Digital Commons Network^™

An Economic Impact Analysis Of A Youth Softball World Series, Robert Tanner Jones

Honors Theses

Sporting events can have a large impact on an economy. From the Olympics to the Super Bowl to the World Cup, these events bring in millions of dollars of new revenue to a region. Extensive research has been conducted on the economic impact of these mega-events. However, smaller sporting events, such as a fishing tournament, youth sports tournament, or 5K race, can also boost local economies and influence future tourism choices. However, limited research has been conducted to understand the economic impact of these events, despite the significant resources needed by communities to host these smaller events. This economic impact …

Self Myofascial Release: Effects On Hamstring Range Of Motion And Torque, Dillion F. Evans

Honors Theses

Research has indicated that static stretching may reduce force production capabilities. This has led many practitioners to exchange static stretching for alternative methods of increasing range of motion (ROM) in warm-ups. Despite having little research to support its use, self myofascial release—foam rolling—has been suggested as a viable alternative (Macdonald et al, 2013). The objective of this study was to determine how self myofascial release (SMR) of the hamstring muscle group affects ROM and torque production capabilities of the hamstring muscle group. Ten subjects (age 26.5 6.5 years, mass 74.412.1 kg, height 1738 cm) were recruited. A within subjects randomized, …

Solving The Obesity Problem One Bite At A Time: A Review Of Interventions, Sally Catherine Davis

Honors Theses

Resource limitations contribute to obesity in southern rural populations. An examination of published research provides evidence related to factors that lead to obesity and to related health consequences. Resource limitations in southern rural areas include a lack of access to healthy foods, a lack of safe areas to exercise or fitness equipment, and a lack of funding to promote the hiring of adequate numbers of healthcare workers to implement prevention programs and treat obesity related diseases. An investigation of obesity rates in Mississippi and Louisiana demonstrate that high rates of obesity exist. Through an exploration of published interventions in both …

A Look Into Informal Science Education And Students With Individual Education Plans, Ashleigh M. Davis

Honors Theses

Informal science education is a field of study that is becoming increasingly popular and important in the world of science, especially regarding elementary students. It is important to understand how students with learning disabilities and individual education plans react to informal learning experiences. This case study seeks to reveal the experiences of two students with an individual educational plan due to Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) when participating in an informal nature hike associated with the Over, Under, and Through: Students Informally Discover the Environment (OUTSIDE) program. The two students demonstrated increased attention and interest in science during and …

Successfully Selecting Performance Repertoire For Concert Festival Evaluation, Kristopher R. Chandler

Honors Theses

Since Lowell Mason introduced the idea of modern day music education, music specialists like Dr. Acton Ostling, Jr. and Dr. Frank Battisti have aided in the evolution of music education to meet the needs of our ever-changing society. Dr. Ostling and Dr. Battisti published ground breaking research regarding selection of wind band repertoire that included a list of research-based guidelines such as choosing music that has clear melodic content, contrasting rhythms, and contrasting tonal textures, among other specifications. This study focuses on the prior research conducted by Dr. Ostling and Dr. Battisti. A survey consisting of a series of questions …

Are The Voting Patterns Of College-Aged Students And The General Public Influenced By Award-Winning Celebrities’ Political Opinions In Presidential Elections?, Andrew S. Blouin

Honors Theses

This thesis study is entitled “Are the Voting Patterns of College-Aged Students and the General Public Influenced by Award-Winning Celebrities’ Political Opinions in Presidential Elections?” This thesis examines primary data from award shows, government campaign financing data, and student survey data obtained at the University of Southern Mississippi. The study investigates both whether award-winning celebrities have a political impact on presidential elections and specifically whether celebrities have a political influence on college-aged people. Data analysis from this study reveals that celebrities do not have a substantial impact upon either presidential elections or upon the voting patterns of young people. This …

Static And Dynamic Error Correction Of A Computer-Aided Mechanical Navigation Linkage For Arthroscopic Hip Surgery, Kangqiao Li

Honors Theses

While beneficially decreasing the necessary incision size, arthroscopic hip surgery increases the surgical complexity due to loss of joint visibility. To ease such difficulty, a computer-aided mechanical navigation system was developed to present the location of the surgical tool relative to the patient¿s hip joint. A preliminary study reduced the position error of the tracking linkage with limited static testing trials. In this study, a correction method, including a rotational correction factor and a length correction function, was developed through more in-depth static testing. The developed correction method was then applied to additional static and dynamic testing trials to evaluate …

The Effects Of An Academic Values Clarification Exercise On Academic Performance Of College Students, Dana Goetz

Honors Theses

Values exploration exercises, in which individuals are typically asked to rank order their values and describe values that are most important to them, have been used for many purposes including reducing the racial achievement gap in academic performance (Cohen, Garcia, Apfel, Maseter, 2006), increasing acceptance of health related issues (Harris & Napper, 2005), and increasing academic success (Chase, Houmanfar, Hayes, Ward, Vilardaga, & Follette, 2013). However, little research has addressed the mechanism or mechanisms through which values clarification exercises impact outcomes, particularly academic achievement. This paper analyzes values clarification exercises used in educational settings during the 1970s and the roles …

A Cross-Cultural Study Exploring Structural Factors Of Men's Sheds, Kaitlyn Mcgrail

Honors Theses

The Men’s Shed program was developed in Australia in 2006 with the explicit goal of establishing a place for men to socially interact and to help maintain their health and well-being. The Men’s Shed program has grown tremendously and has continued their growth in many other countries. There is limited research conducted about the organizational and structural features of the Men’s Shed program. There has been no research to date conducted cross-culturally on the program. The aim of this study is to conduct a descriptive, cross-cultural study on Men’s Shed organizations and the characteristics of the Men’s Shed participants. By …

Teaching Book Arts In The Classroom To Enhance Education, Leah Ruesink

Honors Theses

Books are the foundation of education and a central component to our society. The process of making books, including the art of paper-making, printmaking, typography, and bookbinding are rarely known or recognized today. In our current age of computer and photographic technology, these processes have become a lost art. Through my experiences exploring and creating book art in Italy through a study abroad experience, as well as an internship at the Kalamazoo Book Arts Center, I began to see many connections to book arts and educating children. The power and magical aspect of books came alive to me, and I …

Like Sun On A Wet Cobblestone, Renate Childs

Honors Theses

Recent College graduate, Silvie, is visiting her good friend Maddie in Rome in an attempt to put off making any major life decisions. Outside of the Coliseum she meets Giorgio, a charming American living an ideal life in Rome, and Michele De Luca, a mysterious and intelligent professor. As Giorgio plays the role of tour guide, showing Silvie around Rome, De Luca becomes a mentor for her. Silvie is a young, modern American living in the old world, and these contrasting cultures lead to detailed and insightful observations. Through her travel experiences and the relationships formed with each character, Sylvie …

Art And Aphasia: A Literary Review And Exhibition, Jessica Parrish

Honors Theses

My honors thesis explores aphasia, my primary topic of interest, through procedures spanning both of my degrees. Communication makes interaction possible for exchanging ideas, feelings, concepts, and events. Aphasia, an acquired disorder, impacts language areas that are responsible for expression, comprehension, literacy, and symbolic understanding. Aphasia interrupts the mental process responsible for converting thought to language. Literature involving both traditional speech and art therapy is discussed. Once the aphasia disorder type is assessed, a speech language pathologist designs a therapy plan. Art, which has been used in therapy and research for rehabilitation, shares a connection with language and symbolic thought. …

Emerging Themes In Dystopian Literature: The Development Of An Undergraduate Course, Devin Ryan

Honors Theses

Young adult (YA) dystopian literature is a trend that is taking the nation by storm. Since September 11, 2001, the genre has gained a strong backing from academics, authors, and YA readers; after Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games (2008), however, YA dystopian literature has become the forefront of teen reading, especially with the recently adapted film versions of the widely renowned trilogy. In order to keep up with the times, a proposed course—YA Dystopian Literature: A Survey of Modern Book Series—has been created to be taught at Western Michigan University by Dr. Gwen Tarbox in the spring of 2015.

Before …

A Postmortem On Nanowrimo: Analyzing The Creative Process Of Writing Under Time Constraints, Mary Westveer

Honors Theses

This honors thesis project delves into the creative writing process of writing under time constraints. The time constrain employed for my thesis was National Novella Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) which is an international online writing contest where authors join in and attempt to write a 50,000 word story in the month of November. The purpose of attempting such a feat was to see how limited time constraints affect creative writing. This thesis analyzes how narrative, character development, description, diction, dialogue and many other creative elements faired when striving to write 50,000 words in a month. This thesis dissects how the creative …

Wmu Career And Student Employment Services – Present Practices And Future Recommendations For Employer Relations, Amanda Jeppesen

Honors Theses

Career services offices currently find themselves in a rapidly changing environment. Due to economic hardship, students and employers are expecting more effective and fruitful engagement, and offices must create innovative solutions to provide such engagement on shrinking budgets. Career services staff charged with conducting employer relations activities are charged with brokering these relationships between employers, students, faculty and staff, and the offerings of their departments. The purpose of this study is to determine current practices for the career services offices at Western Michigan University, Oakland University, and Central Michigan University. Then, best practices identified by industry experts will be explored …

Leni Sinclair & Lessons From The 60s/70s Era, Chelsie Noble

Honors Theses

Leni Sinclair is a photographer who came to the United States in 1959 from communist East Germany. Sinclair is recognized for being a prominent photographer of artists ranging from Sun Ra to the MC5. Though most that study the era and the revolutionary groups surrounding Detroit and Ann Arbor focus on her [then] husband’s work (John Sinclair,) Leni has provided an equally important documentation of the ‘60s and ‘70s. As the Minister of Education in the White Panthers Party, Sinclair’s job was to educate anyone who wished to know about their values, goals, and ways of life. This paper relays …

Treating Bipolar Disorder And Schizophrenia With Biomedical Protocol, Samantha M. Cardenas

Honors Theses

Bipolar Disorder and schizophrenia afflict approximately 2% of the human population, more than 12,400,000 people. When family members, co-workers, and care-givers are factored in, more than 10% of the population is directly impacted by these medical conditions. Finding a way to reduce the severity of the symptoms or cure these diseases would positively impact a large number of people. This paper defines and differentiates between these two similar-but-different maladies, and explores both the traditional courses of treatment as well as the most current research with potential to help combat these diseases – especially genetic mapping with the use of neuroimaging. …

Lead Seals From Colonial Fort St. Joseph (20be23), Cathrine Davis

Honors Theses

The mainstay of the North American fur trade was cloth, which composed at one time over half of the goods shipped out of Montreal for trade with Native Americans. However, this cloth rarely survives in archaeological context, leaving only other artifacts that yield limited information on the textiles that once existed at a site. Among these artifacts are lead seals, which functioned much in the same way as modern day clothing tags, with lettering and symbols that reveal information such as the origin, quality, and quantity of the cloth to which they were once attached.

This study examined seals from …

Influences And Perspectives: Studying Abroad In Germany, Alexandra Nelson

Honors Theses

A group of Western Michigan University students who studied abroad in Germany within the past two years were surveyed to better understand what influences opinions and stereotypes of another culture. In this thesis the country and culture that was specifically observed was Germany. This thesis focuses on three factors that influence an individual’s opinions of another culture: (1) the influences from the individual’s family, friends and culture/society of his/her home country, (2) the influences from the host country’s culture/society of his/her study abroad, and (3) the influences of his/her experiences while studying abroad. In the survey, the students were asked …

Labeling Of Retinal Ganglion Cells In A Rat Glaucoma Model, Lucia Rodriguez

Honors Theses

Glaucoma is a degenerative disease of the retina containing multifactorial structural and functional defects. There is a loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) seen in this optic disorder. Cupping of the optic disk seen in glaucoma is a result of the loss of RGC axons at the optic nerve head where the nerve fibers connect. As a result of these factors, visual field loss is common among glaucoma patients.¹ In the United States, this visual field loss associated with glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness since glaucoma is difficult to detect.² Usually, increased intraocular pressure …

Alexander Hamilton: Slavery, Politics, And Class Status, Sara Weyenberg

Honors Theses

Though slavery is often connected with the Civil War, it was also a topic of great interest during the Revolutionary period. Many people had strong opinions on the morality of slavery, and they were not afraid to voice them. There are countless writings that, if nothing else, at least touch on the subject briefly. As one might imagine, there were people on both sides of the fence – those who took offense and those who did not. A new country was about to be born, and slavery provided just one of the tensions that was in existence at the time. …

Resisting (And Reproducing) Language Domination In A Bilingual Kindergarten Classroom, Roxana Gamble

Honors Theses

In modern U.S. society, English is considered the language of power while Spanish is considered a minority language, unfit for academic or professional settings. These macro-level power inequalities are evident in micro-level interactions between students and teachers in mainstream schools. Dual language education programs, however, attempt to challenge this ideology by elevating the status of minority languages and their speakers. In this study, I use an ethnographic/discourse analysis approach to examine how one teacher's practices in a dual language kindergarten classroom work to both reproduce and resist dominant ideologies about Spanish. Through participant-observation, interviews, and audio recordings of naturallyoccurring speech, …

The Consequence Of Freedom: A Sociological Analysis Of The Suicide Epidemic In Luthuania, Kyle Kaminski

Honors Theses

Lithuania has the highest global suicide rate at 40.2/100,000, according to the international suicide statistics provided by WHO (2004). Lithuania's suicide rate is over 2.5 times more than the global average. The top five countries in terms of suicide rate are Lithuania, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan, and Hungary (Ibid). All of these countries were previously under the Soviet Union's control from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War in 1989. Lithuania has not always been at the top of the rankings for global suicide rates. Lithuania's suicide rate spiked almost 20 percent during the years …

The Effects Of Shiatsu Massage On Stressed College Students, Hannah E. Daniel

Honors Theses

This research discusses the effect that Shiatsu massages can have on stress in college students. A Shiatsu massage class was surveyed to provide further research.

The Relevance Of Fraternity New Member Education Programs, Christopher Miller

Honors Theses

College can be a difficult time of transition for young men, and done properly a fraternity can provide a strong tool for initial and continued success. My thesis will center on a curriculum I developed for the new members of my fraternity, the Michigan Beta chapter of Sigma Phi Epsilon (SigEp). Under the auspices of SigEp’s nationally implemented Balanced Man Program, my program is aimed to help new members of college and SigEp understand collegiate life, fraternity, and how living a life centered around the principles of SigEp can help ensure success in college and in life after college. The …

Two-Way Dual-Immersion Programs, Monica Nealis

Honors Theses

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, “of the 281 million people aged 5 and over in the United States, 55.4 million people (20 percent of this population) speak a language other than English at home” (Center for Applied Linguistics). As this number of English language learners, also known as ELLs, continues to grow, families and educators alike are looking for effective programs and instructional strategies to serve these children and adults (CAL). “Dual-language education” is an umbrella term used for an additive form of education in which students are taught literacy and other content (reading, writing, mathematics, science, and social …

Backyard Archaeology: Informing The Southwest Michigan Community About Local Archaeological Sites And Research Through The “Evidence Found” Exhibit, Tabitha Hubbard

Honors Theses

This paper is a report of my involvement with and background research for an upcoming exhibit called “Evidence Found.” The project is a collaboration between the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project and the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. In this report, I provide a description of the exhibit and my involvement in preparing the exhibit. I also present the research I conducted for use in the exhibit. Joseph Hines, a designer with Project Arts & Ideas, and Dr. Michael Nassaney, a Professor of Anthropology at Western Michigan University and the principal investigator of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, are creating the …

Position Tracking Using Wifi, Tyler Bayne

Honors Theses

Position tracking using WiFi is needed as a more accurate method of intra-building tracking due to Global Positioning System's (GPS) lack of accuracy in buildings. The main application of this project is to provide a safety system, which may be either tracking employees within a building and allowing them to send an emergency message through a device, or to track objects throughout a building. The devices can send simple messages to a central location. These messages will include position information and which emergency has been selected. The devices consist of two buttons and two LEDs, and with a button press, …

Position Tracking Using Wifi, Nathan Conrad

Honors Theses

Position tracking using WiFi is needed as a more accurate method of intra-building tracking due to Global Positioning System’s (GPS) lack of accuracy in buildings. The main application of this project is to provide a safety system, which may be either tracking employees within a building and allowing them to send an emergency message through a device, or to track objects throughout a building. The devices can send simple messages to a central location. These messages will include position information and which emergency has been selected. The devices consist of two buttons and two LEDs, and with a button press, …

Paper And Pixel : A Study In Multichannel Advertising, Jesse Jackson

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.