Digital Commons Network^™

2019 State Of The University Adress, Edward Montgomery

WMU President Edward Montgomery

President Edward Montgomery's State of the University Address.

Encaustic Mixed Media & Collage Workshop Peninsula School Of Art, Christina Chin

Instructional Development Grants

Instructional Development Opportunity

Encaustic Mixed Media & Collage Workshop taught at the Peninsula School of Art

Short Term Objectives

To complete a component of a larger sabbatical research project, by extending my compendium of encaustic process and technique understandings, specifically: –To learn how to build out in relief (extending out into three-dimensional space) with encaustics.

Using Photovoice As Pedagogy, Regina L. Garza Mitchell

Instructional Development Grants

Photovoice is a research method that, with some work, can be adapted for classroom use at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in a variety of disciplines. I see its greatest potential as elevating the students’ voices into teaching and learning conversations, which can help us improve our pedagogy for better learning.

French Stereotypical Accent And Pronunciation Learning: Recalling Implicit Knowledge, Viviane Ruellot

Instructional Development Grants

Research Questions

1. Will practice speaking L1 English with a French stereotypical accent help significantly improve pronunciation of French /ʁ/ and reduce aspiration (VOTs) of /p/, /t/, and /k/ ?

2. Which /ʁ/ (i.e., degree of friction) will be improved?

The Five Essential Elements Of Storytelling, Kelly Wittenberg

Instructional Development Grants

I attended Five Elements of the Novel, taught by Kelly Dwyer, M.F.A. Each day of workshop was focused on one of the following five essential elements of storytelling — plot, character, dialogue, point of view, and theme — with evenings reserved for individual writing to be shared in group the next day. Also explored were practical strategies for creative inspiration and motivation toward the daily practice of writing.

Connections 09/2019, College Of Health And Human Services

College of Health and Human Services Newsletter

• Public health professor receives 2019 Nutrition Education Program Impact Award
• WMU secures federal grant to battle opioid epidemic
• PA students volunteer in Kalamazoo
• Golf tournament benefits client costs
• Say Hello to the WMU Alumni Association
• WMU ranks no. 1 in graduate earnings
• WMU among recipients of $1M NSF grant to boost women in STEM fields

September 2019 Newsletter, Haworth College Of Business

Haworth College of Business News

• College honors alumni and friends
• Rise and shine to pancakes during homecoming
• Business students partner with local nonprofit
• Call for nominations - The 30
• Registration open for information technology forum

Pirates, Merchants, And A Small Battle On The Island Of Kythira In The Later Middle Ages, David D. Terry

The Hilltop Review

Merchants in the later medieval Mediterranean crossed boundaries both geographical and moral. In November 1327 two Mallorcan investors complained to the king’s court that their ship, which they had sent to the eastern Mediterranean laden with tradable goods, had been ransacked by the violent natives of Kythera, an Aegean island at that time ruled by Venice. The Venetians, always conscious of maintaining good trade relations, sent representatives to the island and conducted a full investigation. After interviewing the islanders, the duke of the island sent his conclusions back to Venice: the Catalan “merchants” had come ashore on the island and …

Acceptability Of Social Media Incentives To Increase Physical Activity, Amanda Devoto, Anthony Defulio

The Hilltop Review

Background: Contingency management can be effective in promoting physical activity, but the change frequently does not sustain after the intervention is withdrawn. A feasible and sustainable physical activity intervention is needed. Social media may meet the criteria for a sustainable intervention, as it is free to use and enormously popular.

Introduction: The goal of the current study was to assess acceptability of using social media as an incentive for a physical activity intervention.

Materials and Methods: The current study surveyed 102 Mechanical Turk users on their social media use, physical activity habits, and interest in a proposed physical activity intervention. …

China's Unethical Economic Development Practices, Kimberly A. Madsen

The Hilltop Review

The purpose of this research paper is to inform the public about some of the unethical economic development practices that China is performing with their citizens and global partners. These activities include escalating the national GDP at the detriment of their citizens through forced relocations in order to build new cities, dividing families with harmful public policies, and the imbalance between their citizens’ annual earnings and housing costs. Also discussed is the environmental pollution of the air, water, and soil, and poorly treating their international constituents when asked to provide consulting services to their nation.

Erasure On All Sides: A Public Health Analysis Of Mental Health Disparities Experienced By Bisexual Individuals, Kaila K. Graham

The Hilltop Review

Research has found that bisexuals not only experience poorer mental health outcomes when compared to heterosexuals, but that the same holds true when compared to other members of the LGBTQ community (Feinstein & Dyar, 2017; Mackay, Robinson, Pinder, & Ross, 2017; Persson & Pfaus, 2015). From the stigma surrounding mental health and the stresses of non-disclosure up to experiences of discrimination in health care and at times lack of legal protection, the issues faced by bisexual individuals on a daily basis are great (Mackay et al., 2017; Persson & Pfaus, 2015). These battles take a toll on the mental health …

Notes From The Editor, Adam Waggoner

The Hilltop Review

No abstract provided.

The Hilltop Review, Vol 11, No 2, Spring 2019

The Hilltop Review

No abstract provided.

The Rise Of Infographics: Why Teachers And Teacher Educators Should Take Heed, Katie Alford

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

How can teacher educators utilize infographics to prepare preservice ELA teachers for the complex task of creating both critical consumers and conscious creators of this 21st-century genre? As what counts as “text” expands because of our digital world, teachers are struggling to keep up with the demands of knowing and being able to support students in both their reading and writing of many new genres. Infographics have proliferated on the internet and have now hit print media, so they are a growing reality in our world today. This article lays out what we know about infographics in education today and …

The Importance Of Teacher Self-Efficacy In The Implementation Of A Middle And High School Science Writing Initiative, Michelle P. Whitacre

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study focuses on the experiences of two science teachers who worked to implement a writing-focused, science literacy project in their classrooms. More specifically, I uncover the ways these teachers’ experiences differed and how these differences influenced their implementation. Findings confirm the importance of content teachers’ sense of self-efficacy as writers and writing teachers. In order to foster writing initiatives at the middle and secondary levels, we must honor and nurture content teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and give them multiple opportunities to develop mastery experiences.

Cards: A Collaborative Community Model For Faculty Development Or An Institutional Case Study Of Writing Program Administration, R. Nichole Rougeau-Vanderford Phd, Rebecca Day Babcock Phd, Aliethia Dean Ma, Victoria Hinesly Ba

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The structure of writing programs evolves to account for the transformation of composition studies. Online and dual credit programs necessitate a need to adjust prior practices initially geared towards face-to-face pedagogy; however, several challenges surface in online and dual credit writing programs. The most prevalent is that these online courses are primarily staffed by non-tenured faculty, including adjuncts who do not have a physical presence on campus. The faculty dynamic presents many challenges when attempting to garner participation in collaborations. In recent years, the Writing Program Administrator (WPA) at a regional public university noticed a need to improve faculty morale, …

August 2019 Newsletter, Haworth College Of Business

Haworth College of Business News

• Business class completes 3,700+ hours of service
• Business students take the wheel
• Collaboration with esports arena enhances student experience
• Student group recognized by leading human resource association
• Student group earns recognition for superior efforts
• Climbing for clean water

Sexual Coercion: The Role Of Communication And Heteronormative Beliefs, Brianna Lindley Forbis

Dissertations

Sexual assault is a pervasive issue on college campuses, with large numbers of students experiencing sexual assault during their college careers (Fisher, Cullen, & Turner, 2000). Sexual assault is often perpetrated by a known offender, which has brought increased attention to forms of sexual assault that do not necessarily include violence or the direct threat of violence. Sexual coercion is one such construct that has received increased attention in the literature, with several studies finding associations between heteronormative beliefs and sexual coercion (Eaton & Matamala 2014; Haworth- Hoeppner, 1998; Vanwesenbeek, 1998). Aims of the current study included further exploring the …

Evaluation Of Data Collection Operations For Real-Time Influenza Surveillance During An Emergency, Yuwen Gu

Dissertations

It is unclear how data collection operations for surveillance alter the disease portrayal that influenza reported trends attempt to provide during an emergency. This study developed a model that simulates the collection and testing of influenza specimens after an outbreak is declared in Michigan. It performed simulation based optimization to understand which operational factors affect the biases between the growth rates of original and observed influenza incidence trends, and to quantify the predictive power of the influenza incidence trends at different points of data collection. The results show that emergency driven high risk perception increases the reporting, which leads to …

Deliberation For Devolution In The Public Sphere: A Case Study From Pakistan, Beenish Kulsoom

Dissertations

Genuine democratic deliberation on design of institutional rules is possible only when the state apparatus and political and civil society are engaged in communicative interexchange, exchanging ideas, and speaking in a language understood and accepted by all others. Moreover, in such an exchange the interlocutors do not hold back their thoughts to achieve strategic control in order to subvert the communicative engagement. The deliberative theory of democracy advocates communicative engagement between state and society actors that results in institutional rules that are accepted by all.

The advocates of the theory of deliberative democracy argue that while the state is the …

Inequality, Patronage, Ethnic Politics And Decentralization In Kenya And Botswana: An Analysis Of Factors That Increase The Likelihood Of Ethnic Conflict, Rei Gordon

Masters Theses

Scholars have recommended numerous institutional arrangements for mitigating ethnic conflict in divided societies. Electoral systems are often considered to have an impact on ethnic conflict, and scholars have recommended both proportional representation systems and majoritarian systems for their respective effects on mitigating ethnic tensions. However, in a cross-national analysis of 18 sub-Saharan democracies, I find no impact of electoral systems on ethnic conflict. Countries employing proportional representation systems and majoritarian systems are compared according to three measures of ethnic conflict, yet neither electoral system correlates with higher or lower levels of conflict. In the interest of identifying factors that do …

Cisgender Fragility, Zachariah Graydon Oaster

Masters Theses

Cisgender people in the United States are socialized in an environment that shields them from gender-identity-based stress. Like the construct of white fragility (DiAngelo, 2011), cisgender persons exhibit defensive behavior in response to encountering any gender-identity-based discomfort. Once triggered, defensive acts and false claims are deployed in an attempt to return to a state of comfort and normalcy. The stress that cisgender persons feel, and the defensive actions that they take upon encountering such gender-identity-based discomfort is what I refer to herein as Cisgender Fragility.

This theoretical construct of Cisgender Fragility is nuanced through intersectional synthesis of queer and race …

Deep Imprints 20th-Century Media Stereotypes Towards East Asian Immigrants And The Development Of A Pan-Ethnic East-Asian-American Identity, Christopher Maiytt

Masters Theses

Existing scholarship on ethnic representation in the American film industry most prominently features Black and Latinx subject matters, with little attention devoted to Asian American depictions. In contrast, this study tracks the use of persistent stereotypes in the American film industry directed at East-Asian immigrants and the influence American racism in popular media has on the emergence of a Pan-ethnic East-Asian American identity. The first appearance of a cooperative Pan-ethnic minority group materializes during the Yellow Power Movement of the 1960s, which is followed by the emergence of East-Asian film direction en force. Analysis of these films and in the …

Examining The Effects Of Cell Phone Use On Caregiver Supervision And Child Injury Risk, Mckenna Corlis

Dissertations

Unintentional injuries are the leading killer of children in the United States. Research indicates caregiver supervision decreases child injury risk, but has not examined how different distractions may affect this relation. Specifically, research has not considered if and how caregiver cell phone use affects child injury risk. Given the prevalence and distracting effects of cell phones noted in previous studies, it is imperative to examine how caregiver cell phone use and child injury risk relate.

The present study examined how distractions influenced caregivers’ ability to tend to their child and their child’s engagement in risky behavior. Using a within-subjects design, …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Sustained Silent Reading And Reciprocal Reading On Reading Motivation For Middle School Students With Reading Delays, Margaret Uwayo

Dissertations

Research suggests that secondary students with reading delays may lack reading motivation, which can be defined as the temporal reinforcement value of texts for an individual. However, reading motivation may be a critical component of their acquisition of reading proficiency. The purpose of the current study was to compare the effects of two research-based reading interventions - sustained silent reading and modified reciprocal reading - on the reading motivation of middle school students with reading delays. Participants were four 6th-grade students who were grouped into dyads in a reading intervention classroom. The primary dependent variable was book engagement under pairing …

Using Novel Spectroscopy Tool To Study Organized Self-Assemblies, Mohammad Rafe M Bin Hatshan

Dissertations

Organized self-assemblies are the cornerstones for countless biological processes and are integral parts of lipids, proteins, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and cell membranes. Several man-made organized assemblies also play a vital role in interdisciplinary sciences that include micelles, reverse micelles, polymers, polyelectrolytes etc. Weak chemical interactions such as hydrogen bonding, p-p stacking, hydrophilic-hydrophobic and electrostatics often result in interesting organized self-assemblies. Understanding organized self-assemblies provides a huge opportunity to mimic naturally occurring biological macromolecules, design materials and develop strategies for specific applications. Several techniques are routinely used to understand the organized self-assemblies, and optical techniques play an important role in most …

The Meaning Of The Civil War In Northern Religious Periodicals, 1865-1877, Jeffrey Mark Charles Joslin

Masters Theses

The American Civil War had a profound effect on the minds of religious northerners during the Reconstruction Era that followed the war. Through church periodicals, members of the Methodist, African Methodist Episcopal, and Seventh-day Adventist churches demonstrated and expounded the various meanings they understood the war to contain. This thesis examines each denomination‘s flagship newspaper in order to categorize, describe, and contextualize the major themes of meaning attributed to the war within each church. The major themes that emerge closely reflect each church‘s sense of identity and purpose, such as viewing the war as punishment from God, purification in creating …

An Exploration Into The Controls And Extent Of Capillary Rise In Fine-Grained Sand, Neal S. Turluck

Masters Theses

Capillary rise in fine-grained sands is especially important due to the wide distribution of fine-grained sediment throughout the unconsolidated sedimentary layers blanketing the earth. The height to which water rises above the water table in porous media is known as the capillary fringe. Tension pulling on the water molecules from the solid surfaces of pores will cause water to rise in the unconsolidated fine-grained sands until the water reaches equilibrium with the downward force of gravity.

Researching the controls behind capillary rise and being able to predict the extent to which water will rise in fine-grained sand helped provide insight …

Analysis Of The Demands Of A Student Athlete, Jaret Curtis

Honors Theses

College athletics has become a staple in our society today. In this analysis, I do a detailed analysis of the demands of a collegiate student athlete. To be more specific, I look at how participating in college athletics affects hirability post-graduation. I am currently a football student athlete here at WMU so I have first person access to this information and can relate very well to this topic. I obtained information by taking an autobiographical approach and applying my experiences as a student athlete and using outside research to answer the question of whether or not being a student athlete …

They Said: International Occupational Therapy Perspectives On The Role Of Technology In Practice, Amy Wagenfeld

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

No abstract provided.