Digital Commons Network^™

Organizing And Hosting A Climate Summit, Dr. Eric Hawker

Professional Learning Day

A climate summit is similar to a model UN but is entirely focused on climate. During a climate summit students represent different countries, propose resolutions to help solve the problem of global climate change, negotiate with the representatives of other countries, and vote on resolutions.  During this session we will discuss how we prepare for the summit, and then participants will go through a mini climate summit to see what it is like. *Participants should have access to a laptop or tablet for this session*

Pick Me Please! Interactive Ways To Teach Natural Selection (Hs-Ls-4), Dr. Zachary Conley

Professional Learning Day

Participants will examine a combination of free simulations and practical activities useful for teaching natural selection standards. Ideally participants will leave with a small toolbox of lesson starting points for phenomenon or inquiry driven activities.

Learning To Think Like A Scientist; Spooky Lakes!, Felicia Maxa, Sarah Robertson, Stephanie Ryan

Professional Learning Day

This is a workshop that will focus on disciplinary literacy which we define as teaching students to think like scientists! We will take interesting text(s) written for students in middle school and high school and model teaching strategies that allow students to build their ability to think like a disciplinary insider! We will look at how we approach scientific texts from evaluation of reliability, to annotating text; looking for both new understanding and connection to background knowledge, to being curious, seeking answers through asking questions and beyond! *OPTIONAL - Participants may bring a book appropriate for young readers that fits …

Teaching Smarter, Not Harder: Using Google Ai Studio & “Vibe Coding” In The Middle School Classroom, Dr. Phadmaka Patankar, Lindsey Herlehy

Professional Learning Day

Curious about how AI can actually save you time and boost student engagement? In this interactive session, you’ll explore Google AI Studio and learn how to use “vibe coding”— describing your ideas in everyday language and letting Gemini generate classroom materials for you. We’ll share sample activities and tasks and practical classroom resources that demonstrate how AI can help create engaging, interactive lessons. You’ll also learn how to craft effective AI prompts that align lessons to targeted learning objectives and standards-based outcomes, ensuring AIgenerated content supports intentional instruction. Join us to discuss how these tools can be used in multiple …

Exploring Emotional Management Learning Among Prelicensure Nursing Students Used In The Clinical Setting, Elizabeth Coleman

SoTL Commons Conference

No abstract provided.

Creating Climate Healthy Work Environments In Healthcare, Janice E. Hawkins, Beth Tremblay

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Climate change is not only detrimental to our planet but poses a serious threat to human health. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2021) named climate change the greatest threat to human health and, by 2030, predicts an increase of 250,000 deaths each year from climate-related causes. Incongruent with our pledge to do no harm, healthcare industries are significant contributors of carbon emissions that cause climate change. Healthcare systems produce almost 5% of heat-trapping gases released into the atmosphere. Hospitals generate 20 pounds of waste per patient each day, equating to 5 million tons of waste annually (Practice Greenhealth, 2022). As …

Empowering Nursing Through Reflective Practice: A Path To Resilience, Well-Being, And Healthful Workplace Cultures, Joanne P. Bosanquet

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

In the UK's health and care system, the cornerstone is safe, effective, and evidence-informed person-centered care. The pursuit of consistent high-quality care is an imperative, demanding the unwavering commitment of healthcare professionals. However, the increasingly complexity of healthcare, coupled with escalating costs, uncertainties in the work environment, recruitment and retention challenges, and the alarming rise in staff sickness and burnout, pose formidable obstacles (Aiken et al., 2023; Villarante et al., 2023).

Registered nurses, despite their comprehensive theoretical knowledge and philosophical grounding, confront emotionally taxing work.

Reflection emerges as a transformative tool, enabling nurses to connect with their inner selves, nurturing …

Reporting Workplace Violence: Why Is It A Challenge?, Rebekah Powers, Carol Boswell

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA, n.d.) defines workplace violence to include "any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site.” Workplace violence is a developing challenge within health care settings following the adversities encountered with behavioral issues acknowledged after the pandemic. Workplace violence includes physical episodes, verbal episodes, threats, and sexual harassment experiences, yet remains underreported (NIOSH, 2020). Nurses and nurse aides are two groups who are at the highest risk of becoming victims of violence due to their involvement with direct patient care. An acute care …

Supplementing Traditional Learning With Interprofessional Simulation Training, Brandy L. Simpler, Kasey Chance, Jacquelyn Smith

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Background: Medical emergencies are an inevitable occurrence in healthcare. Basic life support (BLS) skills are renewed every two years and there is often an infrequent amount of exposure to these situations which may lead to an overall lack of adeptness among hospital employees (Anderson et al., 2021). Multiple studies have found that the implementation of interprofessional simulation training enhances clinical reasoning, improves knowledge and skills, and strengthens team dynamics (D’Cunha et al., 2021; Shastri et al., 2021; Fox et al., 2020). Shrivastava et al., 2020 discovered a significant improvement of patient outcomes after a simulation-based training curriculum was implemented.

Methods: …

2026 Conference Program, Georgia Southern University

Empowering Educators Conference

No abstract provided.

Ai Literacy As A Catalyst For Information Literacy: A Pilot Study, Terri Gotschall, Anne Stone, Caitlyn Deeter, Lucy Littler, Bob Casper, Rene Tanner

SoTL Commons Conference

No abstract provided.

You Looked At How Many Articles!?! Practical Lessons For Conducting Sotl Scoping Reviews, Tim Brackenbury

SoTL Commons Conference

No abstract provided.

"If You Didn't Have To Spend..." Interactive Poster, Hunt Library

ERAU Open Education Week

No abstract provided.

Expanding Assessment Practices And Increasing Student Success By Incorporating Visual Storytelling In The Classroom, Carlos Perez, Ananya Vahal-Perez, Rasheda Likely

SoTL Commons Conference

No abstract provided.

Reclaimed Futures: Cultivating Design Thinking Through Waste Mapping And Material Reuse, Laura Del Pino, Darion Washington

SoTL Commons Conference

No abstract provided.

Clinical Coaches Igniting The Sparc To Improve Rn Retention, Kate Williams, Rachel Hutton

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Background: The shortage of Registered Nurses (RNs) in the healthcare workforce continues to be a major concern to healthcare executives. Department of Health and Human Services predict that Texas will face a shortage of most nurse types by 2032 as 16.3% of the projected demand for RNs in 2032 will not be met. Nurse preceptors use evidence-based practices to support the successful transition/orientation of newly hired nurses as it relates to quality patient care and retention of nurses. Clinical Coaches are foundational for the success of all orientation programming and have tremendous impact on our nurses. Coaching involves a mutual …

Enhancing Nurse-To-Nurse Relationships And Work Environments As Experienced Nurses Transition To New Clinical Specialties, Jennifer K. Chicca, Hope C. Hubbard

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Nurses interact with a variety of healthcare professionals, including fellow nurses with different levels of authority and/or experience, as part of their day-to-day practice. As they interact with their nursing peers, nurses develop connections with unique aspects, benefits, and challenges, and these relationships can have healthy and unhealthy elements and relations can change over time. Notably, healthy nurse-to-nurse relationships build teams, increase collaboration, and strengthen effective communications (Institute for Safe Medication Practices, 2021) and thus professional relationships heavily influence the work environment. Unfortunately, violations of healthy relationships and work environments are common and these issues threaten adverse outcomes such as …

Transforming Academic Nursing: Educating Nurses On The Health Challenges Of Climate Change, Clara Granda-Cameron, Lisa Whitfield-Harris

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Background: Climate change is a major public health threat for humanity. Over the coming decades, morbidity and mortality are expected to increase, particularly in vulnerable communities, due to increased heat, poor air quality, undernutrition, and vector-borne diseases. To care for populations who reside in these communities, undergraduate and graduate nursing students must be educated, which requires integrating climate change topics into the nursing curriculum.

Purpose: We piloted a course module about climate change and health and tested its effectiveness as a tool for educating nursing students.

Methods: Using a pre-post intervention design, 192 undergraduate and graduate nursing students enrolled in …

Promoting Wellness Early: Shifting The Culture To Embrace Self-Care In Nursing, Deborah Ambrosio-Mawhirter, Marilyn Klainberg

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Aim: Promoting an environment to embrace wellness and self-care. Does early education promote participation in self-care behaviors?

Background: According to the American Nurses Association (ANA), self-care is an ethical responsibility of all nurses. Provision 5 states: “The nurse owes the same duties to self as to others, including the responsibility to promote health” (ANA 2015). It is apparent in the literature that although nurses are advocates for their patient’s health promotion, it does not necessarily translate into their own self-care behaviors. Nurses must promote a culture of self-care to reduces stress, burn out, and improve patient safety and the quality …

Trauma-Informed Professional Development From Grassroots To System-Wide, Heidi Gilroy

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

A recent meta-analysis revealed that nearly one-third of all working Registered Nurses have post-traumatic stress disorder. Nurses are also reporting high levels of depression, anxiety, and other physical and mental health consequences of traumatic stress exposure. While COVID-19 may have exacerbated some mental health conditions in nurses, many decades of research shows that nurses and other healthcare workers have long struggled with poor mental health. In order to address this issue, a group of Nursing Professional Development (NPD) practitioners at a multi-site healthcare system aimed to develop an evidence-based approach to addressing poor mental health in nurses and other healthcare …

Scrambling The Classroom And Gamification In Pharmacology For Nurses: Engaging The Learner, Laura Nugteren, Julie De Haan

Day of Scholarship

After several years of lower scores on the ATI proctored Pharmacology exam, the nursing department separated the pathophysiology/pharmacology course into two separate courses. Goals for the new pharmacology course included (1) focus on what entry-level nursing graduates would need to know about pharmacology to improve end-of-program testing scores and (2) engagement of the learner by scrambling the classroom and utilizing gamification for application practice. Intentional course design focused on inclusive and active teaching strategies including: consistent weekly rhythm; highly structured preparation activities (Hogan & Sathy, 2022); scrambled classroom integrating chunked lecture to explain complex concepts with active learning and gamification …

Temporal Induction Of The Homeodomain Transcription Factor Nkx2-1 Is Sufficient To Respecify Foregut And Hindgut Endoderm To A Pulmonary Fate In Xenopus Laevis, Brian Hyatt, Erin Lundberg, Rachael Eye, Scott Rankin, Aaron M. Zorn

Day of Scholarship

During development the expression of numerous genes is required to direct the proper formation of cells, tissues and organs. One special class of genes, transcription factors, code for proteins which regulate the expression of multiple genes to ensure tissues and organs develop at the right time and place. One transcription factor, NKX2-1, is necessary for proper lung formation in vertebrates. We investigated if NKX2-1, on its own, could drive the formation of lung tissue in the frog, Xenopus laevis. Both frog and human NKX2-1 was able to cause the formation of pulmonary tissue, examined by the expression of lung specific …

Modeling And Analysis Of Opportunistic Traffic Offloading Between Wireless Networks, Shensheng Tang

Day of Scholarship

This paper examines traffic offloading between two wireless networks operating in the same service region, where a beneficiary network can temporarily redirect calls to a benefactor network during periods of congestion. To analyze this interaction, we develop a finite level‑dependent quasi‑birth‑and‑death (LD‑QBD) model that captures the joint dynamics of admission control, opportunistic offloading, and preemption. The LD‑QBD structure enables exact computation of the steady‑state distribution using efficient sparse linear solvers. From these steady‑state probabilities, we derive key performance metrics, including blocking and drop probabilities, mean occupancy, throughput, mean system time, admission gain, and successful throughput gain. Numerical results show that …

Design And Implementation Of A Microblaze‑Based Embedded System For Programmable Led Control On An Artix‑7 Fpga, Shensheng Tang

Day of Scholarship

This paper presents the design and implementation of a MicroBlaze‑based embedded system developed using the AMD/Xilinx VIVADO Design Suite to control programmable LED patterns on an Artix‑7 FPGA development board via push‑button inputs. The MicroBlaze, a 32/64‑bit RISC Harvard‑architecture soft‑core processor, provides a flexible and configurable platform that enables integration of customized peripheral, memory, and interface components within a single FPGA. The proposed system employs two GPIO controllers—one interfacing with sixteen LEDs and the other with five push buttons—connected to the MicroBlaze processor through an AXI interconnect to support efficient on‑chip communication. LED functionality is managed through a software application …

Fpga Implementation Of A Sequence Detector Using A Finite State Machine, Shensheng Tang, Nick Zander

Day of Scholarship

This project presents the design and hardware implementation of a Finite State Machine (FSM) capable of detecting the binary sequences “1001” and “1111” with full support for overlapping occurrences. The FSM was designed to operate efficiently in real time and was implemented on an Artix‑7 FPGA development board using the AMD/Xilinx Vivado Design Suite. The system processes a serial input stream and asserts a detection signal whenever either target sequence appears, even when sequences share bits across consecutive detections. The FSM architecture, state transition logic, and verification strategy were developed and validated through simulation before being deployed to hardware. Experimental …

The Effects Of Customer Orientation Of Frontline Employees, Their Customers, And Unit Profitability, Tom Brown, Nawar N. Chaker, Todd D. Donavan, Gabriel Gazzoli, Jerry W. Grizzle, James M. Lee, John C. Mowen, Alex R. Zablah

Day of Scholarship

Customer orientation is an employee’s natural tendency to focus on understanding and meeting customer needs. When frontline employees have this mindset, they tend to perform better in their jobs and receive stronger performance ratings--and their customers have higher levels of satisfaction. For employees who engage more frequently with customers, it also benefits them personally, leading to greater job satisfaction and stronger commitment to their organization. In work units that support a strong customer-focused climate, customer-oriented behaviors translate into higher sales and profitability without raising costs. Customer-oriented employees are also more likely to speak up with ideas that improve the customer …

Advancing Practice-Ready Communication: Utilizing Virtual Simulation To Apply Ipass And Isbarr, Bethany Gerdin, Laura Nugteren

Day of Scholarship

Nursing students have limited opportunity to practice interdisciplinary communication or handoff in the clinical setting. The purpose of this learning experience is for students to differentiate between and practice appropriate use of IPASS and ISBARR in a standardized patient during an interactive patient experience using virtual simulation (VSIM), which mimics the complex reality of a clinical patient scenario. Students complete a medical-surgical VSIM independently and then participate in a faculty-guided small group activity where they discuss rationale and prioritization for interventions completed throughout the VSIM. The small group collaboratively prepares an ISBARR communication between the nurse and provider for a …

Alvin Plantinga On The Problem Of God, Jim Beilby

Day of Scholarship

This is is book that is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press (estimated publication date: Summer 2026). Alvin Plantinga is a noted American analytic philosopher who has written in the areas of philosophy of religion, metaphysics, epistemology, and apologetics. Plantinga’s Christian commitments are a crucial part of his philosophical work since nearly all of Plantinga’s writings have focused on explaining and defending Christian beliefs. He argues that there is no objection or set of objections that shows that Christianity is epistemically lacking, and as such, Christians can be fully rational, justified, and warranted in their religious beliefs. This volume discusses Plantinga's …

Trust At A Distance: 6 Strategies For Managing In Remote Workspaces, Peggy Kendall, David Horsager

Day of Scholarship

In 2025, over 50% of US workers worked in hybrid jobs while another 27% work fully remote. As the way we work changes, it is important to understand how these technologies change the way we communicate and how we build trust. This project, based on research done through an Edgren Scholarship, has culminated in a book co-authored with David Horsager and published by Berrett-Koehler. The book has opened conversations related to challenges like proximity bias, remote accountability, employee burnout, meeting structures, and the changing nature of nonverbal communication.

Locke-Ing And Un-Locke-Ing The Declaration Of Independence: An Introduction To Jefferson’S Philosophy Of Revolution, Lynn Uzzell, T.C. Le, Julia Van Geest

Day of Scholarship

Locke-ing and Un-Locke-ing the Declaration of Independence is a book project completed by Politics Professor Lynn Uzzell and two of her former students; it was generously funded by Bethel University’s Edgren Grant for faculty-student collaboration. The book provides an introduction to Jefferson’s philosophy of revolution, with a special focus on its connections to Locke’s writing in his Second Treatise. Each chapter tackles just one line from the second paragraph of the Declaration. The book’s examination of 14 discrete claims within the Declaration, along with a deleted 15th section, demonstrates that the Declaration is heavily indebted to the Second Treatise but …