Digital Commons Network^™

Principals' Perspectives On Adolescent Literacy Implementation And Support In Secondary Schools: Views Through A Sociocultural Lens, Jack A. Robinson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study, interview data were analyzed to illustrate the perspectives of five secondary school principals in adolescent literacy implementation and support. These principals fell on the continuum from beginning practitioners in adolescent literacy to “seasoned veterans.” They were selected based on the recommendations of their district’s assistant superintendents and/or curriculum directors. I interviewed two high school principals, two middle school principals, and one junior high school principal.

Much emphasis has been placed over the last several decades on improving the reading skills of elementary school children, especially in the primary grades. While this goal continues to be an important …

Growing Wild: Crested Wheatgrass And The Landscape Of Belonging, Lafe Gerald Conner

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Crested wheatgrass arrived in North America at the turn of the twentieth century through the foreign plant exploration missions sponsored by the United States Department of Agriculture. During the first two decades of the new century, scientists tested the grass at agricultural experiment stations. They determined it was useful for grazing and particularly valuable because it could grow in drought conditions with little or no care and would continue to produce high quality feed even after several years of heavy use. Beginning in the 1930s federally sponsored land utilization and agricultural adjustment programs sponsored the use of crested wheatgrass for …

Factors Affecting Landowner Participation In The Candidate Conservation Agreements With Assurances Program, Kendra Womack

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States’ Endangered Species Act of 1973 has been recognized as one of the most powerful laws enacted to protect endangered species in the world. Its protections for animal species extends onto private land, which has in some cases created conflict between the law, its enforcers, and private landowners. The Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAA) program was developed in 1999 to provide a regulatory incentive for private landowners to engage in pro-active conservation for sensitive species to preclude the need for listing under the ESA in the future. Since 1999, however, there have only been 17 CCAAs signed, …

Utah Off-Highway Vehicle Owners' Specialization And Its Relationship To Environmental Attitudes And Motivations, Jordan W. Smith

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) use has grown enormously on Utah’s public lands and is one of the most contentious and difficult issues for federal, state, and local land management agencies to address and provide for. Despite OHV use’s meteoric rise in popularity and its ongoing public conflicts, little is known about OHV recreationists. This thesis develops a typology that identifies within-activity differences related to recreation specialization; it also determines differences in OHV owners’ environmental attitudes and motivations. Findings show Utah’s owners comprise a range of use along the recreation specialization continuum. Results also indicate that an OHV owners’ specialization level is …

Online Education For Nontraditional Adult Students: Perceptions And Attitudes Of Emergency Services Workers In Asynchronous Learning Environments, R. Jeffery Maxfield

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The goal of this research was to better understand the lived experiences and perceptions of nontraditional, adult college students in an asynchronous online environment. Contemporary researchers have investigated the differences between online education and the traditional, in-class learning. Most of the work has been done in quantitative methodologies, focusing on the similarities and differences in cognitive achievement. The extant literature is replete with studies and positions claiming little or no difference between the two delivery methods. However, most research is not presented in a theoretical construct; therefore, it is difficult to create a nexus between one study and the next. …

Factors That Influence The Association Between Adult Attachment And Marital Satisfaction, Daniel Leroy Hatch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adult attachment theory offers a promising conceptual framework for understanding the psychological and contextual factors that contribute to marital satisfaction. A consistent association has been found between adult attachment dimensions and marital satisfaction. The current study examined several mediating mechanisms that may explain the relationship between adult attachment dimensions and marital satisfaction. Specifically, relationship expectations, four types of responses to accommodative dilemmas (exit, neglect, voice, and loyalty), and three forms of empathy (empathic concern, perspective taking, empathic personal distress) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between adult attachment and marital satisfaction.

Self-report data were collected from both partners of 193 …

Mixed Methods For Mixed Reality: Overcoming Methodological Challenges To Understand User Activities In Virtual Worlds, David F. Feldon, Yasmin B. Kafai

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper examines the use of mixed methods for analyzing users’ avatar-related activities in a virtual world. Server logs recorded keystroke-level activity for 595 participants over a six-month period in Whyville.net, an informal science website. Participants also completed surveys and participated in interviews regarding their experiences. Additionally, the study included online ethnographic observations of Whyville and offline observations of a subset of 88 users in classroom and after-school settings during their participation. A mixed-methods analysis identified a major user emphasis on avatar appearance and customization that was invariant across user typologies. Implications for the use of mixed methods in online …

Adolescent Religiosity, Religious Affiliation, And Premarital Predictors Of Marital Quality And Stability, Stacey Macarthur

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The influence of religiosity in adolescence on several variables that have been shown to be predictors of marital quality and stability was examined using a nationally representative sample of 3,151 youth, aged 13 to 17 years, from the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Religiosity was defined to incorporate multiple characteristics including religious beliefs, attitudes, participation, experiences, and identities. The effect of religious affiliation and religiosity was also examined for seven premarital predictors, which included relationship with parents, ideal age for marriage, right and wrong, academic achievement, sexual behavior, attitude toward cohabitation, and attitude toward divorce. Data were collected …

Use Of Stimulus Management Techniques To Reduce Sedentary Behaviors Of Overweight Children, Julie A. Pelletier

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An epidemic proportion of children and adolescents is currently overweight or at-risk of being overweight. This is associated with many negative outcomes, including short-term and long-term health risks, as well as increased psychosocial problems. The etiology of this problem is likely complex, though environmental factors (i.e., factors related to decreased physical activity and increased consumption of calories) have been implicated in previous research. Providing effective, easy-to-implement treatment strategies for children who are overweight or at-risk of being overweight could be helpful to reverse the current epidemic and to decrease current health care costs associated with pediatric obesity. The overall purpose …

Reported Mental Health Issues And Marital Quality: A Statewide Survey, Joseph Ruben Smart

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study included a representative random sample of 886 married individuals in Utah. This sample was surveyed to discover the relationship between demographic variables, reported mental health issues, and marital quality. In addition, this study sought to discover models, using demographic variables and reported mental health issues, to predict for separate dimensions of marital quality. This survey was a replication of a study completed primarily in Oklahoma, with the addition of questions about the participants' mental health.

Spearman's rho, Pearson's R, and multiple regression were used to analyze the data. The results of the study show that: religious beliefs …

Racial And Ethnic Comparison Of Migration Selectivity: Primary And Repeat Migration, Sang Lim Lee

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purposes of this study are to examine migration disparities in primary, onward, and return migration by Hispanics, non-Hispanic black, and non-Hispanic white and to inspect the differences among the various types of migration. In addition, this study explores explanations of the migration disparities. These have been rarely studied because of a lack of proper migration data. This research employs the National Longitudinal Study of Youth (NLSY79) for a logistic regression of primary migration and for a hierarchical generalized linear model (HGLM) of the two types of repeat migration, namely onward and return. The results demonstrate that whites are more …

Lessons In Humanity: A Memoir, Chelsi Joy Sutton-Linderman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In the opening pages of his work, Dog Years; A Memoir, Mark Doty explains: Love for a wordless creature, once it takes hold, is an enchantment, and the enchanted speak, famously, in private mutterings, cryptic riddles, or gibberish. This is why I shouldn't be writing anything about the two dogs that have been such presences for sixteen years of my life. How on earth could I stand at the requisite distance to say anything that might matter? (1)

In this thesis I argue that Doty, among other respected contemporary writers, is saying something that matters when he writes of …

Examining The Perceived Benefits For Engaging In Cybersex Behavior Among College Students, Delores D. Rimington

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined college students’ cybersex use, perceived benefits of use, time spent online, and compulsive cybersex. Participants consisted of students attending Utah State University Spring semester 2007. Data were collected via an online survey, and 262 surveys were used in the correlation and regression analyses.

Results indicated that age, religion and gender are predictive of perceiving more benefits for cybersex participation. A strong positive correlation was found between perceived benefits and compulsive cybersex use. Students’ lack of social skills was predictive of more time spent online. Time spent online for cybersex was predictive of sexually compulsive behavior. There was …

The Effects Of Interactive Writing Instruction On Kindergarten Students' Acquisition Of Early Reading Skills, Cindy D. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study focused upon the established importance of the reading-writing relationship and its posited effect on literacy development. A repeated-measures experimental design investigated the effects of interactive writing instruction on 151 kindergarten students’ acquisition of early reading skills. Multilevel modeling was used to evaluate the impact of the reading-writing relationship as operationalized with interactive writing and writing workshop on the acquisition of early reading skills as repeated outcome measures at four points in time (Level 1) were clustered within students (Level 2). Results of this study indicated that instruction grounded in the reading-writing relationship, namely, interactive writing and writers’ workshop …

Employers' Perceptions Of Utah State University's Marriage And Family Therapy Program Requirements, Blake D. Altom

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of program requirements on employability of Utah State University's (USU) marriage and family therapy (MFT) program graduates, the training and employability of USU MFT graduates, and whether or not there is anything that sets these graduates apart from graduates of other MFT programs. Nineteen employers participated in this study. Twelve of these employers were known to have hired USU MFT graduates as the graduates' first employment post-graduation, and seven of the participants were considered potential employers: those who could hire MFTs in the future. Questions were asked to these participants …

Bushnell General Military Hospital And The Community Of Brigham City, Utah During World War Ii, Andrea Kaye Carter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Bushnell General Military Hospital was an Army World War II hospital in Brigham City, Utah from August 1942 to June 1946. It specialized in treating amputations, maxillofacial surgery, neuropsychiatric conditions, and tropical diseases. It was also one of the first hospitals to experimentally use penicillin. Bushnell was a regional facility for wounded solders from the Mountain States that provided quality medical care to patients. The community of Brigham City and the citizens of other Northern Utah communities were an integral part of the success of Bushnell. Citizens donated time, supplies, and money to support the facility and to assist in …

Are Delay Discounting, Probability Discounting, Time Perception, And Time Perspective Related? A Cross-Cultural Study Among Latino And White American Students, Ana Amelia L. Baumann Neves

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The present study aimed to evaluate (a) the extent to which different impulsivity measures would be related to each other and to a risk taking measure, (b) the extent to which impulsivity, risk taking, time perception and time perspective are related to each other, and (c) the extent to which these processes differ in Latino and White American students. Experiment I was conducted at Utah State University. One hundred and forty-three participants were exposed to the delay discounting, probability discounting and temporal bisection procedures, and answered the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale (BIS-11) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI). Results showed …

A Study Of Utah Teachers' Developmentally Appropriate Beliefs And Practices As Related To Perceptions Of Kindergarteners' Successful School Entry, Mary Mceuen Darnell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was an exploration of 450 Utah kindergarten teachers' perceptions of problems children face at the time of kindergarten entry, as well as an examination of the teachers' developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices. Consistent with previous research, teachers' beliefs were found to be more developmentally appropriate than their reported practices. This study also investigated the relationship between both teacher and classroom/school demographics and teachers' developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices. Further, the relationship between teachers' perceptions of children's transition to kindergarten and beliefs, practices, teacher demographics, and classroom/school demographics was studied.

Study findings indicated that teachers perceive 20% of kindergarten …

Longitudinal And Reciprocal Effects Of Ethnic Identity And Experiences Of Discrimination On Psychosocial Adjustment Of Navajo (Diné) Adolescents, Matthew D. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the relationships among ethnic identity, cultural identity, experiences of discrimination, their interactions, and their effects on various psychosocial outcomes (self-esteem, depression, sense of school membership, social functioning, substance abuse, substance related problems, delinquent behaviors, and grade point average [GPA]). Data were collected twice over a 2-year period.

Change across time was observed in male adolescents' experiences of discrimination. Affirmation and belonging to Navajo culture was the strongest protective predictor at Time 1, but at Time 2 less consistent patterns of association emerged. Also at Time 2, experiences of discrimination emerged as a powerful negative predictor of psychosocial …

Student Achievement And Affective Traits In Electrical Engineering Laboratories Using Traditional And Computer-Based Instrumentation, Matthew D. Lammi

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Distance education has the ability to transcend distance and time, reaching students anywhere at any time, particularly those underrepresented in engineering. Engineering is a practice-oriented profession requiring an interweaving of scientific theory and applied hands-on activities. Despite the need for distance education in engineering, few studies have systematically investigated the impact of student achievement and attitude in distance engineering laboratories. This quasi-experimental research addressed that need by studying the cognitive and affective domains of achievement in engineering laboratories while employing computer-based and traditional oscilloscopes. The students from two courses, electrical engineering for nonmajors and electronic fundamentals, were randomly assigned into …

Student Teachers' Beliefs And Practices About Developmentally Appropriate Practice For Infants And Toddlers, Trisha Haws

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ beliefs and practices about developmentally appropriate practice with infants and toddlers. This study examined whether coursework in child development, combined with a lab experience engaging with children of the same age group, was related to developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices of student teachers. In particular, the study examined how coursework and practicum taken concurrently may have differed from taking the coursework alone. The relationships between descriptive data and student teachers’ developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices were also of interest.

A total of 390 college students participated in this study. These students …

Rereading And Rewriting Women's History, Jacqueline Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In Margaret Atwood’s nonfiction book Negotiating with the Dead: A Writer on Writing (2002), Atwood discusses the importance of the female writer’s responsibility, that to write as a woman or about women means that you take upon yourself the responsibility of writing as a form of negotiation with our female dead and with what these dead took with them—the truth about who they were. By rereading and rewriting our communal past, women writers pay tribute to our female ancestors by voicing their silent stories while also changing gender stereotypes, complicating who these women were, and acknowledging their accomplishments.

In her …

Transforming Teachers’ Knowledge And Skills: Lesson Study In Mathematics Instruction Sensitive For Diverse Learners At Middle Level, Vessela Ilieva

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study investigated the learning of middle school mathematics teachers as they worked in a student-sensitive lesson study group. Three mathematics teachers collaborated to develop and teach student-sensitive math lessons. The original Japanese lesson study model was extended to involve a diversity consultant with experience and expertise in providing student-sensitive instruction. Collaboratively, the members of the lesson study group tailored their mathematics lessons to provide enhanced mathematics instruction to the diverse groups of students in their classrooms. The lesson study team held weekly meetings to develop three student-sensitive lessons over a six-month period.

A case study design was used to …

Demographic Factors That Predict Breastfeeding In The Early Postpartum Period In Utah Women, Amyanne Wuthrich-Reggio

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Breastfeeding is considered to be the optimal choice of infant feeding methods, yet the rates of breastfeeding are consistently lower than national recommendations despite efforts to reverse this trend. Designing effective interventions to increase breastfeeding requires a thorough understanding of the women who choose to breastfeed their infants as well as those who do not choose this infant feeding method. In order to determine which demographic factors predicted breastfeeding in the early postpartum period in Utah women, 600 "intercept interviews" were conducted in the spring and early summer of 2007. Women included in the study were 18 years or older …

Complex Systems In Engineering And Technology Education: A Mixed Methods Study Investigating The Role Computer Simulations Serve In Student Learning, Douglas J. Walrath

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research was conducted to determine if students receiving complex systems instruction in the form of software simulations recognize patterns and underlying elements of complex systems more effectively than students receiving traditional instruction. Complex systems were investigated with an analytic (reductive) approach in a control group and with a synthesis approach in the treatment group. Exploration of this top-down approach to learning complex systems counters traditional bottom-up methodologies, investigating systems and subsystems at the component level. The hypothesis was that students experiencing complex systems scenarios in a computer-based learning environment would outperform their counterparts by constructing a greater number of …

Teaching Patterns: A Pattern Language For Improving The Quality Of Instruction In Higher Education Settings, Daren Olson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

One method for improving the appeal of instruction is found in Christopher Alexander’s work on architectural design patterns. In this qualitative research study, student comments on teacher/course evaluation forms were analyzed to generate six instructional design patterns. The teacher enthusiasm pattern encourages teachers to show (a) increased scholarship and enthusiasm towards the subject matter, (b) genuine concern and enthusiasm towards the students, and (c) mastery of and enthusiasm towards the act of teaching. The balanced curriculum pattern recommends that teachers (a) determine the appropriate depth or breadth of subject matter and communicate it to the students, (b) create a balanced …

Application Of Resiliency Theory And Adaptive Cycles As A Framework For Evaluating Change In Amenity-Transition Communities, Scott L. Hoffmann

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In recent decades, many rural, natural resource-dependent communities have experienced ubiquitous and oftentimes substantial economic decline due to downturns in their commodity-oriented industries. In spite of this, communities with access to varying forms of natural capital have experienced an upsurge in activities such as recreation, tourism, second home growth, and retirement in-migration. If managed properly, amenity-oriented development has potential to reverse economic decline by attracting tourists, entrepreneurs, younger and more educated workers, and retirees, and may ultimately generate economic diversification, local growth, and an improved quality of life for residents. While there are literally thousands of potential measures of well-being, …

Academic Standards Subcommittee Minutes, November 13, 2008, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Academic Integrity Policy
• Grades from international universities

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, November 6, 2008, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Department of Agricultural Systems, Technology and Education

• New Course
• Credit Hour Change

Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences

• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change, Add Dual List

Department of Plants, Soils and Climate

• Prerequisite Change
• Delete Course

Department of Economics and Finance

• Grade Mode Change

Emma Eccles Jones College of Education and Human Services

• New Course
• Title Change
• Course Description Change
• Title Change, Course Description Change
• Add dual list, course description change
• Course number change, add dual list, course description change

Department of Communicative Disorders and Deaf Education

• New Course
• Title Change
• Credit Hour Change

Department …

Effect Of The Addition Of Waxes On The Crystallization Behavior Of Anhydrous Milk Fat, Silvana Martini, Amalia A. Carelli, Jiwon Lee

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Physicochemical characteristics of lipid-based foods depend, among other factors, on the microstructure and the characteristics of the lipid network formed during crystallization. The objective of this study, was to evaluate the effect of the addition of sunflower oil waxes on the crystallization and melting behavior of anhydrous milk fat (AMF), a lipid with a low content of palmitic and trans-fatty acids. The crystallization and melting behavior of AMF alone and with the addition of 0.25 and 0.5% of waxes was studied using a differential scanning calorimeter. The morphology of the crystallized samples was evaluated with a polarized light microscope. The …