Digital Commons Network^™

Supporting And Sustaining Equitable Steam Activities In High School Classrooms: Understanding Computer Science Teachers’ Needs And Practices When Implementing An E-Textiles Curriculum To Forge Connections Across Communities, Deborah A. Fields, Yasmin B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

While the last two decades have seen an increased interest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) in K-12 schools, few efforts have focused on the teachers and teaching practices necessary to support these interventions. Even fewer have considered the important work that teachers carry out not just inside classrooms but beyond the classroom walls to sustain such STEAM implementation efforts, from interacting with administrators to recruiting students and persuading parents about the importance of arts and computer science. In order to understand teachers’ needs and practices regarding STEAM implementation, in this paper, we focus on eight experienced computer …

The Impact Of Changes In Religion On Health Among Sexual Minority Mormons, G. Tyler Lefevor, Samuel J. Skidmore, Kiet D. Huynh, James S. Mcgraw

Psychology Faculty Publications

The current study presents data from the first longitudinal examination of sexual minority (SM) Mormons (n = 132). Over the course of 2 years, SM Mormons reported decreased psychological (e.g., orthodox beliefs), behavioral (e.g., service attendance), and social (interpersonal religious commitment) religiousness. Analyses revealed that, at baseline, service attendance was related to lower levels of meaning in life and higher levels of depression at time 2, while interpersonal religious commitment at baseline was related to higher levels of meaning in life and lower levels of depression. Latent change scores of religiousness suggested that decreases in interpersonal religious commitment over …

Drivers And Barriers Of Social Sustainable Development And Growth Of Online Higher Education: The Roles Of Perceived Ease Of Use And Perceived Usefulness, Hemamali Tennakoon, Jared M. Hansen, George Saridakis, Mahesha Samaratunga, Joseph W. Hansen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

Online and distance learning classes have been touted for the last several years as an innovation in higher education that should help improve the entrepreneurial growth mindset of students. However, the reported negative online learning experience of many college students worldwide during the COVID-19 epidemic has shown that many opportunities remain to improve the sustainable development and growth of online visual instruction practices. In this study, we outline and investigate a set of hypotheses related to the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use (from TAM) of online video instruction in higher education courses during the pandemic. We employ grounded …

Chapter 28- Networked Mentoring Programs: Targeted Developmental Relationships And Building A Broader Community, Valerie Paquette, Wendy Murphy, Susan Duffy

Making Connections

We introduce a targeted approach to mentoring programs that considers students’ developmental stage and fosters an inclusive mentoring community. Using the case study of Babson College’s Center for Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Mentoring Programs, this chapter will detail evidence-based effective practice in delivering high-quality mentoring across distinctive student populations as well as connecting students and mentor volunteers to one another to cultivate a mentoring community. We highlight three mentoring programs: the Undergraduate Near Peer, Undergraduate Professional, and Graduate mentor programs. Each program is designed to match student mentees with developmentally appropriate mentors who provide support tailored to their needs. The Undergraduate …

Chapter 6- The Mentoring Context: Securing Institutional Support And Organizational Alignment, James Y. Taylor, Greg Dart

Making Connections

A university’s mission and vision statements are the guiding documents that create a framework by which the institution can accomplish its goals. All university initiatives are tied back to that mission and vision, and alignment is essential for university support of bottom-up initiatives. No matter how mentoring is structured, one area that is essential is proper internal institutional support and alignment with the mission of the institution. Focusing on the context in which the formal mentoring program occurs, this chapter outlines the importance of executive support, mission and vision alignment, incentivizing participation for both mentors and mentees, and how mentoring …

Chapter 7- The Crucial Role And Responsibilities Of The Mentoring Program Coordinator, Michael A. Christiansen, Don Busenbark

Making Connections

Mentoring is a crucial part of personal and professional development in practically any environment, including higher education, industry, and private institutions, though the nature and methods of such mentoring may vary as much as the organizations themselves. Because institutions differ so much in their structures and needs, it is important that a dedicated program coordinator be assigned to define mentoring and spearhead the construction, implementation, assessment, and evaluation of any institutional mentoring program. This program coordinator should have enthusiasm for mentoring, effectively communicate program goals, and provide the training and resources necessary to implement an efficient mentoring model. Coordinators should …

Chapter 15- Funding The Mentoring Program, Monica Castañeda-Kessel

Making Connections

Chapter 15, Funding the Mentoring Program, provides essential resources for allies who want to implement or enhance their existing mentoring programs. Contextually, the discussion of funding opportunities is framed within the formal and informal mentoring language with one caveat. Informal mentoring program funding does not mean that the funding is easy to acquire or not rigorous to implement. Informal mentoring has strategic advantages for developing employee expertise and other desirable skills. Formal mentoring is the most prevalent type and had organizational advantages of scale. This chapter is composed of four sections. First, a brief overview of the theoretical and …

Chapter 12- A New Vision For Promoting Equity And Inclusion In Academic Mentoring Programs, Assata Zerai, Nancy López

Making Connections

What are the pitfalls of conventional student, faculty, and staff mentoring programs? Despite good intentions, how might they negatively impact Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), as well as other marginalized faculty who are women, LGBTQIA+, Persons with Disabilities (PWD), or first-generation college students (e.g., grew up in household where no parent/legal guardian earned a four-year college degree in the United States or abroad)? How could employing an intersectional framework—attention to the simultaneity of systems of oppression and resistance—as inquiry and praxis transform student, faculty, and staff mentoring programs? This chapter examines the challenges and possibilities for advancing equity …

Chapter 2- Recognizing Mentoring Program Identity And Applying Theoretical Frameworks For Design, Support, And Research, Mark J. Hager, Kim Hales, Nora Domínguez

Making Connections

Mentoring programs in academic settings take multiple forms depending on the population being served, the context in which they develop, and the purpose and outcomes to be achieved. This chapter identifies critical variables in choosing a solid theoretical foundation for designing effective mentoring programs and interventions in academia.

This chapter specifically addresses four clusters of theoretical frameworks that include psychosocial supports for mentoring, mentoring as a learning partnership, mentoring as career support, and developmental network theories that can be applied to careers.

This chapter is broken into four distinct sections. The first section outlines the process of identifying key components …

Chapter 5- Needs Assessment And Data Analytics: Understanding Your Constituencies, Neal Legler

Making Connections

Needs assessment is an important early step in the development of a mentoring program because it helps ensure that program resources go toward improving prioritized institutional results. Needs assessment should involve key stakeholders, organized into a needs assessment committee, and then follow a systematic process to collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data and identify existing organizational needs. Needs are defined as the gap between desired organizational results and current results. They should be considered holistically and at all levels of the organization. As needs are identified, the needs assessment committee works with stakeholders through a combination of group management …

Chapter 9- Defining Recruitment, Selection, And Matching Strategies, Paul Hernandez, Don Busenbark, Kim Hales, David Law

Making Connections

Chapter 9, “Defining Recruitment, Selection, and Matching Strategies” guides the program coordinator in recruiting mentors and mentees, selecting who will be in the mentoring program, and matching participants. The section on recruitment begins by emphasizing how the needs assessment, university vision, and program goals and objectives should align to create a clear vision and purpose for the mentoring program. It also describes how communication practices in various university ecosystems, rewards and incentives, and activities enhance enrollment. The section on selection delineates mentors’ positive and negative characteristics, exploring in-depth critical mentor communication skills and the characteristics of successful mentees. Finally, the …

Chapter 16- Becoming Awares: Mentoring Undergraduate Women In Engineering And Sciences, Shirley L. Yu, Arianna Black, Gönül Kaletunç

Making Connections

The Aspiration for Women’s Advancement and Retention in Engineering and Sciences (AWARES) mentorship program was designed to support women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors as they transition from their undergraduate degree programs to the workforce. The AWARES program was structured around topics relevant to women in STEM careers, including but not limited to interviewing and job offer negotiation, career development, navigating social dynamics in the workplace, and establishing and growing a professional network. Based in tenets of social cognitive theory, AWARES aims to use expert and group mentorship to increase young women’s self-efficacy for career-related soft skills …

Chapter 23- Advancing Institutional Mentoring Excellence (Aime): An Institutional Inclusion Initiative, Valerie Romero-Leggott, Orrin Myers, Andrew Sussman, Rebecca Hartley

Making Connections

The Advancing Institutional Mentoring Excellence (AIME) pilot project was created at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center to address concerns by faculty of color regarding feelings of isolation, lack of representation, and suboptimal retention. The purpose of AIME was to foster an institutional culture of belonging and rigorously evaluate best practices for mentoring faculty of color toward promotion and tenure. AIME used a reciprocal mentoring model, in which both mentors and mentees increased self-efficacy and skills through a structured series of exercises and encounters. Senior faculty mentors were matched with junior faculty of color mentees through an electronic …

Contributors, David Law, Nora Domínguez

Making Connections

List of contributors for Making Connections: A Handbook for Effective Formal Mentoring Programs in Academia.

Development, Modeling And Performance Analysis Of An Electric Vtol Aircraft With Tiltable Rotors, Clayton Spencer, Samantha Burton, Tianyi He

Utah Space Grant Consortium

In this paper, the development and modeling of an electric Vertical-Take-Off-and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft with tiltable rotors. The front two rotors have tilting capability for transition flight from vertical take-off to forward-direction level flight. This paper focuses on the design and analysis of an eVTOL aircraft platform. The study includes layout and system architecture, the selections and optimization of components, such as electric motors, batteries, and controllers, as well as the integration of these components into the overall aircraft system. In addition, the dynamical model is derived as a nonlinear differential equation. Afterwards, a linearization-based model and Linear Parameter-Varying (LPV) …

Fabrication Of Metallic Far-Infrared Filters, Jared E. Payne, Joseph Eddy, Hunter R.J. Stevenson, Brad Ferguson, Ryan T. Beazer, Gregory N. Nielson, Stephen M. Shultz

Utah Space Grant Consortium

A far-infrared filter is fabricated by creating metallic squares on a dielectric substrate. This capacitive metallic filter is fabricated using direct write laser ablation consisting of a femtosecond laser in combination with a high numerical aperture objective. A representative capacitive filter is fabricated on soda-lime glass substrate with a period of 100 µm and separation width of 30 µm. A capacitive filter was also fabricated on a thin film polypropylene substrate with similar dimensions. The filter was tested and the frequency response is discussed.

Optimizing Nitrogen Use For Continuous Recycling In Closed Life Support Systems, Noah J. Langenfeld, Bruce Bugbee

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Nitrogen (N) is needed by plants in the highest amount among root-zone-derived nutrients. Closed life-support systems for space missions will rely on in-situ food production for long-term sustainability, but high resupply and N fixation costs necessitate N recycling to support human nutrition for extended mission durations. We studied combinations of four N forms [ammonium, nitrate, urea, and N-fixing bacteria (protein)] for their use as an optimal N source for lettuce (Lactuca sativa) grown in peat moss in two container sizes (1.7 L and 8 L). Plants grown with ammonium nitrate consistently had the highest mass. When ammonium, urea, or microbial …

The Benefits Of Bifidobacterium Longum And Its Viability In Different Environments, Lane Law, Aikhin Cheng

Utah Space Grant Consortium

When we talk about bacteria, people usually think of it as a bad thing to ever exist in the human body. However, there are some bacteria such as Bifidobacterium that are not only not a bad thing, but they can even promote a healthier life. Studies have shown that probiotics have various health benefits. Through their biological mechanisms in the body, probiotics have been shown to adjust gut functionality, enhance immunity, lower cholesterol, and encourage metabolic balance. Additionally, they can produce short-chain fatty acids, vitamins, enzymes, organic acids, and peptides that fight off microbes. Bacteria species that are considered probiotics …

Supplementation Of Martian Regolith Media For Sustained Cyanobacterial Growth, Alix Elliston

Utah Space Grant Consortium

Cyanobacteria have been referred to as the architects of Earth’s atmosphere and are widely credited with being the planet’s first oxygenators. While it is speculated that cyanobacteria could similarly be utilized to oxygenate the atmosphere of Mars, one constraint is resource scarcity on the planet. Studies have shown that certain cyanobacteria can survive at least short term in media comprised of Martian regolith; however, their ability to thrive long term in such nutrient-deprived conditions is questionable. This study aims to investigate whether a cyanobacterial culture grown in a nutrient-deprived medium can be supplemented with urine and certain vitamin-producing bacteria to …

Growth, Morphological, And Biochemical Responses Of Four Native Species To Salinity Stress, Asmita Paudel, Youping Sun

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Native plants are of great value in landscape maintenance. Despite their importance in the landscape, the salt tolerance of most native plants has received little attention. The present research was designed to assess morphological, physiological, and biochemical responses of four Utah-native plants [Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (kinnikinnick), Cercocarpus ledifolius (curl-leaf mountain mahogany), Cercocarpus montanus ‘Coy’ (alder-leaf mountain mahogany), and Shepherdia ×utahensis ‘Torrey’ (hybrid buffaloberry)] at different salinity levels. Each species was irrigated with a nutrient solution at an electrical conductivity (EC) of 1.2 dS·m^-1 (control) or saline solutions at ECs of 5.0 or 10.0 dS·m^-1 for 8 …

Artificial Intelligence In Landscape Architecture: A Literature Review, Phillip Fernberg, Brent Chamberlain

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly common in landscape architecture. New methods and applications are proliferating yearly and are being touted as viable tools for research and practice. While researchers have conducted assessments of the state of AI-driven research and practice in allied disciplines, there is a knowledge gap for the same in landscape architecture. This literature review addresses this gap by searching and evaluating studies specifically focused on AI and disciplinary umbrella terms (landscape architecture, landscape planning, and landscape design). It includes searches of academic databases and industry publications that combine these umbrella terms with the …

The Utah Statesman, May 1, 2023, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Tremblings, May 2023, Western Aspen Alliance

Tremblings

The WAA: Fifteen Year Status

Paul C. Rogers

Aspen, the species, unites our member community. We reach out, connect, sprout new growth, and respond to ever-present change like a hidden root web supporting an above-ground grove of swaying pale stems and flickering foliage. Carbohydrates, stored subterranean, represent the future of such networks; linkages unseen nourish future forests, enrich ecosystems, and fuel organizations like ours. After 15 years, the Western Aspen Alliance has flourished following disturbance, but faces an uncertain outlook given uncertain funding prospects. The good news is that this WAA community, buried junctures and all, represents a resilience in …

Examining Political Discourse On Online 8kun And Reddit Forums, Braden Mindrum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A recent example of political violence in the United States was that of the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack in connection with the certification of Joseph R. Biden’s victory over Donald J. Trump in the 2020 US presidential election. This thesis analyzes the events of January 6, 2021, through the lens of social media discourse. This thesis presents a workflow that acquired over 5 million 8kun and Reddit posts from various apolitical and political forums in the three months preceding and following the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021. Techniques from text analysis are then used to group forums according …

Shifting The Paradigm With Wednesday Addams: Why Nuanced, Intersectional Portrayals Of Autistic People Matter, Camille Alyse Bassett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

For decades, Autistic people have been portrayed in the media through dehumanizing stereotypes such as the robot, the superhuman savant, and the empty shell. Through these stereotypes, Autistic people are construed as non-human, above-human, and sub-human but never as human beings with complexity, authenticity, and dignity. In addition to being stereotypical, depictions of Autistic people have historically featured white and male characters, a longstanding pattern that erases Autistic women and people of color, among others. In 2022, however, Netflix’s spinoff series of The Addams Family, Wednesday, brought to the screen one of the very first autistic-coded …

Reason And Rationality In The Post-Pandemic Era, Jordan David Schwanke

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper investigates human reason’s proper function and role in the post-pandemic era. Sections 1 and 2 analyze recent literature on Kahneman’s dual processing theory and Hugo Mercier’s and Dan Sperber’s (M&S) interactionalist approach toward human reason. Kahneman’s theory cannot explain how System 2 is still prone to make serious mistakes, and M&S provide a more plausible alternative: reasoning is all intuitive. Humans can intuit reasons for their beliefs and intuitions. But more importantly, reason is the metarepresentational ability to evaluate the strengths or weaknesses of reasons and arguments. Reason, through the process of evolution, is fundamentally used for justification …

Applying The Extended Parallel Process Model To Climate Change Communication, Mikenna Renee Debruin

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Whereas over 99% of the scientific community believes in the concept of anthropogenic climate change, lay support is still lagging behind. I suggest three key factors to lagging lay support: 1) complexity, 2) manufactured scientific controversy, and 3) doom-and-gloom framing. Because of these factors, individuals are less willing believe in the prevalence of human-induced climate change, nonetheless do something about it. The Extended Parallel Process Model (EPPM), however, presents a model to assuage eco-anxiety and counter psychological distance from the problem. The EPPM, proposed by Kim Witte in the 1990s, combines appeals to threat and appeals to efficacy to contextualize …

Critiquing The Present And Imagining The Future: Diversity In Contemporary Young Adult Dystopian Literature, Ericka Stone

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This project investigates the historic and contemporary representations of diversity in young adult dystopian literature. First, the functions of utopia and dystopia are examined, as each genre seeks to create change within society, whether it is by presenting the possibility of a more hopeful future, or by projecting the problems of the present into a terrifying vision of what might happen if changes are not made. By examining the elements of utopian and dystopian fiction and the way each genre conveys their themes, this project seeks to locate the significance of diversity and representation of all races, ethnicities, genders, and …

Algae Against Deforestation: Algae Oil As A Potential Palm Oil Substitute, Abiela Meek

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This capstone project is an effort to pursue sustainability through circular engineering design. With increasing interest in sustainable production of consumer products, creative and multifaceted solutions are the pathway forward to a more circular economy. Palm oil production is a key driver of deforestation worldwide and an unsustainable industry. As palm oil is a large player in the commodities market, evaluating a potential replacement provided a unique opportunity for sustainable circular engineering. High nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations in wastewater are also a cause for environmental concern as they can lead to harmful algal blooms. By utilizing the nitrogen and phosphorus …

Creating Jo, Jenna Olson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

With the rise of technology, physical invitations have largely been replaced by digital invitations and e-cards. This change in invitation culture has led to less time and energy being spent on celebrating important life events. I created JO to help individuals elevate the important moments in their lives through intentional communication and beautiful designs. JO products seek to display effective, aesthetically pleasing, and meaningful messaging. This project documents my business, JO, through a written business plan and website.

A business plan aims to demonstrate a well-developed idea to gain support and investment. My business plan includes an executive summary, company …