery, Wesley M. Anderson, Bethany Wight, Raoul K. Boughton

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for agricultural and environmental research has increased markedly in recent years, and a key application has been to conduct damage assessments. Invasive wild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause both agricultural and environmental damage, and past studies have utilized UAVs to quantify this damage. Each methodology has advantages, but they also have drawbacks such as high rates of damage omission or reliance upon a near-infrared camera, which may be prohibitively expensive for some land managers and scientists. Our objective was to develop a methodology that could be easily implemented to conduct wild pig …

28. Creating Constitutions With Chatgpt, Julia M. Gossard

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This chapter explores how students used ChatGPT to construct constitutions in a course on the history of the Age of Revolutions. Student responses, the product, and instructor implications and critiques are included.

1. Navigating The New Frontier Of Generative Ai In Peer Review And Academic Writing, Chris Mayer

Teaching and Generative AI: Pedagogical Possibilities and Productive Tensions

This chapter provides an overview of the current landscape and implications of Generative Al (GenAl) in higher education, particularly focusing on its role in academic writing and peer review. The emergence of GenAl tools such as ChatGPT is a transformative development in education, with widespread adoption at unprecedented speed. Large Language Models such as ChatGPT offer great potential for enhancing education and academic writing but also raise serious ethical concerns and tensions including access and usability, the perpetuation of Standard Academic English, and issues of linguistic justice. There is also the need for new approaches and pedagogies for how to …

Orbit Determination Demonstration Using Onboard One-Way Radiometrics From The Iris Radio On The Capstone Mission, Todd A. Ely, Anthony Zara, Dana Sorensen, Zaid J. Towfic, Connor Ott, Alec Forsman, John D. Baker

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

Onboard one-way radiometric tracking from an Iris Radio paired with a Chip Scale Atomic Clock (CSAC) on NASA’s CAPSTONE mission has been collected and demonstrated to be able to determine its near rectilinear halo orbit. This is a first-ever demonstration of one-way radiometric tracking originating from the DSN and being collected onboard a spacecraft. For CAPSTONE, the tracking data from the Iris/CSAC pair are shown to have sufficient accuracy to enable future autonomous radio navigation for missions with modest navigation requirements. This work will compare the space-based data with prior ground-based test results, as well as assess CAPSTONE’s orbit solution …

Small Satellite Formation Control For A Fixed Thrust Propulsion System, John Akagi, Tyson K. Smith

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

This paper develops a model predictive control based formation flying algorithm for small spacecraft with a fixed thrust magnitude constraint that models the limitations of thrusters which have little to no ability to scale the thrust magnitude. The control instead calculates the optimal thrust duration which results in a mixed integer linear program (MILP). A guidance trajectory and control deadband are implemented to mitigate the increased computation time and possibility of control chattering that arise from the MILP formulation. A three spacecraft formation is tested in a series of simulations with varying dead- band widths and the performance in terms …

Phase Space Analysis Of Two-Wavelength Interferometry, Robert H. Leonard, Spencer E. Olson

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

Multiple wavelength phase shifting interferometry is widely used to extend the unambiguous range ( UR ) beyond that of a single wavelength. Towards this end, many algorithms have been developed to calculate the optical path difference (OPD) from the phase measurements of multiple wavelengths. These algorithms fail when phase error exceeds a specific threshold. In this paper, we examine this failure condition. We introduce a “phase-space” view of multi-wavelength algorithms and demonstrate how this view may be used to understand an algorithm’s robustness to phase measurement error. In particular, we show that the robustness of the synthetic wavelength algorithm deteriorates …

An Effective Method For Long-Term Control Of American Bullfrogs Syntopic With Special-Status Native Amphibians In California, Usa, Jeff A. Alvarez, Jeffery T. Wilcox

Human–Wildlife Interactions

American bullfrogs (Lithobates catesbeianus) are invasive in western North America and are well established in California, USA, where they are widespread. This invasive species has been implicated in the decrease of native amphibian populations and is believed to have contributed to the decline of threatened and endangered amphibians regionally. We utilized air rifles, tin alloy pellets, and 2 shooters to systematically control L. catesbeianus in both lentic and lotic habitat types within 2 counties in California. We visited sites monthly (April through November) for approximately 8 and 14 years to lethally target and remove L. catesbeianus …