Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of Factors Influencing Chemistry Students’ Choice Of Major And Career, Jennifer Marie Ribble

Masters Theses

In recent years there has been a push to increase the number of STEM graduates in the United States in order for the nation to retain its position as a global leader in the sciences. If educators are to address recruitment and attrition issues in STEM fields it is important to understand student perspectives related to choosing both a major and a career in chemistry. The present study explores the decision-making process students utilize to choose chemistry as a major and as a career, their perception of what careers are available to someone with a degree in chemistry and what …

“College Is Mandatory In Our Family”: A Study Of Homeschooler Anticipatory Memorable Messages About College, Gina S. Reynolds

Masters Theses

Homeschooling in the United States provides many children with a unique educational background that may present different perspectives when considering college attendance. This thesis examines the memorable messages homeschool students received regarding college, where these messages came from, and the perceived impact they have on the student. Memorable messages are easily recalled words that participants receive from others, which they believe has an impact on their attitudes and decisions (Cranmer & Myers, 2017). This study also looks at the messages homeschool students received from the media and the effect these have on their college choices. A qualitative study gathered reports …

Vehicle Velocity Prediction Using Artificial Neural Networks And Effect Of Real-World Signals On Prediction Window, Tushar Dnyaneshwar Gaikwad

Masters Theses

Prediction of vehicle velocity is essential since it can realize improvements in the fuel economy/energy efficiency, drivability, and safety. Many publications address velocity prediction problems, yet there is a need for the understanding effect of different signals for the prediction. There are numerous new sensor and signal technologies like vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication that can be used to obtain comprehensive datasets. Several references considered deterministic and stochastic approaches that use the datasets as input to determine future operation predictions. These approaches include different traffic models and artificial neural networks such as Markov chain, nonlinear autoregressive model, Gaussian function, and recurrent …

Vehicle Performance Analysis Of An Autonomous Electric Shuttle Modified For Wheelchair Accessibility, Johan Fanas Rojas

Masters Theses

Autonomous vehicles (AV) have the potential to vastly improve independent, safe, and cost-effective mobility options for individuals with disabilities. However, accessibility considerations are often overlooked in the early stages of design, resulting in AVs that are inaccessible to people with disabilities. The needs of wheeled mobility device users can cause significant vehicle design changes due to requirements for stepless ingress/egress and increased space for onboard circulation and securement. Vehicles serving people with disabilities typically require costly aftermarket modifications for accessibility, which may have unforeseen impacts on vehicle performance and safety, particularly in the case of automated vehicles. In this research, …

Counter Stories In Counterpublics: Exploring Documentary As A Form Of Activist Media To Counter Reinforced Stereotypes About The Criminalization Of Black Men, Tirrea S. Billings

Masters Theses

A story told can change the world. Storytelling has been around since the inception of human communication and has been used as a tool to educate, preserve cultural values, and make meaning of our existence. More recently, storytelling has been used in activist and social change movements. One approach to social justice storytelling is through filmmaking: creating films as a tool to disrupt, interrupt, amplify, organize, shift power and create lasting, transformative change in communities. Specifically, social justice-oriented documentary film and media can be used as a vehicle for those who are in counterpublic spaces to argue against mainstream discourses …

Metal Mayhem To Music Theory: The Use Of Heavy Metal Music In Collegiate Music Theory Instruction, Weston Michael-Andrew Bernath

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Testing A New Photovoice Model: A Meta-Analysis On Participatory Action Research Methodologies In Geographical Research, Nolan Bergstrom

Masters Theses

Photovoice was developed in the early 1990s for use in public health studies evolving from participatory action research (PAR) and photographic methods. It attempts to mitigate the power dynamics between researcher and researched by allowing participants to be the primary knowledge producers. The Photovoice methodology has left open methodological avenues to implement Photovoice as a research tool in many fields. This research aimed to modify the Photovoice methodology to include mobile technology, social media to create a new model of Photovoice.

This research was conducted in K.I. Sawyer, MI, a small town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan over a …

Agritourism Development In Southwest Michigan: Motivations Of Agritourists And Operators, Esther Akoto Amoako

Masters Theses

National agricultural statistics show that the number of agritourism farms and the proportion of agritourism related revenues in the United States has steadily increased during the last ten years, especially among small family farms. The recent growth in agritourism is both demand - and supply-driven. However, there are limited studies that explore agritourism motivations from both the visitors' and operators’ perspectives. This study examines what the agritourists' and operators’ motivations are and the challenges facing the industry to provide information for those currently involved and those wanting to include agritourism in their operations. Online and in-person surveys and unstructured interviews …

"Members One Of Another": Heteroglossic Utterances As Critiques Of Injustice In Charles Dickens’S Bleak House, Cale Baker

Masters Theses

Charles Dickens often dealt with societal injustice within his work, and he often used the different languages—the language of the poor, the rich, the religious, the political—of various social strata to expose the disparity between the high and the low social classes. Within Bleak House, Dickens inserts different voices common to Victorian London through his third-person narrator to highlight the upper class oppression of the poor. To see Dickens’s insertion of these different voices, I use Mikhail Bakhtin’s work on heteroglossia and dialogism as a framework for understanding how Dickens inserts these different voices to specifically expose injustice. Additionally, I …

Folk Music In New England: A Living Tradition, Monica Diane Littlefield

Masters Theses

This master’s thesis investigates traditional folk music in New England in an effort to recognize its current practices and understand how this music creates and reflects identity for participants. Often described as a living tradition, folk music culture is deeply embedded in a historical context but is constantly shaped by musicians that play it today. During fieldwork in Vermont and Maine I examine this relationship between the music and musicians, recognizing that folk music provides a holistic experience that is deeply meaningful to participants. With an emphasis on fiddle and via an outsider lens, I discover what a beginner can …

In Search Of A More Republican Naval Defense: Thomas Jefferson, Congress, And The Gunboat Debate, 1802-1810, Ethan David Zook

Masters Theses

In 1801, Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, sought to reduce the national debt, eliminate taxes, and reduce spending regarding the U.S. Army and U.S. Navy. To this end, Jefferson enlisted the assistance of congressional Republicans to authorize and fund the construction of lightly armed, coastal-defense gunboats. By examining Jefferson’s writings and congressional speeches, “In Search of a More Republican Naval Defense: Thomas Jefferson, Congress, and the Gunboat Debate, 1802-1810” explains both Jefferson’s interest in the small warships, and why from 1801 to 1809 Congress appropriated $1,205,500 to build approximately 180 gunboats. This thesis argues that Jefferson …

"Seeing" Music Theory: Graduate Music Theory For The Visually Impaired Music Student, Moriah Leigh Wilson

Masters Theses

Visually impaired individuals often encounter obstacles when seeking to become financially independent and obtain marketable skills. An increase in technology has allowed visually impaired persons, who desire to further their musical skills, the capability to seek further education. However, there is a lack of curriculum, especially in higher education, for teaching music theory skills to visually impaired individuals. Because a foundational knowledge of music is developed through music theory, it is essential that music educators at higher education institutions are prepared and equipped to properly and adequately teach and prepare visually impaired individuals for the music industry. By building on …

Exploring The Essence Of Participation Of The Female Puerto Rican Basketball Athlete, Roberto Medina

Masters Theses

In Puerto Rico, little is known regarding how female collegiate and professional basketball players perceive and experience their playing participation. The population of girls playing basketball has experienced recent increases. However, the culture in Puerto Rico has yet to embrace the participation of female basketball athletes. Attempting to address the void in scholarly literature, this study explored female athlete participation perceptions in competitive basketball within the Puerto Rican sport culture. The investigation implemented a qualitative approach using a phenomenological methodology to form descriptive themes. Data was obtained from 14 female basketball athletes, of which 10 were student-athletes, and four were …

Reeformation, Adelina Koleva '10, Aysu Aysoy

Masters Theses

As the sea level rises, millions of vulnerable homes will be put at risk. Simultaneously, vital coastal habitats are disappearing due to pollution and rising ocean temperatures. The domain for this thesis will focus on a coastal region in Makassar, Indonesia, where the research ambition is to generate ecologically resilient, multifunctional offshore structures for urban living. The design of these structures aims to perform at multiple scales. Firstly, it seeks to support an underwater ecosystem through a porous topology capable of occupation by marine life from the cellular level. This will provide opportunities for the structure to act as a …

Diatom Community Responses To Development And Climate Change In Lake George, An Oligotrophic Lake In The Adirondack Mountains, Adam T. Ruka

Masters Theses

Lake George is a highly monitored, oligotrophic lake that experiences widespread tourism in the summer months. The southern basin is more developed than the northern basin, suggesting a north-south gradient of anthropogenic impairment. This study aimed to assess differences in nearshore diatom communities regarding gradients of water chemistry and watershed development throughout the lake. Using Redundancy analyses, water chemistry was found to explain more variation within diatom assemblages than watershed variables. Weighted averaging optima and tolerances specified taxa of concern, F. gracilis and A. formosa, that indicate increased phosphorus (μg/L) and conductivity (μS/cm), respectively. Two hypotheses related to the effect …

Romantic Rejection In Gay Potential Relationships: A Gay Blog Analysis, Rebecca Ferlotti

Masters Theses

Little research has been done on gay potential relationships (when two daters had gone on five or fewer dates or would-be dates), and there was no existing research available on romantic rejection in gay potential relationships. Most existing literature on romantic rejection focused on heterosexual relationships and long-term homosexual relationships. This thesis analyzed 48 blog entries from four publicly-accessible gay dating blogs ( The Guyliner ; It Gets Worse ; Gay Dating Stories ; and 100 Guys, 100 Storie s) that described romantic rejections. This thesis concluded romantic rejections for the four gay bloggers overall were most frequently implicit, due …

Social Studies Instruction And Integration, Morgan Wood

Masters Theses

Social studies education has been on the decline for many years. With a big part of the blame on standardized testing, it’s important to find ways to utilize the growing reading instructional time to make connections to history. This research utilized a variety of primary sources in social studies lessons. This allowed for the teacher to be able to meet many different standards across content areas in one lesson. Student motivation and engagement was heightened through cross-curricular lessons. The research conducted was completed in a small, rural school; one limitation being there were only 15 students included in the research. …

Female Student Veteran's Transition To College, Doug Michaels

Masters Theses

This study was focused on learning more about the experiences female student veterans have while transitioning from the military to college as well as what types of resources they utilized during this time. Research on this population is very limited, but the number of relevant studies completed is increasing. A narrative qualitative approach was utilized for this study in order to give this population the platform to tell their stories and for their voices to be heard. There were four participants who have all served at least one year in the military and have completed at least one year of …

Persistence Of African American Students At Predominately White Institutions, Candace Thompson

Masters Theses

Using qualitative methodology, the persistence of African American students at predominately White institutions was analyzed. This was conducted through semi-structured interviews by six participants which evaluated African American students’ overall persistence. Participants expressed what determined their selections of institutions as well as what institutional and personal factors negatively and positively affected their matriculation throughout the institution. In addition, the study provided recommendations to student affairs professionals to better serve this population.

A Qualitative Study Of Why Women Join Panhellenic Organizations, Alex T. Martens

Masters Theses

Each year more and more women across the country are enrolling in higher education institutions. However, this increase in attendance is not reflected in sorority recruitment. Studies are either non-existent on why women are joining sororities, or the studies that are conducted focus on harm reduction, including alcohol and hazing. Studies also seem to focus more on men, and fraternities. This study was designed to focus on the experience that women are experiencing during recruitment and the reasoning for joining their respective chapters. Using a qualitative approach, the researcher interviewed six women who varied in race, year in school, and …

Stability Of The Learning Behaviors Scale, Nikki Davidson

Masters Theses

Learning behaviors are observable actions, habits, and manifestations of attitudes that facilitate learning, such as persevering at difficult tasks, showing interest in academic subjects, demonstrating care and concern about classwork, and graciously accepting feedback (Buchanan, McDermott, & Schaefer, 1998). Assessment of these learning behaviors is an essential first step to effective intervention. It is important to know which learning behaviors to target and the degree of deficit in order to remediate learning problems. The present study examined the medium length (two-month) stability of scores obtained from the Learning Behaviors Scale (McDermott, Green, Francis, & Stott, 1999). Fifty K-8 teacher rater …

An Investigation Of Parental Involvement And Student Academic Achievement In Middle School, Laura Smokoska

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research study was to investigate the relationship between parental involvement and student academic achievement in middle school. Additionally, this study investigated whether there were patterns among parental involvement and student academic achievement among different ethnicities. The study was conducted in a diverse school in the Chicago suburbs to determine parental involvement levels and student academic achievement levels among different ethnicities. The study had 41 student and parent participants who took a survey about parental involvement at home and parental communication with the school. In addition to the surveys, students’ final English grades, final science grades, and …

How Leaders In Greek Life View Alcohol, Blake Miller

Masters Theses

The researcher in this study used qualitative methodology to explore perspectives of undergraduate student leaders in fraternity and sorority life at a mid-sized, Midwest institution on alcohol, especially within the Greek life system. Eight informants participated in semi-structured, open-ended interviews and were asked about their views on and experiences with alcohol, both as a new member and after having leadership experience. Informants were also asked about alcohol intervention and prevention measures. A majority of informants maintained or developed an indifferent or aversive view of alcohol, had decreased their personal levels of alcohol use, had made attempts to change the way …

Analyzing Students' Historical Thinking Skills At Different Grade Levels, Aaron Callaway

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research study is to compare and contrast the historical thinking abilities of students in distinct age-groups through their use of disciplinary literacy skills. This was accomplished by having eight total subjects from four distinct student age-groups participate in a guided inquiry activity about the beginning of the Korean War. As they engaged in the inquiry activity, the participants’ cognitive process and responses to the researcher’s questions were recorded and transcribed and later analyzed. These transcriptions were juxtaposed with one another in search of any major patterns that emerged during the inquiries. Several patterns were identified including …

Values-Based Recruitment: Recruitment Strategy Effectiveness On Gaining Generation Z Matriculation, Alexandra Thompson

Masters Theses

This study investigated the values of Generation Z students that matriculated at a rural mid-sized mid-west institution. Further, this study examined what recruitment strategies were effective in gaining this populations matriculation and the intersection of values and recruitment strategy effectiveness. A quantitative method was utilized with a mixed model approach. Participants included students that were born between 1995 and 2010 that were enrolled during the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semesters as first-time first-year students. Findings indicated that this population values Honesty, Hard-Work, Personal Growth, Financial Fulfillment, and Education. The most effective recruitment strategies to gain matriculation were indicated to …

Music Identity And Listening Preferences Of Students In High School Performing Ensembles, Caitlin Harris

Masters Theses

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to examine and identify the listening preferences and musical identity of high school members of performing ensembles. Participants were involved in five stages of data collection; the initial questionnaire, the first listening journal, a feedback questionnaire, the second listening journal, and individual interviews. Data was collected during the 2017-2018 school year, and participants completed all phases during their personal time. Three research questions framed this study:

1) How do the listening preferences of students help shape their musical identities?

2) Do students’ listening preferences outside of school conflict with their in …

The Cast Of A Giant's Shadow, Angela Kay Steineman

Masters Theses

Adapting fairy tales and folklore has been an ongoing endeavor by storytellers and artists since the very first story was repeated. The evidence can be seen in the many versions of fairy tales like those of the sleeping beauty, from Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” to Walt Disney’s Maleficent. However, unlike their European counterparts, adaptations of American tales outside of children’s literature are not as ubiquitous. My writing rectifies this by adding to the resurging interest as seen in recent retellings like Matt Bell’s Appleseed: The Monstrous Birth (2019).

In an effort to reframe the American tall tale …

Parents’ Perceived Financial Behaviors Impact On College Students’ Financial Behaviors, Naomi Saxon

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between traditional-aged college students and their parents perceived financial behaviors. It utilized Dew and Xiao’s Financial Management Behavior Scale (FMBS) (2011). Past research indicated that there is a positive impact between a parent’s involvement in students’ academic endeavors, however little research explored the relationship between their impact on a young adults’ financial behaviors. Students’ were asked a series of questions from the FMBS rating their actual financial behaviors. These results were compared to their perception of their parent’s financial behaviors in the following categories: money management, credit management, savings management, …

Principles For Starting A Song-Writing Ministry, Carson Ka Siu Li

Masters Theses

With the approval of Dr. Keith Currie and Dr. David Schmal, I have chosen to complete the Music & Worship Ministry Project as the Final Thesis for the Masters of Art in Music and Worship. The objective of the project is to produce an Extended Play Record (EP) that contains five original worship songs written specifically for this EP. The components of this project include: songwriting, arranging, performing, recording, and producing. This project will achieve two purposes: first, the songs in this EP are meant to be sung in my local church – Koinonia Evangelical Church (KEC); second, this project …

The Resurrection Of Christ: A Bayesian Analysis Of Explanatory Hypotheses, Nicola Jérôme Liebi

Masters Theses

The goal of this thesis is to determine under which circumstances a supernatural hypothesis should be preferred over the most probable natural hypothesis to explain a set of historical facts. The supernatural hypotheses include the objective vision hypothesis and the resurrection hypothesis, while the subjective vision hypothesis is taken to be the most probable natural hypothesis. Each of them can be found in the recent literature on the Resurrection and is still advocated by major proponents. The facts by which these three hypotheses are judged are agreed upon by most scholars. They include (1) Jesus’ death by crucifixion, (2) the …