Digital Commons Network^™

Final Master's Portfolio, Marisa Mount

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following portfolio project contains four separate pieces of writing produced during the author's MA coursework.

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Climate Change Science Communication In An Online Carbon Footprint Assessment, Jack Dimmock

Master of Science in Environmental Sciences and Management Projects

Climate change literacy and knowledge are influential in enabling people to take climate change mitigation and adaptation actions. Education about climate change usually takes place through two avenues, formal education and informal institutions, such as museums, television shows, and websites. To help residents reduce their household greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the local impacts of climate change, the San Luis Obispo Climate Coalition is using the carbon footprint website Bright Action (https://resilientslo.org). Bright Action calculates household carbon footprints, suggests ways to reduce carbon footprints, and provides educational material about climate change mitigation and adaptation. This study seeks to assess …

Lessons Learned From Emergency Remote Teaching And Learning In A Suburban High School, Stephen Beauchamp

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the experience of teachers and students from a Midwest, mid-sized suburban high school during Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic. The researcher surveyed teachers and students about the challenges, benefits, and what they plan to carry forward post-pandemic. Because the teachers and students, prior to and over the course of the pandemic experienced several schedule options, preferences as to which schedule type they preferred were surveyed. Schedule types included Traditional, Block, Hybrid, or Remote schedules. Results indicated that for teachers, ERT was a time of learning and …

Impact Of Poverty On Education And Success, Briana Normandin

Honors Program Contracts

No abstract provided.

Cocreation In Health Workforce Planning To Shape The Future Of The Health Care System In The Philippines, Harvy Joy Liwanag, Jhanna Uy, Mary Ruth Politico, Mary Joy Padilla, Ma. Catherine Arzobal, Kaycee Manuel, Angeli Loren Cagouia, Pretchell Tolentino, Annika Frahsa, Kenneth Ronquillo

Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

The Philippines passed landmark legislation in 2019 on universal health coverage, including reforms in the development of its health workforce, an essential building block of responsive health care systems.

Health Workforce Planning Cocreation Process

We based our planning process on a model of cocreation defined as sharing power and decision making to solve problems collaboratively and build consensus around action. Through cocreation with policy makers, researchers, and other stakeholders, we performed projection studies on 10 selected health professions and estimated the need for primary care at national and subnational levels, which was the most extensive health workforce projection carried …

Ace Newsletter December 2022, State University Of New York At Cortland

Programs

Access to College Education Program Newsletter December 2022

The Central Valley Transportation Challenge, Christian Wandeler, Steve Hart

Mineta Transportation Institute

The Central Valley Transportation Challenge provides underserved minority students, who are primarily from rural areas, with high quality transportation-related educational experiences so that they learn about transportation-related topics and opportunities in transportation careers. The CVTC is a project-based learning program that brings university faculty and students to K–12 classrooms in rural areas. The project operated with three main objectives: (1) support K–12 teachers’ understanding and implementation of the CVTC programs; (2) connect K–12 students with university faculty and students, and transportation professionals through the CVTC program; and (3) develop an online hub with transportation-related lesson plans and sequences. The results …

Diabetes Self-Management Education And Support: Understanding Knowledge And The Impact, Christina Dietz

All Dissertations

Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in the United States. To address this, many organizations employ diabetes self-management education and support (DSMES) programs to aid in managing the impact of increasing prevalence. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the impact of two Upstate South Carolina DSMES programs on several process and outcome measures for adults with diabetes, while also identifying current primary care provider DSMES knowledge and perceptions in an Upstate South Carolina health system.

This dissertation found inconclusive results on the impact of DSMES on PCP utilization, retinal exam screening, nephropathy attention, HDL, LDL, TC, and TG. DSME …

A New Direction For Public Understanding Of Science: Toward A Participant-Centered Model Of Science Engagement., Christopher Rickels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engaging the public with science is not an easy task. When presented, scientific findings, public health recommendations, and other scientific information filter through the personal values, beliefs, and biases of members of the public. Science communicators must contend with these differences in order to be effective in cultivating a public understanding of science. Given the importance of scientific understanding for living well in a complex world, increasing science understanding through science engagement is imperative. The field of public engagement with science is dichotomized by a public information deficit approach and a contextualist approach. The deficit approach prizes the factual content …

Safe Practices For Preventing Covid-19 Among School-Aged Children, Meleena Reyelle Banda-Garcia

Nursing | Senior Theses

Communicable diseases and infections are common health problems among children. Among the most impactful communicable diseases present today is COVID-19, a disease caused by a virus named SARS-CoV-2, which has forced many school closures due to rapid transmission. Despite children not being the main driving factor of the spread of the disease, severe complications underlying COVID-19 incidence have resulted in increased hospitalization among school-age children.The initial global response to the spread of COVID-19 included the closure of school systems; however as the disease continues to be effectively managed, communities are starting to re-open schools partially or entirely nationwide. Although pharmaceutical …

Understanding Sense Of Belonging Of Students Of Color Attending A Liberal Arts College, Jessica Wenger

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

College access programs have been created to provide students of color opportunities to attend college. The Posse Foundation selects promising urban high school students to attend highly selective colleges and universities across the country. College success is dependent on a variety of factors, two of which are successful social and academic integration into the campus community (Tinto, 1993). Related to integration, sense of belonging is the feeling that an individual belongs in their environment (McMillan & Chavis, 1986).

Shifting Our Lens: Practical Trauma-Informed Approaches For Educators, Charity Garcia, Ingrid Weiss Slikkers, Tara Bailey

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Mental Health Concerns In The Pediatric Population Following Covid-19, Kristina N. Yaczik, Ashley M. Komosinski

Honors Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to an increase in stress and mental health concerns in the pediatric population. Research indicates a decrease in pediatric mental health incidences in 2020, followed by an increase in 2021 and 2022. It is thought that the initial decrease may be due to the intensity of the pandemic at the time and a lack of hospital beds available. The increase suggests a response to the high levels of adversity and stress children and adolescents faced both during and after the origination of the pandemic. The evidence supports the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic had a …

Creating Nutrition Education For Lactating Parents, Audrey Fohey

Honors Capstones

Lactation is an important life stage that requires a unique emphasis on nutritional intake; existing educational materials on this topic do a poor job of meeting the needs of lactating parents. The purpose of this project was to work with a community partner, the DeKalb County WIC, to create educational materials that will address this issue. The creation of the educational materials was a multi-step process, involving exploration of the relationship between nutrition and lactation and collaboration with the established community partner. A written paper was synthesized, and three handouts were created. Each handout focused on a specific nutrient of …

Dance Education In Pennsylvania Charter Schools: Advocating For Parity Among The Core Arts Disciplines, Donna Lynch

Master's Theses

The goal of this research was to collect data on existing dance programs and activities in Pennsylvania charter schools, and to advocate for the presence of dance in school arts offerings for academic credit, creating parity among the four core arts disciplines of visual arts, music, theater, and dance. The researcher developed three essential questions to guide this research:

Q1 What dance education programs currently exist in Pennsylvania charter schools, and what certifications are held by dance educators in these schools?

Q2 What obstacles, other than the teacher certification process, are preventing schools from hiring dance specialists and implementing dance …

Rethinking Absolute Immunity From Defamation Suits In Private Quasi-Judicial Proceedings

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

No abstract provided.

Balanced Ar Glasses System Between Text And Image Information Helps People Get A Better Reading Skill, Libo Jiang

Theses

Nowadays, people prefer browsing images and videos on their phones rather than reading a book (Thain 2018). Even if they decide to read something, they are still heavily distracted by electronic devices. In my thesis, I’m trying to balance the visual and text information and help people to stay more focused while reading. My solution: Focus is an AR glasses system that recognizes the contents users are viewing and records users’ reading and image browsing time. And users have to earn image/video time by reading the text. The glasses block images/videos if they run out of image time.

Learnings From Past Interventions In The Digital Era: Evidence-Based Considerations For Adolescents’ Programming Using Information And Communication Technologies, Grace Saul, Waimar Tun

Adolescents and Young People

This commentary examines key lessons from evidence-based adolescents’ programs—related to intentional recruitment, the role of mentors, and multi-level intervention strategies—and how the adoption of digital technologies can create opportunities to strengthen programs, provided that evidence-based lessons remain at the core of intervention strategies.

Developing A Hands-On Class Exercise For Modular Construction, 3d Design, And 4d Schedule, Kyle A. Kithas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Modular construction shows promise as a viable alternative to stick-built construction. A major challenge with the widespread adoption of modular construction is the construction industry’s focus on minimizing risk and defaulting to the comfort and familiarity of stick-built construction. This pattern can be broken through an educational paradigm shift in the way architecture, engineering, and construction are taught in school. Integrating modular construction education into higher education is presented to increase the future adoption of modular construction and expand the comfort zones of future industry leaders. This thesis proposes that current curriculum be augmented to teach the modular approach in …

Balancing Stress, Education And Health As A College Student, Alexandra Cayot

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone paper touches base on stress relieving coping mechanisms for college students in order to help support college students in balancing their education, health and stress. This paper is based off of research and a workshop that I conducted at CSUMB.

Latinas In Stem Education: Paying It Forward, Evangelina Guillen

Theses and Dissertations

Hispanic female students are the minority population when it comes to taking higher level classes in the Science Technology Engineering and Math fields. According to Hinojosa, Rapaport, Jaciw, and Zacamy (2016), “STEM fields are defined here as majors in computer and information sciences, engineering and engineering technologies, biological and biomedical sciences, math and statistics, physical sciences, and science technologies” (p. 3). Traditionally, more boys enroll in STEM courses than girls. Hispanic and minority students, specifically Hispanic women, have been underrepresented in STEM education fields and careers. Why does STEM education matter for Hispanic female students? Because it gives Hispanic students …

Understanding The Aspirations And Challenges Of Michigan’S Black School Superintendents: A Toolkit For Building Equity In The Superintendency, Kevin Simmons

Dissertations

Black superintendents are significantly underrepresented in our nation’s schools. Despite a slight increase in representation of female Black superintendents, minorities of all races continue to be underrepresented (Tienken & Domenech, 2020). In this study, I examined the experiences of Black superintendents in Michigan who currently hold superintendent roles, along with the obstacles they faced and their personal characteristics and associated factors that attributed to their resilience and longevity in their role as superintendent. Using a phenomenological qualitative study approach of personal and confidential interviews and survey questions of 12 Black superintendents, data was collected to formulate a toolkit for aspiring …

A Pilot Survey: Retention In Pain Medicine Among Fellowship Trained Anesthesiologists, Sarang S Koushik, Kelly Leap, Kenneth Seier, Kay See Tan, Naum Shaparin, Alan D Kaye, Omar Viswanath, Grant H Chen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: We aim to explore the factors related to job satisfaction among pain physicians and identify the reasons why individuals minimize or stop practicing outpatient pain medicine.

OBJECTIVES/STUDY DESIGN: This is a survey-based study with the primary goal to identify factors determining job satisfaction and dissatisfaction among pain medicine fellowship graduates who continue to practice and those who are no longer practicing interventional pain. A secondary goal is to elucidate reasons for anesthesiologists trained in pain medicine to leave pain medicine, despite an additional year of training, and to work as general anesthesiologists.

METHODS: In this study, all 114 pain …

Exploring Immersive Learning Experiences: A Survey, Mohammad Amin Kuhail, Areej Elsayary, Shahbano Farooq, Ahlam Alghamdi

All Works

Immersive technologies have been shown to significantly improve learning as they can simplify and simulate complicated concepts in various fields. However, there is a lack of studies that analyze the recent evidence-based immersive learning experiences applied in a classroom setting or offered to the public. This study presents a systematic review of 42 papers to understand, compare, and reflect on recent attempts to integrate immersive technologies in education using seven dimensions: application field, the technology used, educational role, interaction techniques, evaluation methods, and challenges. The results show that most studies covered STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) topics and mostly used …

The Benefits Of Implementing Sports And Exercise Psychology On Latino Students, Veronica Gomez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The benefits of sports and exercise psychology have extensively been researched and documented for over twenty years. Yet, a large section that targets Latino students is missing due to the lack of resources that prevent them from receiving them. This acts as barriers that incapacitate the Latino students. The purpose of this capstone is to examine the benefits of implementing sports and exercise psychology for Latino students. In other words, this capstone examines the impact that sports and exercise psychology could have on Latino students. Through extensive research, literature review, student surveys and teacher interviews, the findings reveal that only …

Teaching Students With Maladaptive Behaviors In Special Education, Giselle Valdez Tejeda

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Thousands of students engage in maladaptive behaviors in Special Education classrooms throughout the world every single day. It is very important for parents and others related to the field to know and get an understanding of how teachers teach students effectively according to their functional skills and understanding. This senior capstone examines how teachers teach students with maladaptive behaviors in Special Education. Through the use of literature review and interviews with three specialists in Special Education, the findings reveal that by finding ways to keep their maladaptive behaviors to interfere with their learning is by providing one-to-one support in classroom …

California's Impact Of Attrition Practices On Latinx English Learners, Dulce Ramirez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone examines the impact of attrition practices on Latinx English learners in California. The project explores three recommendations from Guadalupe Valdes' book, Learning and Not Learning English. The three are age-appropriate academic content, revolving door policies involving classification/ reclassification, and the importance of teacher preparation. The discussion covers how the three impact English learners' attrition rate, causing negative self-efficacy, lack of college preparedness, and employment opportunities. Given this, the school districts allocated funding to create programs to prevent attrition problems among English learners, including the Latinx ELs. The literature review and interviews with educators indicated that Latinx English learners' …

Closing The Digital Divide, Maria Schlotthauer

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Family Resource Collective is a program under Community Bridges. Serving approximately 5,800 clients per year, the FRC helps the senior community of Santa Cruz County access resources.

There is a huge digital divide within the senior community. The Capstone Project titled ‘Closing the Digital Divide’ will directly address the issue that is now a national crisis. This project will focus on creating several pieces of educational material to aid older individuals in their journey to becoming more technologically savvy. The project teams expect to be able to have materials readily available for all those in need.

In the future, …

Effects Of Increased Use Of Technology On Elementary School Students In The Classroom, Audri Lawrence

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Technology has become a big part of the education system. Students use technology, such as tablets in their classrooms as early as preschool. There is much debate on whether or not the use of technology is needed in the elementary grades. This capstone closely examines how students are affected by the increased use of technology in the classrooms. In addition, the project explores how the intended technology affects students' development, social skills, and learning. Though technology has become an effective tool for students to use in our classrooms, it should be limited for young children, and should only be used …

Reality Capture Course Content: Exposing The Next Generation Of Builders To Technology Moving The Industry Forward, Maxwell S. Eisner

Construction Management

This paper discusses the development and execution of lecture and laboratory educational content regarding reality capture technology and workflows. These educational modules were created to cover different use cases for reality capture technology that are currently being used in the construction industry. They also show how reality capture plays a role in the larger virtual design in construction (BIM) process. Importantly, these labs were designed to be completed with the LiDAR scanner on a typical iPhone, which has lowered the barrier to entry for reality capture education and use in industry. While the initial teaching of these courses was done …